TITLE:
Milk Production Performance, Challenges and Opportunities of Dairy Cattle Production in West Hararghe, Oromiya Regional State
AUTHORS:
Ahmedin Abdurehman Musa, Yesihak Yusuf Mummed
KEYWORDS:
Cattle, Dairy, Milk, Reproduction
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Animal Sciences,
Vol.10 No.1,
January
31,
2020
ABSTRACT: The study was conducted in West Hararge Zone Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia with the objective to describing the dairy production and reproduction performance, identifying and prioritizing researchable issues which make an impact on the development of dairy sector, identifying factors influencing dairy production, constraints and opportunities and forwarding suggestions for the development of dairy sector. Two districts from midland and lowland agroecology were purposively selected. Moreover, two kebeles were also selected purposively from each district based on dairy cattle population and accessibility. A total of 120 households were selected for survey data collection from the three agroecologies. For the monitoring study, 4 lactating cows in each lactation stage for each rural kebeles as well as for each breed were used. A total of 112 lactating cows were used. The result of the study indicates that the majority (85.8%) of respondents use local breed cow for milk production and the remaining 14.2% of respondents are used cross breed. Average daily milk production was 2.98 litters/day/cow and the average price of one liter milk in the study area at the study period was 23.63 birr. There was a significant difference between the two breeds on the mean age at first calving. Local zebu cow has significantly (P