Abstract
The study was conducted to assess the husbandry practices of dairy cattle, feed resources, and dairy products processing and marketing systems. Stratified random sampling was applied to select 213 households from urban, peri-urban and rural areas. Structured questionnaire were used to collect primary information. Descriptive statistics was employed to analyze the collected data. The study found that 2.5(0.11) dairy cattle were owned per household (mean with SE). About 40.4% of the respondents owned crossbred dairy cattle and 92.0% preferred crossbred animals to expand their dairy farm. Extensive production system (mostly open grazing and without appropriate housing) was dominantly (70.0%) practiced. Grazing pasture, crop-residues and improved forages were the common feed resources. Most of the respondents (71.8%) offered the supplementary feeds for lactating cows. As overall, 6.9(38) kg of supplement feed was offered per animal/day. About 44.6% of the respondents gave priority to age for first mating of heifers (P<0.001).Heifers were allowed for mating at 35.3(0.84) months of age. Cows were kept in the production system for 8.3(0.16) years. Women took the higher share in milking and dairy products processing activities. About 81.3%, 65.4 and 50.8% of respondents in urban, rural and peri-urban, respectively owned (P<0.05) either improved or local dairy products processing equipment. About ½ of the respondents processed the raw milk into cottage cheese, butter and cottage yoghurt. There were no formal dairy products marketing and cooperatives. Overall, 85.1% of the respondents would like to start dairy cooperatives. In conclusion, the majority of the respondents preferred to have crossbred dairy cattle thus to improve the dairying practices in the study areas, crossbreeding of local cattle breeds with exotic breed dairy types with better feeding, proper healthcare and housing management systems , conservation of available feed resources, establishing of formal dairy products marketing system and dairy cooperatives are very essential. Key words: Age of mating, dairy cattle, dairy products processing, feed resources, husbandry practices.
Highlights
Due to the availability of commercial feeds and veterinary services in urban and peri-urban areas of Ethiopia, it is usual to see high exotic blood level dairy animals and producers in these areas have better understanding of dairy husbandry and management (Land O’Lakes, 2010).So far, few studies were conducted on dairy cattle husbandry practices, feed resources and dairy products processing and marketing in different areas of Sinana district of Bale zone
The data collection focused on the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents, family members labour division for daring activities, types dairy animals kept in the production system, preferred dairy animals, common feed resources, age of heifers for first mating, milk yield, types of dairy products processed and marketing systems
The dairy products production and marketing in the study areas mainly depend on feed resources and availability of dairy product consumers
Summary
With the shift towards a market economy and policy, private entrepreneurs are significantly responding to the increased demand of dairy products through investing on urban and peri-urban dairying and milk processing. Due to the availability of commercial feeds and veterinary services in urban and peri-urban areas of Ethiopia, it is usual to see high exotic blood level dairy animals and producers in these areas have better understanding of dairy husbandry and management (Land O’Lakes, 2010).So far, few studies were conducted on dairy cattle husbandry practices, feed resources and dairy products processing and marketing in different areas of Sinana district of Bale zone. This study was conducted to assess husbandry practices of dairy cattle, feed resources, and dairy products processing and marketing in Sinana district of Bale zone
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