Comparative assessment of productive and reproductive performances of Mpwapwa breed cattle and its crosses
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Date
2022
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sokoine University of Agricurture
Abstract
Mpwapwa breed, an Indo-African composite dual-purpose cattle, is suitable for
production in medium to low input production systems, established in Tanzania in 1960s
with the breeding goal of 2,300 kg milk yield per 305-day lactation length and for steers
to reach a carcass weight of 230 kg in less than four years. This breed is currently faced
with slow country-wide distribution which may be associated with many factors including
scarcity
comprehensive
baseline
information
on
productive
and
reproductive
performances of animals, diseases, management practices and government policy.
Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the productive and reproductive
performances of Mpwapwa cattle breed and its crosses reared at the nuclear breeding
center, Tanzania Livestock Research Institute (TALIRI), Mpwapwa and under low in-put
smallholder farmers around Mpwapwa district. A retrospective study of five consecutive
years (2015 - 2019) involving 295 cows reared at TALIRI and a cross sectional study
involved 986 cows kept by 100 householders in seven administrative wards of Mpwapwa
district were used in this study. In retrospective study, individual animal records including
date of birth, calving dates, insemination records, pregnancy rates (PR), lactation length
(LL), average milk yield per day (AMYD), and total lactation milk yield (TLMY) were
captured.
For
smallholders,
the
questionnaire
captured
socio-demographic
characteristics of farmers, animals’ lactation length, average milk yield per day, number
of services per conception (NSC), age at first heat, age at first calving, calving interval
and major animal reproductive problems. Results from the animals kept at TALIRI
revealed an overall mean of AFC, CI, PR, LL, AMYD and TLMY of 38.5±5.9 months,
19.92±5.64
months,
29.1%±14.4%,
237.72±71.20
days,
2.65±1.12
liters
and
667.18±397.11 liters, respectively. The results for AFC, CI, LL and TLMY showed
significance difference (p < 0.05) between Mpwapwa breed cattle and its crosses.
However, PR results did not show significance difference (p > 0.05) between Mpwapwa
breed and its crosses. For smallholders, majority of respondent (>94%) were married
males, having primary education (66%), had over 15 years of experience of keeping
livestock (76%) and keeping more than 20 Mpwapwa cattle breed (76%) for different
motives
such
as economic
enterprise,
supplementary
enterprise,
home milk
consumption and hobby. Recorded average productive and reproductive performance of
animals in low-input production system were; 332 ± 16.7 days of lactation length,
3.08±1.11 liters of average milk yield per day, 17.5±6.6 months of calving interval,
32.3±8.21 months of age at puberty, 44.04±6.49 months of age at first calving,1.23±0.14 of average number of services per conception. Major animal problems
reported were calf mortality of (17.0%), retained fetal membrane (24.0%), anestrous
(20.0%), abortion (17.0%), endometritis (12.0%), repeat breeding syndrome (9.0%),
dystocia (8.0%), pyometra (5.0%), uterine (3.0%) and vaginal prolapse (2.0%). It is
concluded that reproductive and productive performance of Mpwapwa breed cattle and
its crosses reared at the nuclear breeding center as well as under smallholders were
lower as compared to the target goal set in 1960s when the breed was established.
Therefore, there is a prudent need for improvement of management practices both at
TALIRI as well as at smallholders so as to optimize the reproductive and productive
performances of the Mpwapwa cattle; an Indo-Euro-African synthesis.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Reproductive perfomances, Mpwapwa district, Cattle breeding, Cattle