Feed Resources, Feeding System and Feed Marketing for Dairy Production

Copyright © 2014 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT: This study was carried out to assess the types, sources, seasonality and marketing practices of feed, and the feeding practices of dairy cattle. Irrespective of locational and seasonal variation, basal diets like commonly natural pastures (grasses, legumes, herbs, shrubs and trees foliage) and recently crop residues (straws of teff, wheat, maize and sorghum, haulms of haricot beans) were available in lowland. Straws of barely, vines of sweet potato, and by-products of banana and Enset were exclusive to mid-highland along with above mentioned. Industrial by-products apt for enhancing dairy cattle productivity were commonly purchased during prolonged dry season and drought outbreak of both agro-ecologies. Standing hay (Kallo) and collected pods of acacia trees in lowland, and piled hay and crop residue in mid-highland area were means of feed conservation. During the dry season, adult cattle of lowland and mid-highland area were, respectively, walking an average of 7.75 km and 4.5 km in search of drinking water. Calves, lactating cows and bulls were the first, second and third locally prioritized categories of dairy cattle for supplementation. It will be paramount to quantitatively estimate the annual production potential, and wisely utilize the prevailing feed resources and design the strategy to avail water for boosting the dairy cattle productivity. Irrespective of apparently high purchase prices, empirical investigation of its relative benefits an