GOAT PRODUCTION, REPRODUCTION, COMPOSITION AND PROCESSING OF DAIRY GOAT MILK AT GARDA MARTA DISTRICT, GAMO ZONE, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the goat production system, reproductive and productive performance and milk composition of dairy goat in Garda Marta district, Gamo Zone, Southern Ethiopia. A purposive sampling procedure was used to select the study kebeles and a total of 138 households were interviewed using questionnaire survey, focus group discussion and field observation. For the milk composition analysis, samples were collected two times during the lactation period; and the protein, fat, lactose, solid-non-fat, total solids, PH and density were analyzed. Descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis was employed to summarize and describe categorical variables. While the continuous variables were analyzed using the general linear model procedure. Most (66.7%) of households were male headed. The major feed resources of dairy goat were natural pasture, tree branch, shrubs and crop residues. Most (85.5% and 89.2%) of the households accessed water for dairy goats from river in wet and dry season, respectively. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) across the agro-ecologies on age at first kidding with an overall mean of 12.36±0.06 months. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) among the agro-ecologies for kidding interval with an overall average of 7.45 months. 40.1% of dairy goats gave twin birth per doe. The overall mean of litter size was 1.45±0.04 kids per doe per parity. Almost all of the households were consuming goat milk. Majority (58.7%) of the households processed dairy goat milk into ergo. The overall mean value of daily milk yield, lactation milk yield and lactation length was 0.79±0.03 liters/day/doe, 56.44±2.25 liters/lactation and 71.57±2.7 days, respectively. The overall mean value of protein, fat, lactose, solid-non-fat, total solids, PH and density of milk was 4.65±0.13, 5.81±0.39, 4.68±0.12, 9.96±0.31, 15.78±0.45%, 6.69 and 1034.2 kg/m3, respectively. Daily milk yield was a significantly varied (P<0.05) across the agro-ecologies with an average of 0.75±0.03 and 0.84±0.02 liters/day/doe in midland and lowland, respectively. There was a significant difference (P<0.05) among the stage of lactation for daily milk yield with the mean of 0.79±0.03, 0.85±0.03 and 0.75±0.03 liters/day/doe at early, mid and late lactation stages, respectively. Daily milk yield was significantly different (P<0.05) among birth type with an average of 0.64±0.02 and 0.95±0.03 liters/day/doe for single and twins, respectively. The main challenges of dairy goat production were disease, drought, water shortage, feed shortage and predator. Availability of browsing trees and shrubs, high market demand, short generation interval and favorable ago-ecology are good opportunities for the development of dairy goats in the study area. In general large number of indigenous dairy goats reared in the study area. Provision of training to the dairy goat owners is important to enhance their knowledge on husbandry of dairy goats to maximize production and productivity of dairy goats.