AVAILABILITY, UTILIZATION PRACTICES AND BALANCE OF CATTLE FEED RESOURCES IN TOCHA WEREDA OF DAWURO ZONE, SOUTH WESTERN ETHIOPYIA

Abstract

The study was carried out in Tocha Wereda of Dawuro Zone, South western Ethiopia to assess the availability, utilization practices and balance of cattle feed resources. The data were obtained through interviewing 174 farmers using a structured and semi structured questionnaire in three distinctive agro-ecologies following multistage sampling procedures. The feed balance was evaluated as the difference between a requirement of cattle (feed demand) and amount of a utilizable feed (supply) per year in terms of dry matter (DM), metabolizable energy (ME), and crude protein (CP). Data were analyzed using statistical procedures for social sciences (SPSS) version 20. The major feed availability in the study area were natural pasture, crop after math, crop residues, fallow land, forest land, non-conventional feed, and fodder trees and shrubs. The adoption rate of improved forage development strategies was very poor for the midland and lowland respondents than highland study area. Regardless of agro-ecology, feed resources were mainly sourced from crop residues. Particularly wheat barley, maize, sorghum, teff contributed more than half of the annual feed supply, followed by grassland resources. The contribution of crop residues, fodder trees and shrubs to total feed supply sourced on -farm was 69%. The significant difference (P < 0.05) in the supply, demand and balance of livestock feed was observed across agro-ecologies. The lowland agro-ecology have higher quantities of feed supply and demand, but suffered more in feed insufficiency. Availability of feed in the study area in the month of the year between seasons was different (p<0.05). In wet seasons, July to September, feed availability was found to be inadequate for highland and adequate for midland and lowland agro-ecology. The overall cattle feed balance in terms of dry matter yield showed that a total of 1418.9tons of DM per annum was produced for total TLU of 1277.3. The requirement dry matter for (1277.3 cattle in TLU) was 2913.3tons. Therefore, the balance of the available quantity of dry matter feed (1418.9tons) with negative value 1494.9tons. The quantity of available dry matter of the respondents can supply cattle for 6 months. Expansion of grazing land is not a practical option to increase feed supply. Therefore, increasing food-feed crop production per unit area, conservation of surplus forages, and increasing cattle off -take during times of scarcity would help to correct the observed feed shortage. Moreover, refinement of the feed balance analysis at specific nutrient level would be compulsory for effective strategic intervention.