Cattle Fattening Practices Around Sinnar City, Sudan

For the last two or three decades, there has been an increasing cattle fattening practices around large cities in the Sudan. A survey was carried, by using well designed questionnaire, to study cattle fattening units around Sinnar city (Sudan). The objective of this study is a survey of these units and study activities practice in this unit. The study was conducted from April to June 2008. During this period the temperture ranged between 38-43 C. Twenty - five fattening units were studied. The number of cattle in each unit ranged between 15 and 150 heads. The total numbers of animals in these units was 1773. 68% of these cattle were of the Western Baggara type, 24% were of Fulani type, and the rest (8%) were Kenana breed. When brought to the fattening unit, the weight of the steers ranged between 200 and 300 kg and finished at 300-420kg in two to four months. Feeds used in fattening were Sorghum grain, groundnut seed cake, wheat bran, sorghum stover and molasses. Most of animals were kept in the open without any housing system. Water was provided from the main canal of the Gezira shewee and (Haffeer). Cattle fattening around Sinnar city is progressing and seem profitable