Abstract

Dessalegn Genzebu, Berhan Tamir and Gebreyohanes Berhane

The objective of this study was to assess the productive and reproductive performance of cross breed dairy cattle under smallholder farmers’ level in Bishoftu and Akaki districts. The districts were purposively selected based on their potentiality of cross breeds dairy cattle population. A cross-sectional survey and structured questionnaire were used to collect data from 130 households. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences to study the magnitude and direction of variation in months age at first services(AFS), age at first calving (AFC), calving interval (CI), lactation milk yield (LMY) and lactation length (LL) due to management factors. Calving interval (CI) was only significantly (p < 0.001) different between the woredas. The mean of AFS, AFC, CI, DMY, TLMY and LL were estimated to be (18.7±3.7 and 18.7±3.5 months), (26.9±5.4 and 27.0±3.7 months), (13.0±2.1and 13.8±1.9 months), (11.6±3.1 and 10.8±2.4 litters per day/cows), (3208.56±108.81 and 3031.56±46.32 litres) and (276.6±35.1and 280.7±19.3 days), respectively in Bishoftu and Akaki Towns. Poor management was the most probable factors affected the standard expected of reproductive and production performance of cross breed cattle in the study areas. Efficient heat detection and timely insemination, better health management, genetic improvement of crossbreeding, supplementing of good quality feed resources are required for optimal reproduction and production performance.