On-farm Phenotypic Characterization Of Arado Cattle Breed In North West Zone Of Tigray Ethiopia

The study was conducted in North West zone of Tigray (Asgede-Tsimbla, Medebay-Zana andrnTahatay-Koraro districts) which is the main tract of Arado cattle breed in Northern Ethiopia fromrnOctober 2008 to March 2009. To study the probable distribution pattern, husbandry practice, torncharacterize morphologically and to characterize in terms of productive and reproductivernperformance of the Arado cattle breed. Smallholders and Arado cattle breeds kept by them werernrepresented the study population. This research was basically a retrospective and cross-sectionalrnsurvey focused on the selected area. A total of 279 households were taken for the study usingrnsimple random sampling procedures and all Arado cattle owned by the 279 households werernincluded in the morphometric study. Formal surveys were carried out with the help of standard;rnquestionnaire, group discussions field observation, morphometric measurements and secondaryrndata collection were employed to obtain data. Statistical procedures for social sciences (SPSS)rnsoftware were applied to analyze the data. In the studied woredas, farmers follow extensivernmixed farming system (crop and livestock production). The colours observed were: red, followedrnby red and white and black and white. The female Arado cattle linear body measurements; heightrnat withers. body length. chest girth, hom length, peh'ic width and neck length were 107, 103,138.rn19.6. 31.6 and 38.4 cm respectively. Dewlap width. canon bone circumference. tail length, andrnear length were 20.4,13.4.71.2, and 18.7cm respecti'e1y. The naval flap and teats average meanrnyalues were 2.5cm and 2.9cm. respectively. The estimated overall mean values for chest girth.rnbody length. height at ither and calmon bone length of the male cattle breed were 144.6. 108.4.rn115.6. and 20,S cm respectively. Pelvic width. ear length. face length. hom length tail length. andrndev,lap "idth found to be 32.4. 20.1. 40.5. 22.2. 72.--+ and 21. 7 cm respecti'ely. Almost all thern'ariables had not significant (p > 0.05) difference e:cept chest girth and hom length. Chest gil1hrnand horn length were significantly (p < 0.05) different among the woredas. The o'erall averagernmilk yield from Arado cows v,as 1.7±0.03 liters/head/day. The estimated average lactation milkrnyield per cow was 3 n liters O'er an a'erage lactation period 7.3 months. The oyerall mean calfrncrop number for the Arado cows was 4.6±0.06 heads and had not significant 'a riation among thernoredas. The average repol1ed lactation length of Arado cow v,as 7.3±0.05 months withrnsign ificance difference (P < 0.05) among the woredas. The lactation length of animals in thernstudy area depends mostly on the feed 3'ailability. The estimated oyerall mean (±SE) age atrnrnpuberty was reported to be 41.2 and 39.8 moths respectively in female and male cattle. The meanrnwere significant (P ~ 0.05) variations among the woredas in age at puberty (AP) in male andrnfemale. Overall mean age at first calving was 56.9±0.37months and calving interval (el) wasrn21.6±0.25 months. There were also significant (P ~ 0.05) variations among the woredas age atrnfirst calving and calving intervals. The study revealed further, molecular characterization ofrnArado cattle to determine their genetic constitution.

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism