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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This study was aimed to investigate the effect of heat stress and seasons on diurnal body temperature, milk yield, and physicochemical properties of dromedary camel in southeastern rangelands Ethiopia. Twenty lactating camels with 2-3 months postmortem and 3-4 parities were selected for evaluation of milk yield, physicochemical properties, and body temperature measurements. The current finding shows diurnal body temperature was significantly higher in hot weather conditions (dry season). Temperature-humidity index (THImax) showed a strong positive correlation to rectal body temperatures (r = 0.72) and daily milk yield (r = 0.6) of a camel. The mean daily milk yield observed in this study was 6.02, 4.99, 2.38, and 2.57 Liters (L) during autumn, spring, summer, and winter, respectively, and showed higher (P < 0.001) milk yield in rainy season. Mean percentage of protein (3.1%), casein (1.9%), lactose (4.9%), solid-not-fat (SNF) (8.53%), and total solids (TS) (12.7%) was greater (P < 0.001) in wet season. Milk fat and energy-Matiwos Habte ABOUT THE AUTHOR Matiwos Habte is an academic staff of Dilla University. He is a PhD candidate of Climate Smart Agriculture and Biodiversity Conservation in the Africa Center of Excellence for Climate Smart Agriculture and Biodiversity Conservation at Haramaya University. He has several publications on livestock production. Dr Mitiku Eshetu is an academic staff of the Haramaya University. He has demonstrated high expertise and interest in dairy science with a bias for camel production. Dr Abiyot Legesse is an academic staff of Dilla University. He has demonstrated high interest in climate and land use/land cover change-related impacts on food security. Dr Dereje Andualem is an academic staff of Dilla University. He has demonstrated his expertise in the impacts of microclimatic condition on livestock production for food security. Dr Melesse Maryo is a National Director of the Ethiopian biodiversity institute. He has demonstrated a high interest in biodiversity conservation and climate-smart agriculture and food security.

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The objective of this study was to analyze the combined effects of climate and land use/cover changes on livestock feed resources and livestock species composition. The land use/cover data were generated from Landsat images of 1986, 1995, 2010 and 2018. The images were classified using a maximum likelihood classifier algorithm. The result from meteorological data and the land use/cover change were compared with household perception on livestock feed availability and livestock species composition. The result showed that the dominant land use/cover in the eco-region throughout the study period was bush/shrub cover followed by woody vegetation. This study revealed transition of land use/cover from grassland, woody and forest vegetation cover to bush/shrub and cropland in the study areas. The analysis of time series meteorological data showed significantly increasing patterns of temperature, and the highly variable nature of rainfall during 1986-2018. The pattern of livestock population throughout the analysis period exhibited a significantly increasing trend. The land use/cover, temperature and rainfall significantly affected livestock feed availability and quality. Over the last 32 years, potential grazing resources had been declined with a resultant increase in the proportion of bush/shrub feed resources available for livestock. The inter-annual variation of rainfall during the analysis period was 40.45%, which implies that the rangeland is in non-equilibrium dynamics. The rangelands carrying capacity was significantly decreased from 3.76 TLU/ha/year in 1986 to 1.74 TLU/ha/year in 2018. However, the stocking rate was increased from 1.8 TLU/ha/year in 1986 into 7.15 TLU/ha/year during 1986-2018. It is recommendable to choose camel and goat more likely than cattle and sheep raising with increasing temperature and decreasing pattern of rainfall that favour bush/shrub feed resources. Hence, available feed resources and the probability of choosing livestock species vary with eco-region and land use/cover that indicates the need for site-specific feed and rangeland management scheme.

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