ASSESSMENT OF REPRODUCTIVE AND PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF CROSSBREED AND LOCAL DAIRY CATTLE UNDER SMALLHOLDERS MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN URBAN AND PERI-URBAN DAIRY PRODUCTION SYSTEM IN ALETA WONDO DISTRICT, SIDAMA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The aim of the study was to assess productive and reproductive performance of local and their crossbred of different exotic blood level of dairy cows and factors affecting their performance in urban and peri-urban, farming system of aleta wondo district sidama region Ethiopia. A total of 155 small-scale dairy cows owners were purposively selected and interviewed with pre-tested structured questionnaire to obtain information. For Monitoring study from 155 farmers 36 Dairy farmers who have lactating cow by identifying exotic blood level of each crossbred animal (0%, <50%, 50-75% and >75% were purposively selected. Monitoring study was also conducted to obtain milk production based on, lactation stages production system and exotic blood level and parity of cows. The results of the study showed that from the follow-up study, the average daily milk yield for local, <50%, 50-75% and > 75% caws was 2.81L, 8.65L, 17.68L and 20.83L respectively. Daily milk yield of the cows found in monitoring study was support milk yield found in survey study. From the survey results, the overall average lactation length for local and their crossbred of < 50%, 50- 75% and > 75% was 7.65, 8.05, 8.95 and 9.65 month respectively and average mean for crossbred was 8.88 months. The mean age at first service (Months) for local and their crossbred of < 50%, 50-75% and >75% was 42.87, 35.57, 21.88 and 17.54 months respectively and average for crossbred was 24.99, age at first calving (Months), for local and their crossbred of < 50%, 50-75% and > 75% was 49.26, 41.56, 27.86, and 26.61 respectively and the average for all crossbred was 32.01, Calving interval (Months) for local and their crossbred of<50%, 50-75% and >75% was 22.41, 16.73, 13.41 and 12.75 respectively and average for all crossbred was 14.29, Days open till conception (Days) for local and their crossbred of < 50%, 50-75% and > 75% was 201.3, 173.7, 87.15 and 86.1 respectively and average for all crossbred was 115.65, and number of services per conception for local and their crossbred of < 50%, 50-75% and > 75% was 3.53, 3.1,1.6 and 1.4 respectively and average for all crossbred was 2.03. There was observed that all exotic blood level of crossbred and local dairy cows are good performed under urban than peri-urban setting. The present study showed that even if productive and reproductive performance of crossbred cows owned by peri-urban and urban dairy producers in study area was comparatively good, it need to advance breeding strategy to assign right exotic blood level at right production system and also supply of improved genotypes and dairy inputs like (feed, health care and artificial insemination), proper breeding management in the study area suggested.