CROSSBREEDING CHALLENGES AND ITS EFFECT ON DAIRY CATTLE PERFORMANCES IN AMHARA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

At the beginning, purposive sampling techniques were conducted to select dairy potential zones with the aim of identifying dairy cattle genetic improvement trends in Amhara region which was initiated by the university of Gondar, Ethiopia. Following that north Gondar, south Gondar and west Gojam zones were selected for the study in 2016. A systematic simple random sampling method was considered to select market oriented dairy owners. Primary and secondary data was generated from owners and experts using semi structured questioner, respectively. Therefore the result indicated that the local animals have better in test and odder of their product. However, the productivity is the current challenge to afford the demand driven by the society. According to the data obtained from the interview, cross breeding is an alternative option to respond for the demand grown even if the breeding strategy was at random. According to the respondents’ saying, the bench mark for the blood level of the improved genetic resource under our production system is 75:25 local to exotics than 50:50 (under dominant hetrosis) in different aspects like productivity even external body condition and appearances. Mean age at first female sexual maturity was 3.9+1.5, 2.6+0.23, 2.6+0.23, 3.14+1.5, 2.4+0.52 years with average mean age of 3.01±0.94 years and as well as first male sexual maturity was 4.2±0.28, 3.12±0.05, 2.65±0.25 and 2.10±0.11 with average mean age of 3.02±017 years in local, F1, F1x Local and F1x Exotics cattle, respectively. Whereas the blood level of exotic one is increased, the environmental interaction effect is over than the traits governed by the genotype. Disease, feed, drug, liquid nitrogen and market are the great challenge of dairy production with the weighted index value of 0.25, 0.12, 0.31, 0.20 and 0.12, respectively. Therefore, the result from this survey was indicative and brought supportive information