Assessment of the Prevailing Cattle Fattening Practices in Jimma Zone, South-Western Ethiopia (original) (raw)

The study was conducted in four districts of Jimma zone namely Gera, Gomma, Dedo and Kersa to assess cattle fattening practices. A total of 200 households engaged in fattening cattle were selected purposely for this study. Data of various parameters including available feed resources and their utilization and livestock holding was collected using a pretested questionnaires and also from secondary sources. The collected data was subjected to analysis by using SPSS version 16.0. Feed availability was computed from the collected data. It was found that the average livestock holding of the study area was 7.40 tropical livestock unit. The respondents reported the possible available feed resources for these livestock are mainly grazing land (99.5 %) and crop residue (94%). Besides, 90%, 83% and 46.5% of the respondents used salt, kitchen waste and coffee residue as non-conventional feed. As far as feed processing experience is concerned, chopping (83%), wetting (59.5%), grinding (23.5%), boiling (37.5%) and roasting (8.5%) were practiced in the study areas. Total utilizable tone of dry matter was 12.82 out of which crop residues contribute the major part (9.19+0.39). There was significant variation among study districts in available total dry matter for livestock production. Dedo and Kersa districts had more total utilizable DM than Gera and Gomma. Positive feed balance was observed in Dedo (1.93) and Kersa (4.7) districts whereas as negative feed balance was observed in Gera (-9.87) and Gomma (-1.06) districts. The vast majority (90.5%) of cattle fatteners deworm their animals before starting fattening process. River (77%), spring (16%), stream (5%) and pipe water (2%) were the sources of drinking water in the study areas. With regard to overnight shelter 22.5% and 48% used separate and shared housing system, respectively. In the study areas 47.5% of the respondents reported that they use thatched type of roof whereas 23% uses corrugated sheets of iron. Wood (62%) and bamboo (8 .5%) were the two common types of walls construction. Wooden (42%), rammed earth (25.5%) and others (3%) were the major type of floors. The average space requirement for night resting was 1.87m. Feed shortage (44.59%), initial capital (25%), disease (14.86%), market 2 (6.42%) and labour (9.12%) were the major constraints for fattening cattle.

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