Status of Production, Reproduction and Management Practices of Dairy Cow in Ethiopia: A Review

Abstract

In Ethiopia, farmers are practicing animal husbandry under different production systems. However, the production and reproduction performance of dairy cows are very low due to the reasons such, the low genetic capacity of the indigenous cow for milk production, substandard feeding and poor health care. By considering this, the paper is aims to review the status of production, reproduction and management practices of indigenous and crossbred dairy cow. A number of research works have been done since two last decades to evaluate and improve the production and reproduction performance of indigenous and crossbred dairy cow in the country. On this basis, the average milk yield was not being exceeded 2liters per day for indigenous dairy cow. On the other hand, the average age at first service was ranged between 18.7 and 24 months for crossbred dairy cow. Further, the average age at first calving was being extended to 48.9 and 37.95 months for indigenous and crossbreed dairy cow, respectively. Regarding management practices, more farmers are using separate house for their dairy cow and they haven’t experience of record keeping in different parts of the country. Moreover, stall feeding was the primary feeding method which has been reported by many authors. Therefore, it should be emphasized to enhance improved management practices by the dairy farmers.