Effects of Strategic Dietary Supplementation on Local Fogera and Crossbred Dairy Cows in Northwestern Ethiopia

Austrian project partner:

University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, Division of Livestock Sciences

Local project partner:

Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI), Bahir Dar, Äthiopien
Contact person: Tekeba Eshetie Nega (MSc)

Project manager:

Ao.Univ. Prof. Dr. Werner J. Zollitsch

This project will be conducted to address the huge feed deficiency in Ethiopia, where the livestock resources are highly constrained by a critical feed shortage especially during the dry period. As a result, the productivity of the animals, particularly the dairy cows, are below the expected level. This constitutes a serious obstacle to an increase in the per capita consumption of milk which is already 49% below the African average, although the Ethiopian livestock population stands first on the continent.

In response to the increasing demand for livestock products in the country, the government of Ethiopia started programmes for the crossbreeding of indigenous cows with more productive breeds 5 decades ago in order to improve the milk supply of the country. Nevertheless, the success rate of these programmes have been rather poor due to the problems mentioned above. In the northwestern part of Ethiopia crossbreeding has been practiced mostly of local Fogera cows with Holstein Friesian semen. In terms of milk production, the Fogera breed is superior over other local breeds. Animals with a high genetic potential for milk production (e.g. crosses with exotic breeds, superior local breeds) are particularly vulnerable to an undersupply with feed, eventually indicating a genotype x nutrition interaction. Therefore the utilization of feed materials with a high nutritional value as a supplement to forage-based diets is of great importance in production systems in which breeds with a high genetic merit are used.
Experience from several developing countries indicates that urea molasses multi-nutrient blocks (UMMB) have a great potential as a dietary supplement in situations of low feed supply. Therefore, the main objective of this project is to evaluate the response of Fogera and Fogera x Holstein F1-crosses to UMMB supplementation in terms of milk production, body condition and fertility.
The research work will be conducted both on station (Andassa Livestock Research Center; ALRC) and on farm (dairy farms in Fogera and Bahir Dar Zuria districts), using Fogera and Fogera x Holstein crossbred dairy cows in a 2 x 2 factorial design: 2 dietary treatments (the usual feeding regime as a control vs. supplementation with UMMB) which will be imposed on 8 cows of each genotype (Fogera vs. F1 Fogera x Holstein Friesian). The feeding trial will be implemented during the most critical period, the dry season. Response criteria will be milk yield, milk composition, body weight, feed intake, reproductive traits, cost: benefit ratio and body condition of both breeds.
The information generated for both dairy breeds and feeding regimes will be made available to the immediate stakeholders. Results concerning a potential genotype x nutrition interaction will allow to suggest the use of certain breeds for certain feed supply scenarios. This knowledge will be used for further development and scaling up of the technology and will have a long term impact on the livelihood of the smallholder farmers by improving food security and reducing poverty.