aistand south~ern afrkca - (PDF, 101 mb) - USAID

In this study marketing and prices of milk
have not posed any problem at either the
highland or the subhumid sites. Although the
highland site is within the radius of the
government milk collection scheme, farmers
preferred the traditional marketing system in
which they sold the product directly to
consumers at a negotiable price. This price was
generally higher than that offered by the
Ethiopian Dairy Development Enterprise. The
subhumid site, a distance from the collection
scheme, also relied on a traditional marketing
system. Studies showed that at both sites milk
was sold fresh and supply fell far short ofdemand
resulting in. a continuous price rise.
Reproductive performance
Originally it had beer, planned to use artificial
insemination (Al) at the highland project site
and natural service at the subhumid zone site.
The extension division of the Ministry of
Agriculture provided AI services in the highland
site area, however, as the project progressed it
was found that farmers were not efficient in
either heat detection or early reporting. As a
result, the timely synchronisation of the
insemination of cows was not achieved. The
project team, therefore, decided to use natural
mating. In both sites, the breeding scheme has
not ben attractive as farmers have had to rely
on borrowed bulls from the research centres. An
attempt was made to adopt seasonal breeding
and farmers were told to report to the research
centre well ahead of a planned mating season in
order to be able to borrow breeding bulls on time.
This arrangement did not work out smoothly due
to farmers'unfamiliarity with heat detection and
their not being able to appreciate the importance
of timely mating to facili..ate conception.
An assessment showed that feed shortages in
the dry season resulted in poor fertility.Although
grass/legume hay was produced and given as
supplementary feed to cows, no farmer produced
enough surplus to take the animals through to
the dry season. Another factor that negatively
affected reproductive performance was the
incidence of abortion. A few cows aborted and
that seemed to discourage the cooperating
farmers; causes of this phenomenon have yet to
be determined,
Animal health
Major health rtoblems encountered were liver
fluke and ticks at the highland site and bacterial
infection diseases and ticks at the subhumid site.
Four cows and thuee calves died at the highland
site while no deths were recorded at the latter
site. Causes of mortality were not determined as
farmers reported cases too late for laboratory
investigation. In addition, a shortage of drugs
and acaricides coupled with the lack of fuel for
the vehicles to visit the farms affected the
smooth progress of the project.
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Disease and parasite control remains a major
concern, t specially for dairy cattle and upgraded
cows as tl ey are usually much more susceptible
to health problems than indigenous animals. A
competent veterinary service is essential to
overcome these problems, however, shortage of
veterinary staff and the lack of cheap prophylactic
and treatment drugs remains
significant to effective disease control measures.
Calf growth and cow body condition
Calves were allowed to suckle colostrum for the
first 4-5 days after parturition. Thereafter, their
access to dams was limited to a few minutes
before and after each milking. They grazed
around the homestead on natural pasture at
Holetta and on Rhodes grass established pasture
at Bako and their feed was supplemented with
hay and concentrates whenever available.
Growth patterns of the calves born at Bako
are indicated in Figure 1. Friesian cross calves
consistently grew at a faster rate than the Jersey
crosses. Their average on-farm weights at three
months (89 kg) and six months (165 kg) were
even better than on-station weights where the
means of 73 and 114 kg, respectively, were
reported (Sendros et al, 1987). This better
on-farm performance was achieved probably
because calves grazed on improved pasture
throughout the dry season as opposed to the
calves on-station wlich were kept on natural
pasture.
It is a common phenomenon in a tropical
environment for animals to deteriorate in
condition during the dry period and regain
condition in the wet season. Cow weight
fluctuations for six months at Holetta and nine
months at Bako are indicated in Figures 2 and 3,
respectively. Data was lacking to show the full
seasonal fluctuation trends over a one-year
period. However, cows tended to continue losing
weight until March.
Project achievements
Various shortcomings encountered during
project implementation hindered achievement of
the objectives. Nevertheless, the following were
some indicative observations:
• Improved technology transfer: This project
revealed that the transfer livestock
production technology (breed, health and
nutrition) has a significant effect on
augmenting the income of farmers under
highland and subhumid zone conditions of
Ethiopia.
* Farmers'assessment: All farmers were
invariably of the opinion that one F1
crossbred cow was superior to indigenous
cows and was equivalent in milk production
to at least four indigenous milking cows. The
number of project and non-project farmers
willing to acquire crossbred cows was far in
excess of supply.