Perception of Dairy Cattle Owners on Oestrus Synchronization and Mass Artificial Insemination Services in Jimma Zone, South Western Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the perception of dairy cattle owners on oestrus synchronization and mass artificial insemination services in Jimma zone, south western Ethiopia. Two hundred forty nine dairy cattle owners who had used oestrus synchronization and mass artificial insemination services at least once over the last 5 years time were randomly selected and interviewed from three milk shade districts of Jimma zone. All data were analyzed by SAS version 9.2 (2008). Chi-square (x 2 ) test was carried out to assess the statistical significance among categorical variables. An index was also calculated to provide overall ranking. Majority (73.09 %) of beneficiaries of oestrus synchronization had low to medium perception about the important management practices like selection of appropriate cows/heifers, asking for quality of the hormone being used (expiration date of the hormone), separation of bulls and hormone treated cows/heifers and time/date of insemination after hormone treatment. Consequently, majority (67.47%) of the farmers faced failure of response for hormone treatment at least once. The main reasons for the failure were selection of inappropriate animals (I=0.40), injection of expired or ineffective hormone (I=0.37) and low dose of hormone (I=0.24). In addition, due to lack of awareness, dairy cattle owners had allowed their bulls to graze together with hormone treated cows/heifers. Moreover, the study also revealed that, 64.66 % of dairy cattle owners in Jimma zone were faced failure of mass AI services. The principal reasons for the failure of mass AI services were heat detection problem (I=025), poor quality semen (I=0.23) and distance of AI center (I=0.22). Therefore, in order to enhance the efficiency of the technology and eventually increase the satisfaction of beneficiaries, emphasis should be given on identified problems and concerted effort should be operated from all responsible sectors.