Productive and Reproductive Performance of Horro Cattle and Dairy Product Utilization by Smallholder Farmers

Abstract

A survey was conducted in the highland and mid altitude agro-ecologies of Horro and Guduru districts in western Ethiopia to assess the productive and reproductive performance of Horro cattle breed and dairy product utilization practices of smallholder farmers. A total of 210 (60 from highland and 150 from mid altitude) randomly selected households (hh) were involved in the study with the use of semi-structured and pre-tested questionnaire. The results obtained revealed that the mean livestock holding was significantly (P<0.001) higher in the highland (13.00±0.60 TLU/hh) than in the mid-altitude (9.72±0.45 TLU/hh) agro-ecology. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) between the highlands and mid altitudes in herd structure except the number of cows, which was significantly higher (P<0.05) in the highland (3.61 TLU/hh) than in the midaltitude (2.62 TLU/hh). The mean age at first mating and calving, calving interval, lactation length and number calves born per life time of a cow were comparable for both the highland and mid altitude area. The estimated mean annual milk yield/cow/lactation for the highland (342.75 liter) was significantly higher (P<0.001) than that of the mid-altitude (286.46 liter) and most of the variation could be attributed to the difference observed during the early lactation. About 5% of respondents from the highland and 0.77% from the mid altitude were reported to have sold milk and butter to generate income but none of the respondents reported sale of either soft cottage cheese or yogurt (itittu). Improvements in the reproductive and productive performance of cows through improved feeding, health care and genetic improvement measures as well as improvements in milk processing and dairy products marketing opportunities would be the future direction of research for dairy development in the study area.