The study was conducted to assess of breeding practices of dairy cattle in Dawuro zone, southern Ethiopia. Based on their milking shed potentiality and dairy production availability, three districts/Woreda from Dawuro zone and two kebeles from each district were purposively selected for questionnaire administration. Then a total of 180 dairy holding households (60 from each district) having dairy stocks were interviewed at randomly in all direction. The Information was collected from secondary data, group discussion, AI technician, household level survey questionnaire, farm visit and personal observations. The average proportion of local and crossbred cattle showed slight difference which was 0.50 and 0.16 in Mareka Woreda, 0.20 and 0.17 in Tocha Woreda and 0.19 and 0.13 in Isera Wored. The survey revealed that 31.1 %, 27.7% and 41.1% of interviewed households used artificial insemination, artificial insemination with estrus synchronization and natural mating respectively in the study area. The households in the study area raise dairy cattle for production or yield attribute (milk) and socio-economic (cash, asset, security) were ranked first and second preferred traits by farmers with index of 0.47, 0.44 in Isera; 0.45, 0.42 in Tocha district and 0.47, 0.40 in Mareka areas. Trait preference as perceived by farmers was rated as milk yield, fertility and Adaptation from first to third rank, respectively. Individual performance and pedigree selection were used as selection criteria for dairy cattle. A comprehensive scheme recommended to practice well organized record keeping should take in to account productivity, reproductive performance and growth rate.

Keywords: Breeding Practice, Dairy Cattle