Assessment of Beef Cattle Fattening in Selected Districts of Hadya Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was conducted in the southern nation, nationality and people regional government in Hadya zone (Misrak Badawacho Woreda), Ethiopia  to assess beef cattle production(feed resources, opportunities and constraints). In the present study, stratified and purposive sampling method were  used; a total of 110 households were selected for survey study.  To collect the data both primary and secondary data sources were used and the collected data were analyzed statistically using SPSS (version 20) for windows. The study showed that the main purposes of beef cattle production in the study area were for income generation(42.72%), draught power(31.81%), for asset(14.54%), for home consumption (9.09%) and for social value(9.09%).  According to the respondents, major feed availability in the study area were natural pasture, crop residues, atela, frushika, maize grains, enset, sugar cane stalker, sweet potato and  maize stalker. The study also showed that frequency of  supplementing beef cattle were varied due to seasons of year, feed types(available), locations(agro-ecology), capacity of the farmers, duration of fattening. In the overall result of the study, most of respondents watered for their cattle  from river (33.63%), tape water, (25.45%) , pond (12.72%), rain fall (10.9%) and well (8.18%) sources in order of their importance. The main beef cattle production constraints were feed shortage, lack of management, drought (10%), improved breed, disease, scarcity of land and lack of knowledge. It is concluded that beef cattle fattening is one of the important strategy to improve the income of the farming community and nation as a whole via utilizing seasonally available feed resources by improving utilization efficiency through training and extension advice with the help of agricultural development organizations.

Keywords: Beef, cattle, Ethiopia, feed sources,  production, constraint, opportunity