DEVELOPING BREEDING OBJECTIVES FOR CROSSBREED AND EXOTIC DAIRY CATTLE UNDER DIFFERENT PRODUCTION SYSTEMS IN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Dairy production in Ethiopian is not commensurate between quantity of milk production and consumers demand and the main challenges for the dairy producers is to produce larger quantities of milk while using sustainable farming practices. Though, there was no tangible document on the status of dairy production at a country level, dairy cattle farming was on increased status to cope up the growing demand for milk,. Defining breeding objectives is the first step in designing of breeding program and it identifies traits that farmers would like to be improved. So, the study was conducted to describe production systems (paper I), evaluate reproductive and productive performance (paper II), and identify selection criteria (paper III), selection goal and objective traits of dairy cattle (paper IV) and to evaluate the economic value of Holstein Friesian and crossbred dairy cattle (paper V) breeding objective traits at the large, medium and small scale dairy farms. Data were collected using semi-structured questionnaire, interviews and from a recorded data at the dairy farms. A total of 236 dairy farm producers (40 large scale, 85 medium scale, and 111 small scale) were used from areas representing eastern part of Ethiopia (Dire Dawa, and Harar dairy farms), central part of Ethiopia (Bishoftu and Holeta dairy farms) and northern part of Ethiopia (Mekele dairy farms). Classification of production systems were based on the number of dairy cow they possessed and their level of input for their farm. Respondents were selected using multistage sampling processes. First milk shed areas were selected purposely and lists of dairy farms who owned Holstein Friesian and crossbred dairy cows were taken and identified purposely and finally respondents were selected randomly. The economic values (EV) of the identified objective traits were evaluated using bio-economic model (ECOWEIGHT program package) based on an average herd size. Results showed that (paper I), most of the respondents had a secondary level educational background with an overall percentage value of 54.44 and 61.83, percent for Holstein Friesian and crossbreed dairy producers, respectively. Professional background of the respondents were dominated by non-agricultural profession with an overall percentage value of 53.06 and 61.54, percentfor Holstein Friesian and crossbreed dairy producers, respectively. Holstein Friesian dairy producers were mainly kept dairy cows for milk production followed by the dual purpose for milk production and replacement heifers, with an overall index value of 0.46 and 0.38, respectively, whereas crossbreed dairy producers were attached with XIV greater importance primarily for both milk production and replacement heifer’s followed by milk production only, within an overall index values of 0.43 and 0.40, respectively. Feed and land shortage, were the main constraints in all dairy production systems with an overall index values of 0.39 and 0.39, respectively. Reproductive and productive performance dairy cows evaluation were based on a total of 560 dairy cows recorded data form 2014 up to 2017. In the study, an overall mean age at first services of 27.04±0.21 and 28.32±0.31 months and age at first calving of 36.17±6.49 and 37.51±0.31, months were observed for both Holstein Friesian and crossbred dairy cows, respectively. Age at first service and age at first calving were non-significant (P>0.05) for Holstein Friesian cows among Holstein Friesian producers (paper II) whereas for crossbred cows a significant difference (P<0.05) were observed among large scale and the other two production system. The study revealed that (Paper III), dairy cattle producers were given more importance for milk yield (0.61 and 0.64) and milk yield color (0.39 and 0.36) for both Holstein Friesian and crossbred dairy cattle, respectively, as the main preferred selection criteria for production traits and for the reproductive traits, age at first services (0.38 and 0.37) and age at first calving (0.45 and 0.39), were the main selection criteria for both Holstein Friesian and crossbred dairy producers, respectively. For the Holstein Friesian producers, the selection goals of the respondents, were profit per land (039), followed profit per feed (0.35), respectively, whereas profit per feed, and profit per land was the preferred selection goals for crossbreed dairy producers with an overall index value of 0.42 and 0.31, respectively (paper IV). The net income of Holstein Friesian dairy cows managed under large, medium and small scale farms were, 52,759, 22,556 and 53,910, Ethiopian birr, respectively, whereas for the crossbred dairy cows, it was 55,978, 44,917 and 50,704, Ethiopian birr, for large, medium and small-scale farms, respectively (paper V). Positive economic value for milk yield, longevity and survivability were observed, whereas negative economic values for fat yield, protein yield, calving interval, calving rate, mature weight and birth weight were observed both for Holstein Friesian and crossbred dairy cows (paper V). As a conclusion with the present dairy cattle management practices, pure Holstein Friesian dairy cows are not any more profitable than well managed Holstein Friesian crossbred dairy cows, which could attribute to the presence of adapted genes from the indigenous and this documents help farmers and policy makers in the future decision making and also provide information for researchers conducting a research in the Ethiopian dairy farms.