Abstract:
The study was conducted in five districts of Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State in western Ethiopia with the aim to undertake on farm phenotypic characterization of indigenous cattle populations, assess the traditional husbandry and breeding practices of the farmers. Data were collected through semi-structured questionnaire, focus group discussions, field observations, and linear body measurements of indigenous cattle. A total of 300 households were randomly selected and interviewed, 509 adult female and 255 adult male cattle were sampled for morphological description and linear body measurements. The study revealed that animal disease, mainly trypanosomosis was the major limiting factor of cattle production in the study area. Age at first service (AFS), Age at first calving (AFC) and calving interval(CI) showed highly significant differences among districts (p<0.01).The overall mean AFS, AFC, CI and lactation length were 41.3±3.53, 50.24±3.58, 14.7±1.16 and 7.7±1.65 months, respectively. The major selection criteria for male breeding bulls were body size, body conformation and coat color. Similarly the major selection criteria for breeding female were body size, body conformation and udder size. The communities in the study areas prefer the indigenous cattle populations with good performance on draught power, better reproductive efficiency, better milk yield and better adaptability to the local environment. Findings from focus group discussions revealed that, even if local cattle were found widely distributed throughout the study area, they were not known by any common name. Results from analysis of variance (ANOVA) on continuous variables showed highly significant differences among districts (P < 0.01).The mean linear measurements of female indigenous cattle for body length, chest girth, rump height, height at withers and body weight were 112.03cm, 146.75 cm, 109.14 cm, 104.81 cm and 254.69 kg, respectively. Male Benishangul-Gumuz cattle had body length 115.49 cm, Chest girth 149.93 cm, rump height 116.10 cm, height at withers 108.26 cm, Pelvic Width 37.21 cm and body weight of 280.34 kg. Based on a discriminant analysis, sample populations were classified into their respective districts with overall hitting rate of 63.15 percent for females and 72.31 percent for males. Cluster analysis led to identification of two cluster group of cattle population; the first cluster grouped together Bambassi, Assosa and Mao-Komo cattle population, whereas the second cluster grouped Yaso and Kamashi cattle population together. Thus, indigenous cattle population of the study area was not homogenous on their phenotypic features and further genetic characterization should be done to confirm their genetic distinctiveness.
