MULUGETA TESFAYE2026-03-052019https://etd.hu.edu.et/handle/123456789/1137The assessment of breeding practice and reproductive management and evaluation of Bovipreg kit for early pregnancy diagnosis of crossbred dairy cattle was conducted in three districts of Sidama zone namely Arbegona, Bona and Bensa. The districts were categorized under high altitude and mid altitude to assess the existing breeding practice and reproductive management of dairy cattle. A total of 90 respondents were randomly selected from 6 kebeles for the survey. The data acquired from the respondents were analysed using the GLM of SPSS. The survey result revealed that the average age at first calving for crossbred was 3.3 years for the high altitude and 3.5 for the mid altitude and had no significantly difference (p>0.05) among the two altitudes, the result also indicate that the mean calving interval of 458.23 days and 439.9 days for the high altitude and mid altitude respectively and had no significantly difference (p>0.05); also daily milk yield of the dairy cattle in the current study area had no significant difference (p> 0.05) between the two altitudes of the study area. As opposed to this there was significant difference (p<0.05) between the two altitudes with regard to lactation length and calving to first service insemination. The breeding practice in the current study areas shown 71.1% of the respondents were using natural mating of bull irrespective to the altitudes, but the pedigree of most of breeding bulls in the study area was not known clearly. The study further revealed that few of the respondents were aware the importance of heat detection to decide time of insemination. Thus in most cases the AM/PM rule for insemination was not followed properly and this is one of the cases to have low efficiency of the AI service in the study area. Due to this and related factors most of the farmers gradually shift their breeding system from AI service to bull mating in both study area. With regard to feed the main source of feed for dairy cattle was natural pasture followed by crop residue in both altitudes of the study area. Most of the respondent irrespective of the altitudes agreed that they kept their all livestock species including dairy cattle together with the family dwelling. In addition to survey part of the study action research was conducted to evaluate Bovipreg kit for early pregnancy diagnosis of crossbred dairy cattle in two PAs of Bensa district. A total of 44 crossbred cows were selected and randomly grouped to 2 groups (22 cows per a group) for early pregnancy diagnosis by using Bovipreg at 18 - 22 days post insemination. The groups were test for PD by using blood serum (group 1) and milk (group 2). The accuracy of Bovipreg kit for positive pregnancy was 81.18% for blood sample and it was 72.73% for milk sample and had significant difference (p<0.01) among the two samples. Use of Bovipreg kit can be an effective tool to identify the pregnancy status of dairy cattle much ahead than most of the current existing methods and has a fundamental important to improve the reproductive management of dairy cattle.en-USProductive and Reproductive performanceBovipreg KitPregnancy DiagnosisThesis