the Evaluation of Reproductive and Productive Performance of Indigenous Dairy Cows

Evaluations of the reproductive and productive performances of local dairy cows were carried out in Shaybench and Sheko districts under the smallholder farmers’ management system. For the study, a cross-sectional survey and -a semi-structured questionnaire were used to collect data from 180 households. Follow-up studies were also conducted to obtain milk production based on lactation stages. The data were analyzed through a general linear model of SPSS version 20. Cattle are reared primarily for their milk production, drought power, and income source in the study area. The results of the study showed that from the follow-up study, the mean daily milk yield for the first, second, and third stages of lactations were 3.01±0.12, 2. 83±0.26, and 1.75± 0.05 liter per cow respectively. The milk yield decreased significantly in the third stage of lactation than that in the first and second (P<0.001). The milk yield observed was significantly different at (P<0.01) higher in the morning than in the evening for the three stages of lactations. From survey results, the overall mean of AFS, AFC, CI, DO and NSPC were (50.72±0.20 and 44.28±0.0.60 months), (50.50±0.20 and 50.40±0.0.20 months), (21.84±0.14 and 19.56±0.4 months), (16.24±0.30 and 16.20±0.20 months) and (2.30±0.20 and 2.01±0.03 times), in Shaybench and Sheko districts respectively. All of the considered traits for reproductive performances were significantly (p<0.001) different between the districts. Thus, it could be concluded that the results reported for reproductive and productive performances in both districts were below the optimum value of 10 months of dairy cows’ production. Therefore, Milk production and reproductive performance of local dairy cows in the study area were almost similar to the performance of zebu cattle.