Smallholder Dairy Farmers’ Breed and Cow Trait Preferences and Production Objective in JimmaTown, Ethiopia

Abstract

Farmers’ breed and trait preferences and production objectives are very important in genetic improvement programs. The objectives of this study was to assess smallholder dairy farmers’ breed and cow trait preferences, production objectives and breeding practices in Jimma town, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. Data were obtained by interviewing 54 randomly selected smallholder dairy farmers using structured questionnaires. Results indicated that majority of the respondents (94%) producing milk as a source of income was the primary purpose of keeping dairy cattle. Over 90% of the respondents kept crosses of Holstein x indigenous Zebu. Farmers kept significantly (P<0.05) larger number of crossed than indigenous cattle (14.32±1.78 vs.1.81±3.25). All the respondents showed high preferences for crossbred cows due to their high milk production. Listed cow traits of farmers’ preferences were milk fat, fertility, growth rate, lactation length, milk yield, longevity and adaptation. Milk yield (mean index rank=0.25) was highly ranked for crossbred dairy cows followed by high fertility (0.24) and long lactation length (0.22), whereas milk yield (mean index rank=0.26) followed by adaptation (0.25) and high fertility (0.21) were farmers’ high ranked traits of indigenous cows. Milk fat was considered the least preferred trait. Milk production, fertility, lactation length and adaptation were the most preferred cow traits which farmers would like mostto be improved. Natural mating was found to be the widely used breeding method and use of AI services was uncommon. Culling and record keeping was practiced by 68.5% and 40.7% of the farmers, respectively. Poor bull, lack of artificial insemination (AI) services, low conception rate, inadequate heat detection and distance to the bull were stated to be the most important constraints to breeding cows. It is concluded that for improved dairy production, participatory genetic improvement programs that take into account farmers’ breed and trait preferences, traditional knowledge and perceptions on breeds and traits of choice would be important.