ASSESSMENT OF FEED RESOURCES, FEEDING PRACITCE, MILK PRODUCTION AND EVALUATION OF MICROBIAL QUALITY OF MILK IN MALGA DISTRICT, SIDAMA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess feed resource, feeding practice, milk production and microbial quality in malga district of Sidama region, Ethiopia. A multi-stage sampling procedure with combination of purposive and random sampling technique was employed for selecting the study area and sampled households. Systematic sampling method was used to select respondents from each selected kebele proportionally. The study was conducted by interviewing 150 smallholder milk producers who owned local cows and crossbred which were purposively selected from five kebeles from two agro-ecologies (highland and midland) and these were followed by collecting 35 milk samples from randomly selected milk producers for microbial quality analysis. The common feed resource identified at study area natural pasture 52%, crop residue and enset leaf 12%, improved forge 23.3%, supplemental feed (concentrated feed) 12.7% while feeding system the area free grazing 76.7%, stall feeding 13.3% and both free grazing and stall feeding 10%. The overall mean for local dairy cows and crossbred dairy cows daily milk yield and lactation length were 1.75±0.08 liter/day, 5.9±0.99 months and 4.5±0.17, 7.01±0.04, respectively.The estimated mean daily milk yield based on the farmers response varied significantly (P<0.05) among the agro ecologies. The result indicated that majority of the respondents use the shared with family house, clean their barn daily and more than once a week with 82.7%, 17.3%, and 91.75% respectively. Moreover, milking without hand washing, absence of udder washing and failure to use towel to clean the udder were practiced by 14.7%, 62% and 97.9% of the respondents, respectively. Households used equipment for milking, transportation, storage and churning, clay pot, plastic, and aluminum/stainless steel utensils to keep milk and milk products. The major source of water and water frequency for cleaning and watering their animal rivers 33.3% ponds 59.3% and well water7.7%. Majority of households 68.7% watering their animal once/day respectively. Concerning microbial quality, overall mean total bacterial counts (TBC)and coliform counts (CC) values of milk from current finding were 5.455 ± 0.075 log10 cfu/ml and 4.085 ± 0.02 log10 cfu/ml, respectively.In general, milk from highland area had high total bacterial and coliform load as compared to the sample taken from the midland area. From this study it has been concluded that hygienic milk production and microbial quality of milk from the midland area is better than highland and therefore extension work should focus in creating awareness and training dairy producers in a highland about clean milk production practices..