Synergies of feed, management trainings, and genetics on milk production of dairy cows in the tropics: The case of Ethiopian smallholder farmers

Abstract

Efforts made so far to increase milk production of indigenous cattle by upgrading with exotic genotypes through crossbreeding under smallholder farmer conditions in Ethiopia have resulted in limited improvement. This study was conducted to determine if combining improved feed and management-related trainings with Holstein genetics will synergistically increase the milk production of dairy cows, and to examine the degree to which the increase or improvement is related to the level of exotic genetics involved. A total of 96 smallholder dairy farmers were purposively selected and allocated to one of three treatments reflecting differing degrees of capacity building support: (1) no training and no material support (Control); (2) training provided by another project (PAID) but without material support; (3) enhanced training plus material support (Feed-Mgt). Sixteen extension development agents and eight livestock experts were selected to provide training and weekly on-farm data collection, monitoring, technical support, and messaging reinforcement visits. Enhanced training addressed a broad range of topics related to feed and feeding, improved forage production, milk production and handling, construction and use of improved dairy housing, disease control, and dairy farm record keeping. Material support was in the form of formulated dairy concentrate feed and improved forage planting materials (seeds/seedlings). Data collection included variables describing animal performance, management practice adoption, and milk and butter quality. Tail hair samples for genetic profiling of breed makeup were also collected from all cows in the study. Results showed that there was a very significant effect of treatment (P < 0.001) on milk production, as well as treatment by week interaction (P = 0.034), with the effect of treatment markedly increasing over time (P = 0.032). That is, cows in Feed-Mgt group had up to 26.6% greater milk production compared to those in the Control group. Region and region by treatment interaction have no effects. Cows used in the experiment had varying proportions of Holstein-Friesian genome that ranged between 0 and 100%, suggesting prevalence of indiscriminate crossbreeding. Cows with a high proportion of Holstein genetics in treatment 3 produced more milk as compared to those in control group. Besides, supplemental feed improved body condition, reduced number of services per conception and resulted in higher lactation length of cows on treatment 3 compared with those on treatments 1 and 2 (P < 0.001). Overall, our findings suggest that an integrated approach of improved feed, feeding practices, and management training for smallholder dairy that goes beyond the improvement of genetics will increase milk production, improve milk quality and body condition, and resulted in higher length of lactation.

Implications of a Climate-Smart Approach to Food and Income Security for Urban Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review

“…Concerning livestock management, improved feed and vaccination programmes enhance animal productivity and reduce animal diseases. Improved live-stock management practices certify and guarantee reliable production, which is likely to strengthen urban farmers' food and income security through, for example, higher milk yields and quality dairy [92].…”

Exploration of Extension Research to Promote Genetic Improvement in Cattle Production: Systematic Review

“…The smallholders are usually focused on supporting themselves through family labor and consuming at least part of the production internally [23]. Among the articles that consider small-or medium-scale producers as the object of study, they are focused on beef [24,25], dairy [18,26,27], dual-purpose [27][28][29] and general cattle [30][31][32][33][34][35] production systems. In contrast, large-scale production was considered in six articles (28.6%) and examined only beef [36] and dairy [37][38][39][40][41] systems.…”

“…For those studies that considered cattle and other livestock [31,36], only the information and results on cattle were considered for this review. As shown in Figure 2a, 38.1% (n = 8) of the articles are related to understanding the use of genetic tools by dairy farmers [18,26,[37][38][39][40][41][42]. Only 14.3% (n = 3) of the articles examine beef production [24,25,36], increasing to 61.9% when production with breeds for dual purpose (n = 3) were considered or when the authors did not make a distinction and referred just to cattle more generally (n = 7).…”

“…These articles seek to understand the decisionmaking process by farmers or the factors that influence the adoption of tools/practices and enable genetic improvement. Articles whose main objective of the study was to analyze the adoption of practices or tools, such as artificial insemination (AI) [18,26,32,35] or sexed semen [37] when applied in production systems, which would lead to genetic improvement were classified in the Indirect Genetic Improvement subgroup. Three of the twenty-one articles were classified as Genetic Programs, which analyze the current situation [29,42] and provide insight [27] into the adequacy of specific breeding programs.…”

Crossbreed Dairy Cow Production, Feeding and Management practice at Gidole Town, south Ethiopia

“…However, crossbred and exotic cattle breeds account for only 1.62% and 0.18% of Ethiopia's total cow population, respectively (Getahun, 2022). Even crossbred cow milk output is low under farmer management, which is attributed to inadequate feeding and management circumstances (Hatew et al, 2023). Efforts to increase indigenous bovine milk output through crossbreeding with exotic genotypes under smallholder farmer settings in Ethiopia have yielded minimal results.…”