अमूर्त

Beef Cattle Fattening Practices and Marketing Systems in Gondar Town, Amhara, Ethiopia

Habtamu Ayalew, Genzeb Tamru and Desalegn Abebe

The objective of the study was to describe the cattle fattening practices and the existing marketing systems. For this study, four farmer associations were selected on purpose. From each PA, 20 respondents (a total of 80 HH) were randomly selected from owners who practice fattening cattle and the data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire and observation. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS version 20 software.In the study area, the food resources used for their fattening cattle were 67.5%, 17.5% and 15.0% of wheat and corn bran, bean and rice bran and the mixture of bean + peacoat + hay as feed for their fattening cattle without scientific formulation, respectively. The sources of water used by respondents were 72.5% and 27.5%, respectively, for river and strip water. The finding revealed that majority of fatteners was select cattle based on phenotypic characteristics of the cattle by body frame (58.8%), glossy coat color (31.2%), wide/deep body condition (7.5%) and thick neck (2.5%). The survey result indicated 65.0% and 35.0% of respondents used trekking and vehicle (trucking) transporting practices, respectively. Even though, weight measurements had not practiced in the area, 87.5% respondents price set factor were depending on live weight of animals. The current study showed that the main constraints of beef cattle fattening practices in Gondar town were feed cost increase (30.0%), lack of credit (12.5%) and absence of market information (16.2%).In general, the fattening practices of beef cattle in the study area were constrained by various challenges and not supported by improved fattening technology. In order to increase the profitability of feeders, the provision to farmers of adequate training and extension services on improved livestock fattening technologies, key management practices and market information should be mandatory.