Reproductive performance of crossbred dairy cattle in selected urban and peri-urban farms of mid rift valley, Ethiopia

This study was conducted to evaluate reproductive performance of crossbred cows and to identify potential constraints of dairying under small and medium scale farmers’ management in urban and periurban dairying of mid rift valley, Ethiopia. The data was collected through questionnaire from 120 small and medium dairy farm owners. The overall estimated mean age at first service and age at first calving was 20.6±02 and 30.6±0.19 months, respectively, and differed (P<0.01) considerably among production systems and herd size groups. The overall estimated mean lactation length, days open and calving interval were 311.3±2.8 and 128.2±2.4 days and 14.07±0.09 months, respectively, and differed significantly (P<0.01) between production systems and herd size groups. According to the respondents, feed shortage and limitation of space were reported as major constraints of dairy production in urban area, whereas feed cost, shortage of feed and Artificial Insemination (AI) service were major constraints of the peri-urban production system. Therefore, from the current study it was concluded that the reproductive performances of animals on both production systems and farm scale were below their expected genetic potential. Hence, large variation between production systems and farm scale groups showed the opportunities for further improvement with strategic supplementation of energy and protein rich feeds.


INTRODUCTION
The economy of Ethiopia is largely based on agriculture, which accounts for about 46% of gross domestic product (GDP) and 85% of total employment (World Fact Book, 2013).The major agricultural activities are crop farming and livestock production in which the dominant production system is small scale crop-livestock system (MoARD, 2007).Livestock products supply animal protein that improves the nutritional status of human beings.Ethiopia is believed to have the largest livestock population in Africa, of which the contribution of cattle is significant.According to the Central Statistical Agency (CSA, 2012), Ethiopia has about 52.13 million heads of cattle.This estimate excludes cattle population in Afar and Somali Regional States.Dairy production is an important component of livestock production in Ethiopia.It is practiced in almost all parts of the country across all agro-ecological zones.In Ethiopia, market-oriented urban and peri-urban milk productions are emerging as main suppliers of milk and dairy products to the cities.They possess both indigenous and crossbred dairy animals ranging from 50% to high grade Holstein Friesian breeds in small, medium and large sized farms.They depend on purchased roughage and concentrate feeds with limited grazing for milk production.In Ethiopia the reproductive performance of dairy cattle is low due to low quality and quantity of feed resources, poor nutritional management, genotype and health care, marketing system, extension services and training (Kelay, 2002;Azage et al., 2013).
Shashamane is one of the biggest and highly populated cities in the southern part of the country with high potential for milk production.Urban and peri-urban dairy production is an important component of livestock production system in and around the city.There are numerous dairy farms in the area which ranges from small to medium-scale and most of them keep crossbred dairy cows.The previous study, conducted by Sintayehu et al. (2008), focused mainly on marketing and processing of dairy products in Shashamane Dilla area.Whereas the reproduction performance of crossbred dairy cows, whose contribution has a great role to urban and peri-urban milk production has not been studied.Hence, current and up-to-date baseline information is lacking in urban and peri-urban areas on reproductive performance of crossbred dairy cows under prevailing situations.This study was, therefore, aimed to look into the reproductive performance of crossbred cattle and production constraints in mid-rift valley, Ethiopia.

Study area
The study was conducted in and around Shashamane city which is one of the high potential areas for milk production in Ethiopia.It is located at 7011'09" to 7013'19" N and 38035'02" to 38037'05" E at about 250 km south of the capital Addis Ababa.It is situated at about 1900 to 2400 m above sea level.The study area is characterized by bimodal rain fall pattern receiving average annual rainfall ranging from 800 to 1300 mm, with short rain season from March to April, and the main rain season from June to October, followed by long dry season.The mean minimum and maximum annual temperature is 12 and 27°C, respectively (Wazardo, 2011).Intensive urban and peri-urban dairy production is mainly practiced by crossbred dairy owners in the area.

Sampling and data collection procedures
A preliminary visit was conducted in the study area to get general picture of the study sites and to identify the target farms.In order to identify milk producing households (HH's), an initial list of dairy farms in the city of Shashamane and three related peri-urban areas were considered from West Arsi Zone.There were 497 small and 96 medium size farms of which 69% were urban and 31% were peri-urban.Based on the relative distance from the center of the city and number of crossbred cattle owned, two major dairy production systems and two herd size groups were identified in the area.Thus, dairy farms in Shashamane and three associated periurban areas were purposively identified based on their potential to produce milk and supply to Shashamane city.Urban production system is located within the city while the peri-urban one is located at about 5 to 20 km from the city.Then, dairy farm households were categorized into two groups based on the number of dairy cows owned as suggested by Ike (2002) as small (<4 cows) and medium (4 to 10 cows).A total of 120 households were selected for this study.Then, about 12% of the small and 62.5% of medium size farms that is, 60 households from each farm scale were purposely selected for the study.Information was gathered by interviewing the household heads and farm managers using a semi-structured questionnaire.The study was conducted between September and December, 2012.

Statistical analysis
Data collected were analyzed using Statistical Analysis System software (SAS, 2004).Descriptive statistics were employed to describe qualitative variables.General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SAS ( 2004) was used for analyzing data collected on reproductive performances.Mean comparison was done using the Least Significant Difference (LSD) for parameters with significant difference.Differences were considered statistically significant at 5% level of significant.Indices were developed to provide the total ranking of the prevailing constraints of milk production and handling limitations in the study area.Data generated on reproductive performances were analyzed using the following model Yij = μ+ Ai+ Bj + eij Where, Yij = response variables (nutrients intake, productive and reproductive performance of dairy cows), μ = overall mean,Ai = fixed effect of i th production sub-system (i= 1, 2),Bj = fixed effect of j th herd size (j= 1, 2), eij = residual effect

Household characteristics
The proportion of female headed dairy farms in the present report was higher than 12% reported by Sintayehu et al. (2008); for Shashamane Dilla area, which might be due to increased involvement of women in dairy sector due to better market access to sell milk.On the other hand, the involvement of female headed households in dairy production was higher in urban production than peri-urban production system (Table 1) which might be related to better market access in urban areas.With regard to educational level of dairy producers, higher proportion of dairy farm owners completed primary and above primary school level of education.On the other hand, higher proportion of urban producers were completed above secondary school level of education (certificate and above), than peri-urban system.The difference could be attributed to better access to school in urban system compared to peri-urban system.

Occupational status of households
The involvement of farmers in dairy production in the current report was higher than 13.7% reported for Sebeta Awsa area (Dereje, 2012) (Table 2).Higher involvement of farmers in dairy production in the current report might be related to attractive market access in the area.Generally, the result of this study indicates that dairying is the major occupation for the majority of the respondent household head dairy producers in area.

Purpose of milk production, farm activity and income source
The major purpose of milk production in the area was income generation and family consumption (Table 3).On the other hand 53.3 and 40% of interviewed dairy holding households in urban and peri-urban areas generate their major income from sale of dairy products, respectively.Among the respondent households in different farm scales, 43.3% of small and 50% of medium scale farms also generate their major income from sale of dairy products in the study area.High proportions of peri-urban dairy farming households (36.7%) were generating their major income from crop production, whereas, only 5% of urban households generates their major income from crop production.Among dairy producers in peri-urban areas, 55% of farmers in Kerara Filicha generate their main income from crop production.About 41.7% of urban and 23.3% of peri urban dairy producers generate their main income from nonfarm activities (trading, employment in government organizations and pension).

Herd size and composition of dairy cattle
This study showed that the average herd size per house hold was similar in urban and peri-urban areas (Table 4).Higher herd size of 3.2 and 11.3 cattle was reported for small and medium scale farms, respectively, in Dire Dawa city (Emebet and Zeleke, 2007).In all the systems, farmers possessed dairy cows followed by heifers as their future herd replacement animals.It was reported that the proportion of milking cows accounted for 66 and 68% of total cows in urban and peri-urban farms, respectively, indicating that slightly higher proportion of productive cows were held in both cases.The distributions of cows on their productive state showed that about 37.4% were pregnant and milked, 28.6% milked and non pregnant, 31.7% were dry pregnant and 2.3% were dry and non pregnant among the total number of cows in urban farms, whereas, the values in peri-urban farms were 34.3% pregnant and milked, 33.7% milked and non pregnant, 26.4% dry pregnant and 5.6% were dry and non pregnant.In both cases, higher numbers of cows were pregnant and lactating.Higher proportions of pregnant milking cows in urban and peri-urban farms might be related to long lactation length in the area.The proportion of dry cows in this study was higher than the ideal recommended value of 17% set by Radostits et al. (1994).Keeping these herds require extra expenses for their feeding and other management.Compared to the current study, high percent (14%) non pregnant dry cows were reported by Mohamed et al. (2003) in Harar milkshed.

Reproductive performance of dairy cows
The mean reported age of heifers at first service and calving were short for urban farms compared to the peri-   The mean reported calving interval of dairy cows in urban farms was significantly (P<0.01)shorter than peri-urban farms.The value in this study was comparable with 13.93 months reported for crossbred cattle in Gondar city (Nuraddis et al., 2012) and shorter than 1.31 and 1.62 years reported for crossbred cattle in urban and periurbanfarms, respectively, in Northern Ethiopia (Gebrekidan et al., 2012).Estimated value of calving interval for dairy cows in medium scale farms was significantly (P< 0.01) shorter than dairy cows in small scale farms.The result of the current study was longer than the mean calving interval of 13.9 and 12.8 months reported for crossbred cattle in small and medium farms, respectively in Gondar city (Nuraddis et al., 2012).The calving interval in this study particularly for dairy cows in peri-urban areas and small scale farms was longer than the recommended interval of 12 to 13 months as indicated by Kiwuwa et al. (1983).The longer calving

Constraints of dairy production
The respondents indicated that the availability of crop residue is limited to few months of the year.Feed shortage was critical during the end of main rainy season (September to November) which might be related to shortage of wheat straw, the major roughage feed resource in the study area.This finding is in agreement with the report of Zewdie (2010) who reported feed shortage as the major problem of livestock production in Central rift valley of Ethiopia.Limitation of space was the second major constraint of medium sized urban dairy farms.About 93.3% of the interviewed dairy cattle producers in the study area run dairy farming within their own residence compound.These producers indicated that land size is among the main constraints for expanding their dairy farming.Problem of waste management was the fourth major constraint of dairy cattle production prioritized by medium scale urban dairy farm owners.It was reported that high feed cost was prioritized as major problem of dairy production by peri-urban dairy producers.According to the respondents, the average price of wheat straw was 4 birr per container of 5 kg in December and January which increase to 8 birr in April.The interviewed dairy producers also indicated that the price of concentrate feed is increasing from time to time in the area.On the other hand, majority of the interviewed dairy producers in the peri-urban areas indicated that feed shortage as the second major problem of dairy production in the area (Table 6).It was reported that poor AI and animal health service was the third major problem prioritized by peri-urban respondents (Table 7).Respondents in peri-urban areas (Kuyera and Kerara Filicha) indicated that AI service is given by those technicians either from Shashamane or Arsi Negele which is far from the two sites.According to the respondents in the area, there was no animal health service center in Kuyera and Kerara filicha.

Conclusion
The reproductive performances of animals on both production systems and farm scales were below their expected genetic potential, where in peri-urban and small scale farm was critically low as compared to some parts of the tropics.Hence, large variation between production systems and farm scale groups showed the opportunities for further improvement with strategic management and supplementation of energy and protein rich feeds.

Table 1 .
Gender and educational level of dairy producers in Shashamane milkshed.
n= number of household head, PS= production syste

Table 2 .
Major occupational status of selected household heads in Shashamane milkshed.

Table 3 .
Landholding, purpose of milk production, farm activity and income sources of households in the study area.
(P<0.01).The mean days open was short for urban farms (122.9±3.5 days) compared to peri-urban farms (133.5±3.1days).The result was not in agreement with the mean value of 87 days reported for days open for crossbred dairy cows in and around Gondar city (Nibret, systems and herd size groups might be related to difference in management such as nutrition, health and heat detection by farmers which affect interval from calving to first estrus and service and hence days open.The mean reported value of calving to conception interval in this study was higher than the optimum level of 80 -85 days.

Table 4 .
Herd size and composition of crossbred cattle in Shashamane milk shed by production system and herd size.
n= number of respondents, SE= standard error.

Table 5 .
Least square means (LSM ±SE) reproductive performance of crossbred cows.-b means with different superscript in the same column for the same trait do significantly differ, SE= standard error; AFS= age at first service; AFC= age at first calving; LL= lactation length; DO= days open; CI= calving interval; *= P<0.05; **= P<0.01. a

Table 6 .
Major constraints of dairy production in urban farms.

Table 7 .
Major constraints of dairy production in peri-urban farms of the study area.