Responses of farmers on reproductive performance of dairy cows in urban and peri-urban small scale dairy production system: The case of south east Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was carried out to assess the reproductive performance of dairy cows in urban and peri-urban small scale dairy production system. The response of the farmers were involved factors affecting the reproductive performances such as; household characteristics, cattle management system, feed and feeding system, breeding method used and the reproductive performance parameters. A total of 180 dairy producer households (90 from Urban and 90 from peri-urban) were selected randomly from 6 Towns (Mojo, Batu, Shashemane, Dodola, Robe-Bale and Goba) and interviewed using structured and semi-structured questionnaire. The result of the study indicated that 25.9% of Urban and 22.3% of peri-urban dairy producer households were literates. The mean number of cattle/per household was 4.1±0.28 and 5±0.36 for urban and peri-urban dairy producers respectively. Bellow 15% of the farmers uses regular follow up on estrus detection and herdsman information. More than 90% of the respondents were indicated livestock production was constrained from getting year round feed supply both in quality and quantity. Out of the total respondents 55% were only AI service beneficiaries, 24.4% both natural matting and AI beneficiaries, and 20.6% non-AI beneficiaries. Based on this; the overall average of main parameters such as Age at first calving (AFC), Calving intervals (CI), Days open (DO) and Number of Services per Conception (NSC) are 36.97±0.58 months, 5.76±0.19 months, 14.75±0.19 months and 2.52±0.22 respectively. The result of study suggests that the overall production system observed could be categorized as fairly good in urban and poor in peri-urban. The overall production and reproduction parameters are bellow the standard level for optimum production. The major constraints mentioned by farmers and other stakeholders are; feed and feeding problem, poor cattle management, poor genetic potential and health problem in precedence.