Abstract:
The study was conducted in Sebeta town South West showa Zone with the objectives of a dairy
production practices and evaluation of milk quality. From a total of nine kebeles of Sebeta
town, three representative kebeles were selected, purposively based on their dairy production
potential. From the selected kebeles,36 smallholder farmers and 51 smallholder micro enterprises were randomly selected and interviewed. Twenty one pooled milk samples were
taken from smallholder farmers (9), smallholder micro-enterprises (9) and selling point of
shops (3) were evaluated for microbial and chemical compositions. The result showed that
male respondents dominant at both smallholder farmers (77.8%) and smallholder micro enterprises (64.7%). The present study has identified two production systems; namely, peri urban and urban dairy production systems where the later type is dominating.Purebred dairy
cattle were dominantly owned at both systems. The average milk yield per cow per day in
Sebeta town was 11.5 liters.The major feed resources were agro-industrial byproducts,
industrial byproducts (brewery grain) and purchased hay grasses. Tape water was the main
sources of water and animals were housed in constructed separate sheds/barns with concrete
floor. AI was the most common methods for cattle breeding. Feed shortage, cost of feed and
shortage of land are the major challenges in the study area. Laboratory examination revealed
that the overall mean percent fat content, solid nonfat (SNF), total solid, protein, lactose,
added water and solid were; 2.56±0.28, 7.96±0.8, 10.51±1.10, 3.08±0.35, 4.16±0.42,
18.26±11.93 and 0.63±0.05 respectively. The specific gravity of the raw milk ranged from
1.023 - 1.031g/cm3. All milk samples from milk shops, 77.8% from smallholder micro enterprises and 44.5% from smallholder farmers showed presence of mastitis in the milk. The
most important bacteria isolated were E. coli and S. aureus. Milk collected from small micro enterprise, smallholder farmers and selling point of milk shops were subjected to bacterial
infection and does not meet the requirements of international milk quality standard.
Therefore, awareness creation and strict quality control is recommended to safeguard public
health of the consumers.
