TRADITIONAL DAIRY HUSBANDRY PRACTICES VIS-A VIS ESTRUS SYNCHRONIZED AND ARTIFICIALLY INSEMINATION ON DAIRY CATTLE PERFORMANCES IN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The study was conducted with the objective to assess breeding and husbandry practices of dairy cattle and to evaluate estrus synchronization and artificial insemination (AI) services of dairy cattle. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire, retrospective study, field monitoring and a participatory farmers’ group discussion. A total of 180 respondents were randomly selected from the two districts (90 from each). For retrospective study; data were collected on productive and reproductive performance of 911 dairy cattle from record books of the AI centers for the 2017 to 2018 period. Field monitoring was conducted for 3 months on 80 cows. The dairy cows or heifers were selected purposively from kebeles and households. The data obtained from the survey were analyzed using (SPSS version 20) and the data from the retrospective study and field monitoring were analyzed using (SAS version 9.1). For quantitative data obtained from the field monitoring general linear model procedure of the statistical analysis system (SAS version 9.1) was used. The Natural pasture was the dominant feed source in highlands whereas non-conventional feed was the dominant feed source in midl-altitude [1-3]. Farmers keeping Holstein Friesian and jersey breeds gave slightly higher priority to milk production for cash income, whereas those keeping local cattle breeds gave higher priority to milk production for own consumption. The average age at first calving for native and crossbred cows was 56.48±0.88 and 48.66±8.07 months respectively. AI was the dominant mating system (70.0%) followed by the natural mating system (21.7%). The main reasons for the presence of less satisfaction on AI service were heat detection problem followed by disease, absence of AI technician’s efficiency and distance of AI center [4-6]. Around half (48.3%) of the respondents have medium satisfaction with AI service and synchronization programs. The overall conception rate and number of service per conception were 77% and 1.3% respectively. For our findings, it can be concluded that selecting animals with appropriate age, body condition score (BCS) farmers’ awareness to detect heat and on-time insemination were important factors for improving the efficiency of synchronization program.