Indigenous Dairy Cattle Husbandry Practice and Major Production Constraints: The Case of Alefa and Quara Districts in Northern Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the dairy husbandry practices and major production constraints faced to the smallholder dairy farmers of Alefa and Quara districts in Ethiopia. 376 households who had at least one lactating cow were selected through systematic random sampling procedure. Data were collected by using structured questionnaire and the collected data were analyzed by using statistical package for social science (SPSS Version 20). The main source of feed for Alefa district was, crop residue and private grazing land (36.7%), crop residue, communal and private grazing land (41.4%), while for Quara district, communal grazing land (49.8%) and crop residue, private and communal grazing land (39.6%). In respective order, about 70.8 and 81.3% of respondents for Alefa and Quara districts were confirmed that river water was the main source to water thier dairy cows. Housing system in Alefa district was simple shed constructed adjacent to farmer’s house (97.6%), but in Quara district, it was barn system (95.2%). Trypanosomiasis (58.7%), Lumpy skin disease (18.8%) and Babesiosis (8.7%) was the most challenging livestock disease in Quara district, while in Alefa district Blackleg (30.5%), Lumpy skin disease (21%) and Trypanosomiasis (20.4%) was the challenging disease. Regarding to the overall major production constraints of the study areas, in general shortage of quality feed supply was reported by the respondents as the most important constraints of dairy production and followed by prevalence of diseases.

Keywords: Crop residue, districts, feed shortage, prevalence of diseases