Productive and reproductive Performance of indigenous Beef Cattle in Ethiopia

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2020 im Fachbereich Gesundheit - Ernährungswissenschaft, , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The aim of this review is to summarize the productive and reproductive performance of different indigenous cattle breeds under farmer's management practices. Ethiopia is the home of large numbers of livestock due to having varied and extensive agro-ecological zones. From the total annual milk produced cattle milk, is the most prominent compared to other livestock species in Ethiopia. And also from the total annual meat produced cattle meat is the most prominent compared to other livestock species in Ethiopia. Numerous finding showed that calving interval, age at first calving, age at first service, number of service per conception and days open are one of the major measures of reproductive performance parameters for beef cattle production. Weight at different ages (including birth weight, weaning weight, 3 month weight, 6 month weight and yearling weight), meat yield, growth rate and carcass yield are one of the major measures of productive performance parameters for beef cattle production. Different report indicated that productive and reproductive performances of our indigenous cattle are very poor due to varied factors; the causes for low performances of beef cattle were genetic and environmental factors like feeding, housing and health care. In Ethiopia most of (98.20%) cattle breeds are local breeds the remaining (1.8%) are hybrid and exotic breeds. Then, the genetic performances of these breeds are poor, even though they have good adaptation in harsh environmental conditions. So, training and awareness creation should be given particularly to the farmers on major management practices like feeding, housing and health care and genetic improvement strategies should planned and practiced.