Retrospective and current status of reproduction and Health Problems at Algae Dairy Farm, Central Ethiopia

Abstract

Study was conducted between November 2015 and March 2016 at Alagae dairy farm. The objective of study was to evaluate ten years record and the current status of dairy farm. A total of 370 cow’s record and 105 monitored dairy cows’ were used for the study. The overall mean months of 27.68±6.48 age at first service, 37.8±6.88 age at first calving, 16.36±5.2 calving interval, 6.93±4.79 days open (DO) and 10.32±2.84 lactation length (LL) observed. Increasingly, 1.38±0.54 number of services per conception (NSC) and average daily milk yield of 8.22±2.2 liters/day/cow were observed in the dairy farm. Average daily milk yield had a significant difference (p<0.05) between Holstein and their crosses. Reproductive performance did not show difference between retrospective and longitudinal studies using Mann Whitney U – test. Similar health problems like abortion, dystocia, metritis, repeat breeder, retained fetal membrane, mastitis and pre-weaning calf mortality observed in both retrospective and longitudinal studies cows. Physical damage and infectious diseases were also common in the farm. In conclusion, this study revealed that the reproductive performance of the dairy farm was below the acceptable standard. Therefore, appropriate measures should be implemented at Alagae dairy farm in order to leverage the existing poor reproductive performance of the farm.