ON FARM PHENOTYPIC CHARACTERIZATION, HUSBANDRY AND BREEDING PRACTICES OF SIMADA CATTLE POPULATION IN THREE DISTRICTS OF NORTH-WESTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The study was conducted to phenotypically characterize and assess husbandry and breeding practices of Simada cattle population in three districts of North-Western Ethiopia. Data were collected through semi-structured questionnaire, focus group discussions, field observations and linear body measurements (LBM). A total of 180 households were randomly selected to fill the structured questionnaire and 360 cattle (60 male and 300 female) were sampled for morphological description and linear body measurements. The study revealed that the average cattle herd size was 6.51± .094 heads per household. The purposes of keeping cattle were for traction, milk production, income generation, trashing of crop, manure (to increase soil fertility), social status and meat. Natural pasture and crop byproducts were major feed sources in study area. The overall ratio of breeding bull to breeding female was 1:3.24. Mating is mostly natural uncontrolled in all districts. The selection criteria of farmers for male were draft power and body size where as for female reproductive fitness and dairy ranked as 1st and 2nd traits respectively. Overall, average lactation length and milk production per cow per day was reported to be 8.67±1.062 months and 1.59 ± .17 liters, respectively. The overall age at which male first serve a female, age at first mating of female, age at first calving and calving interval of Simada cattle were estimated to be 38.56 ± 5.17, 45.60 ± 4.78, 57.74 ± 4.76 and 17.89 ± 2.03 months, respectively. Constraints of cattle production were feed shortage, disease, and lack of improved breeds ranking 1st, 2nd and 3rd, respectively. The majority of observed percentages for coat patterns, hair type, facial profile, hump size and position in sample populations were plain, smooth, flat, small and cervico-thoracic in all districts, respectively. All the quantitative variables were significantly affected by the sex of the animals except ear length and rump width. Male cattle were higher than female cattle due to the hormonal (testosterone) effect. The phenotypic variation in quantitative dependant variables such as height at wither, mouth circumference, face length, dewlap width and neck length were highly significantly different (p<0.01) for both sexes and districts. Heart girth, body length, rump length, height at rump, horn length, tail length were significant different (p <0.05) across districts. From linear body measurement heart girth, flank girth, body length, height at withers, height at rump, rump length, tail length and neck length were higher in Simada district. The longest Mahalobis’ distance was measured between Simada and Lay Gayint for both sexes. Feed shortage is the most limiting factor for cattle production in the study area and need to be addressed. It is plausible to suggest that due to agro ecological differences of the three Districts, within population variations were observed in some of the LBM among cattle populations. To improve the breed, functional community based breeding strategies at farmers’ level can be suggested. Molecular characterization is also needed to complement the phenotypic results.