Browsing by Author "Andualem, Tonamo"

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    Characterization of Cattle Production System and Feed Resources in Essera District, Dawuro Zone, Southern Ethiopia
    (2014-06) Andualem, Tonamo; Prof. Berhan Tamir, Dr. Gebeyehu Goshu
    This study was conducted in Essera District, Dawuro Zone of South Nations Nationalities and People Region with the objectives of assessing cattle production system, identifying major feed resources and analyzing their chemical composition as well as identifying and prioritizing cattle production constraints of the study area. Ninety households (HHs) owning cattle were selected randomly. A structured questionnaire was prepared and used to collect data on cattle production system, production constraints, feeding systems and available feed resources. Feed samples were collected from crop residues, indigenous grass, legumes and browses to analyze their chemical composition. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, indices and one-way ANOVA using SPSS software. The average family size was 6.74±0.32 per HH. Crop-livestock mixed farming was the commonly used farming system (95.5%). The mean total land holding was 2.91±0.18 ha per HH and there was no significant (P>0.05) difference in total land holding among three agro-ecologies. The average land allocated for crop production, fallow land, others and grazing land was 1.00 ± 0.26, 0.92 ± 0.20, 0.46 ± 0.19 and 0.42 ± 0.19, respectively. The results of this study showed that the average cattle herd size per HH was 11.12 ± 0.69 and significantly (P<0.05) varied across agro-ecologies. The purpose of keeping cattle in the district was for milk (46.7%), meat (44.4%), manure (100%), traction (4.4%), and others (37.8%). Natural mating (82.2%) was the most widely used means of breeding system practiced and significantly (P<0.05) differed among agro-ecologies. Trypanosomiasis was first ranked disease in the study area. Majority (93.3%) of HHs experience of housing cattle in their living house. The sources of water for cattle were river (75.5%), spring (13.3%) and tape (11.1%). The survey showed the major constraints of cattle production to be shortage of feed, diseases and shortage of water with indices of 0.385, 0.367 and 0.111, respectively. The first three major feed resources were natural pasture (54.4 and 90%), crop residues (63.3 and 100%), and crop aftermath (65.5 and 90%) during dry and wet season, respectively. Grazing on natural pasture was the commonly used feeding system. Maize stover and teff xiii straw were the two major crop residues with indices of 0.407 and 0.245, respectively. According to 48.9 and 51.1% of respondents, feed shortage existed in between January to March and February to April in the District, respectively. The results revealed, only 17.8% of farmers used feed quality improvement techniques in the study area. The results of laboratory analysis of chemical composition showed that the DM content of maize stover, teff straw, Lamuxxa, Cayshiyaa, Dawuro daama and Gasaa were 92.11, 92.09, 69.63, 57.08, 43.38 and 18.73%, respectively. The ash content of Lamuxxa, teff straw, maize stover, Cayshiyaa, Dawuro daama and Gasaa were 7.95, 7.89, 6.56, 5.0, 3.71 and 2.75% respectively. The crude protein content of Dawuro daama, Cayshiyaa, Gasaa and Lamuxxa was 14.23, 13.39, 12.35 and 10.30%, respectively. The CP content of teff straw was 4.26% and that of maize stover, was 3.67%. The NDF content of available major feed resources ranged between 9.43% - 78.23%, whereas that of ADF content ranged between 5.34% - 53.94%. Maize stover, teff straw and Lamuxxa had high values of ADF and NDF. The IVDMD of indigenous legumes and browses was higher than the grasses and crop residues. The highest value of IVDMD was found in Gasaa (95.29%) followed by Dawuro daama (85.18%) and Cayshiyaa (77.22%). Lowest IVDMD was found in maize stover (40.90%).