The study was conducted on 154 Holstein-Friesian (HF) cows maintained under farmer's managemental system in Hossana city (Ethiopia). A total of 80 HF owners were randomly selected and interviewed with structured questionnaire to assess the productive and reproductive performance of Holstein-Friesian cows. The results of the study showed that the mean milk yield/day/cow was 8.38±0.47 L, lactation length was 252.25±5.31 days, peak yield was 11.39±0.58 L and lactation milk yield was 2149.19±143.80 L, number of services per conception was 1.8±0.09, age at first calving was 36.48±0.55 month, calving to first service interval was 212.70±18.12 days and calving interval was 462.87±19.48 days for HF cows. The constraints of dairy production in the study areas including feed shortage (1st), high feed cost (2nd), disease (3rd), scarce information about feeding (4th), high medicament cost (5th), scarcity of timely veterinary services (6th), lack of capital (7th), low price of milk (8th), heat detection (9th) and inefficient AI services (10th) were found to be the top challenges for dairy practice in the area. Therefore, strategies designed to solve the existing problem should be important by involving all stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of improvement strategies.
The study was carried out in Hadiya zone to asses honey production systems, challenges and opportunities in the study area. A total of 196 farmers were selected randomly and interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires. The result shows most (90.7%) of the beekeepers in the study area have owned only traditional beehives. The average honey yield from traditional, transitional and frame hive was 3.04 ±0.92, 4.9±1.12 and 8.2±2.62 kg/year/hive respectively. There was significance difference (P<0.05) in honey yield per hive/year from traditional hives while there was no significant difference observed (P>0.05) transitional and moveable frame hive between Woredas. Pesticides and herbicides application, shortage of bee forage, presence of pests and predators and shortage of water were found to be the most important constraints of beekeeping in the study area. Despite all the constraints, there is a great potential to increase the production and quality of honey in the district. Strong extension and technical intervention, proper pesticides application, establishing beekeepers cooperative and enhancing bee forage plantation through introducing multi-purpose trees should be encouraged to increase honey production and income of beekeepers in the study area.
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