Begait cattle production systems and production performances in northern Ethiopia
Keywords:
cattle , production system, trait preferences , breeding practicesAbstract
The study was conducted to describe production systems and production performance of Begait cattle under small-scale and large-scale farms. Data were collected from 180 (120 small-scale and 60 large-scale) households through filed observation and direct interviews, and analyzed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. Households in both production scales considered income generation, calf production, and milk production as major purpose of keeping cattle. The mean analysis of variance of livestock holdings size were; 41, 31, 22, 9 and 2 for cattle, sheep, goats, chicken, and donkey, respectively. Except sexual maturity of breeding bull, production scale had significant (P<0.05) influence on other productive and reproductive traits. Large-scale farmers had significantly higher in daily milk yield and life calf born and also recorded shorter calving interval, age at first calving and dry period of cow than small-scale farmers. Though, there is difference on the level of impact, both large-scale and small-scale farms stressed by theft, water scarcity, seasonal feed shortage, and disease prevalence. From the current result, it is concluded that the observed herd size and milk production performance of Begait cattle is high compared to the indigenous cattle breeds in Ethiopia. Thus, the current breeding practices of Begait cattle farmers’ need a designing appropriate selective breeding program to maintain this valuable genetic resource and improve their contribution to livelihoods of their keepers.
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Copyright (c) 2017 Gebretnsae Mezgebe, Solomon Gizaw, Mengistu Urge, Arvind Chavhan
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