Impact of climatic variability on growth performance of Fogera cattle in Northwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the impact of climatic variability on the growth performance of the Fogera cattle at Metekel cattle breeding and multiplication ranch. About 15-years of meteorological data were collected from National Meteorological Agency. Then, the heat stress (HS) condition of the ranch location was calculated by the temperaturehumidity index (THI). Moreover, all animals born and calves that were weaned from 2005 to 2019 were included in this study. Seasons and years of birth were fitted as predictors, while growth parameters were fitted as response variables. Data were analyzed by least-squares means analysis of variance using R software version 3.5.2 program. Moreover, a multiple linear regression model was also used. The trends in birth weight (BW) and weaning weight (WW) of calves were significantly decreasing along the study period. The result also indicated that the relative humidity and ambient temperature regression coefficient was negative for BW and WW. The Pearson correlation coefficient also indicated there was a negative relationship between growth parameters and climatic variables. When THI increases from 67 to 72, the BW and WW of the calves were decreased by 3.5 and 25 kg, respectively. However, the optimum THI for higher BW and WW was less than or equal to 67. The lower BW and WW of calves observed in this study is due to the cumulative effect of the climate conditions of the study area and herd management practices. Therefore, in any improvement to be made in the ranch, environmental factors should be considered along with necessary amelioration activities.