The study was conducted to assess dairy production and marketing system of Horro district of Horro Guduru Wollega zone. A structured questionnaire was used and the study area was stratified into highland and Mid-highland agro-ecology. The means and standard deviations of livestock holding was found 12.17±8.69, 13.54±13.98, 3.22±5.25, 2.79±2.84 and 0.96±1.34 for cattle, sheep, goats, horse and donkey, respectively. Cattle herd structure is governed by the overall function of the animal in agricultural production system; however, this study revealed that the proportion of male to female cattle was in-balance (49.5:50.5%) in the total herd studied. The overall means and SDs of milking cow holding was 2.14 ± 1.57 where it was higher for the highland than mid-highland smallholders agro-ecology. Cows’ average lactation length was 8.16 months and estimated total lactation milk yield within this lactation period was not more than 360 liters/cow. The major livestock input supply and service delivery expenditure was mainly for veterinary services where animal feed purchase, labour employment and renting grazing land during summer seasons were also another challenges which farmers in the study area were encountering. Udder washing before and after milking was rarely practiced where about 74.23 percent producers do not wash udder before milking and only 25.27 respondents wash udder before milking. However, ‘Lantana trifolia, Sida cuneifolia and Cucumis prophetarum’ were the most commonly used plant/herbs for cleaning and washing milking and milk storing equipments in the study area. The means and SD of shelf life of butter in days was studied and butter can be kept un-perished for up to 159.45(84.915) and 68.44(42.416) at highland and Mid-altitude. The difference in butter shelf life was highly significant at (P>0.001) among the highland and mid-highland. The difference in shelf life of yogurt was also significantly (P>0.001) higher for mid-highland than highland. Key Words: Dairy cows, Ethiopia, Horro Guduru, Milk marketing, Production system

Keywords: Dairy cows, Ethiopia, Horro Guduru, Milk marketing, Production system