LIVESTOCK FEED DRY MATTER AVAILABILITY AND UTILIZATION IN BURIE ZURIA DISTRICT, NORTH WESTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Availability of feed resources, their utilization and balance between supply and demand in Burie Zuria district, north western Ethiopia, were assessedusing focus group discussion, individual interview, key informant interview and secondary data. Data was collected from February to April 2017 on 90, 30 and 30 households (HH)Hs selected from mid, high and low altitudes,respectively, using multi-stage sampling techniques. Data was analysed using FEAST version 2.21 and SPSS version 20.0. Mean land holding, livestock holding and family size were 1.8 ha, 9.03Tropical livestock unit (TLU) and 6.82 persons/HH, respectively. Crop residues, stubble grazing and natural pasture were major feed resources. Maize stover, finger millet and teff straws were the main crop residues produced in all agroecosystems (p<0.05). Inappropriate collection, conservation and feed processing practices reduced efficiency of utilization. Utilizable dry matter (DM) supply was 12.87±0.41 t/HH/yr; and 7.2±0.69, 14.6±0.47 and 15.38±0.66 were from high, mid and low altitudes, respectively; crop residues contributed major part (9.76±0.76 t)(p<0.05). Annual livestock maintenance DM requirement was 20.37±4.14 t/HH/yr with a deficit of 7.5±3.73 t, with DM requirement of 18.25±4.49, 26.78±4.14 and 16.09±3.83t/HH/yr (p<0.05) for high, mid and low altitudes, respectively. Available DM satisfies 63.18 % of DM requirements, where 39.45, 54.51 and 95.58 % (p<0.05) were for high, mid and low altitudes, respectively (p<0.05), indicating more feed shortage at high altitude. In conclusion, the main feed resource is crop residue with low DM contribution. Thus apropriate crop residues management should be used.