Abstract:
A study was carried out in Magu and Ilemela districts in Mwanza region to characterize cattle finishing systems and identify the factors limiting cattle growth performance. A total of 120 agro pastoralists and 30 cattle finishing entrepreneurs were interviewed using questionnaires. Seven focus group discussions were also performed. In addition, monitoring study on cattle growth performance was done for 56 days on a total of 105 cattle, of which body weight gain of cattle was measured fortnightly. Forages and concentrates used by farmers were collected and subjected into chemical analysis and in vitro dry matter digestibility estimated. The identified cattle finishing systems were grazing alone (GrazAlo), grazing with concentrate supplementation (GrazSup) and feedloting. Cattle under GrazAlo showed lower (P<0.001) body weight gain (0.21kg/day) than those under GrazSup (0.51 kg/day). Natural forages exist in both districts whereas the dominant crop residues in Ilemela and Magu districts were indicated to be maize stover (97.5% and 100% of respondents, respectively) and rice straws (92.5 % and 98.8% of respondents, respectively). Supplements for cattle finishing in both districts were shown to be cotton seed hulls and cotton seed cake with crude protein of 93.91 and 363.9 g/kg DM, respectively. The identified constraints for agro pastoralists in Ilemela and Magu districts were inadequate grazing land (65.9% and 34.5% of respondents, respectively) and inadequate feed resources (31.7% and 60.5% of respondents, respectively). All interviewed cattle finishing entrepreneurs in Ilemela district reported inadequate grazing lands whereas those in Magu district reported high cost of drugs (100% of respondents) and inadequate water (100% of respondents) to be the main challenges. It is concluded that, the growth performance of cattle under grazing alone in the study areas is poor due to inadequate nutritional supply. Concentrate supplementation to these animals will improve cattle productivity.
