Milk Production Performance Indicators of <i>Begait</i> Cattle in Western Zone of Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to estimate some milk production performance indicators of Begait cattle kept in Kafta and Setit Humera Woredas of Tigray Region, Ethiopia. Purposive sampling of study villages (Kebeles) keeping Begait cattle and random sampling of Begait cattle owning households and animals were used for data collection. Primary data were collected from 368 Begait cattle sampled from six Kebeles and 180 households. Cattle herd sizes in the study area were about 97 and 27 heads in the large and small scale farms, respectively. Pure Begait cattle account for about 90% of the cattle herd, while the rest were classified as Arado, Begait*Arado crosses and other genotypes. The body frame of Begait cattle looks like that of the temperate dairy cattle. Begait cattle were observed to have relatively large udder size, wide hind quarter, long naval flap (8.6±0.28 cm), thin and long neck (45.5±0.35), and no (if any in females) or small humps (15.4%). Age at first mating was estimated to be 3.4 (±0.5) years for bulls and 3.1 (±0.6) for heifers. The reproductive lifetime was estimated to be 4.6 (±1.3) for bulls, and 10.3 (±1.3) for cows during which they produce an average of 7 (±1) calves. The average daily milk off-take of random Begait cows and old Begait cows were 2.8 (±0.3) and 2.6 (±0.4) liters during average lactation lengths of 6.4 (±0.9) and 6.1 (±1.0) months, respectively. However, daily milk off-take was as high as 6.68 liters at the Humera Agricultural Research center, indicating the highly considerable dairy potential of Begait cows with better management. The lactation length of Begait cows kept under on farm extensive management in both small scale and large scale farms ranged from 144-225 days indicating a wide scope for selection and genetic improvement. It is, therefore, recommended that appropriate community based breeding program should be developed for Begait cattle in order to improve their overall dairy performance in their potential niche area.