The present findings contradict with results of Haile et al., who reported that the sale of milk to generate income was the main reason for keeping dairy cattle in Hawassa town.However, our finding is in agreement with the results of Makokha et al., who also reported that milk production for household consumption and cash income was the main reasons for keeping dairy cattle in Kenya.Farmers’ sources of foundation crossbred cows are presented in Table 2.The results showed that there was a significant difference in the mode of acquisition of their foundation crossbred cows across the study towns.Interviewed farmers acquired their foundation crossbred dairy cows from various sources.Majority of respondents acquired their foundation crossbred cows or heifers through purchases, followed by upgrading their local cows through improved bulls and upgrading their local cows through artificial insemination.The fact that majority of the respondents acquired their crossbred cows through purchasing shows that the farmers were using only indigenous breed of cattle for milk production before acquiring their crossbred dairy cows.However,hydroponic nft system due to lack of record keeping, it was difficult to know the exotic blood level of their purchased crossbred cows.In agreement with the present finding, Mburu also reported that majority of the farmers in coastal lowlands of Kenya acquired their upgraded or grade dairy cows through purchase.Herd size and structure of crossbred and indigenous dairy cattle owned per household are presented in Table 4.

Respondents kept both crossbred and indigenous cattle and the total number of dairy cattle kept by all respondents was 357 animals, of which total of 95 were crosses of indigenous x Holstein Friesian and the rest 262 animals were indigenous zebu breed.This indicates that the majority of the dairy cattle kept by the respondents were the indigenous cattle breed.On average, the crossbred dairy herd constituted 26.6% of the total dairy cattle kept by respondents.Respondent farmers who kept crossbred dairy genotypes reported that the main reason for preferring them was due to their higher milk production potential, fast growth rate, and higher body weight selling price compared to the local breed.The overall average herd size of crossbred cattle per household was 1.83-0.46, comprising of 22.95% milking cows, 18.03% dry cows, 12.57% female calves, 12.57% male calves, 19.13% growing heifers, 10.38% breeding bulls and 4.37% pregnant heifers.This finding in respect of herd size is comparable with earlier reports , but is lower than that of Gelila.Lactating cows comprised the highest proportion of the total herd sizes, due to their importance for increased milk production and breeding to produce future replacement heifers.The mean number of bulls varied significantly between towns.None of the respondent in Sheik and Yebu towns owned breeding bulls, and relied on either AI or bulls from neighbors.The low crossbred herd size observed in the current study could be attributed to their high price, lack of access to AI services, feed shortage, lack of land, and their susceptibility to local diseases when managed under free grazing system.Interviewed farmers did not know the exotic blood level of the crossbred dairy animals kept due to lack of records.The herd size and structure of the indigenous dairy cattle per household is also presented in Table 4.For the herds surveyed, the major dairy breed kept by the farmers was the indigenous zebu and constituted 73.4% of all herds owned by the respondents.For indigenous cattle, the average herd size per household was 5.04-0.46, comprising of 22.02 % lactating cows, 23.21% dry cows, 12.10 % male calves, 14.48% female calves, 2.18% pregnant heifers, 14.88% growing heifers, and 10.71% breeding bulls.The mean number of male calves and growing heifers varied significantly between study towns.Dry cows comprised the major proportion of the total herd of indigenous cattle, followed by lactating cows indicating their importance for production and breeding purpose as well as for sustainability of the herd.The mean number of heifers and female calves suggest that there is a major shortage of replacement heifers on the small-scale farms in the current study and seems a key concern for sustainability of dairying.

Despite their low productivity, respondents valued the indigenous genotypes for their well adaptation to the local or tropical production environment including tolerance to heat and feed and water shortages,diseases resistance, ease of management, longevity, and good qualities of milk and its products than those of the improved dairy breeds, which are susceptible to diseases, heat, and limited feed resources availability.Other reasons stated by respondents were less expensive to acquire and maintaining, high longevity and long experience of keeping them under traditional management practices.These findings are in agreement with Mekonnen et al..Despite their adaptation to local production environment, the farmers mentioned low milk production and poor reproductive performance were reported to be the bad traits of indigenous dairy breeds, and this result is consistent with reports of Kebreab et al..The ranking of respondents by the number of crossbred and indigenous genotypes holdings is summarized in Table 5.Of the surveyed households, the majority of respondents had no crossbred dairy cattle genotypes, which could be attributed to lack of supply, their high prices when available and poor adaptation to the local production environment.About 26.9% of the respondents owned between 1 – 5 cattle each, while 13.3% had between 6 -16 animals.Only one farmer out of the total surveyed respondents owned the highest number of crossbred animals, and this was attributed to the large farm size owned by him.Of all the respondents interviewed, 13.5% had no indigenous dairy cattle.Majority of the respondents had between 1 and 5 indigenous dairy cattle each, while 40.4% had between 6 and 16 animals.Despite the lack of statistical difference, average herd size tends to be larger in male than female managed farms , with university than senior secondary education , retired than daily laborer , and higher average daily milk yield/cow/day was observed in male than female-headed farmers , with university education than illiterate and retired farmers than housewives.The lack of significant variation with regard to the effect of demographic profile of the respondents on herd size and milk yield could be due to the practice of keeping relatively similar breed of dairy animals and lack of remarkable difference in dairy management practices.

The result obtained in the present study is not in agreement with that of earlier studies , who reported that the effects of demographic characteristics of respondents on herd size and milk yield showed significant differences in Jimma and northern Malawi.Constraints refer to the challenges which are faced by farmers in successful operation and management of dairy activity.Respondents were asked to list and rank ten major constraints to dairy production based on their perceived importance in successful dairy farming business.Based on the respondents’ perceived importance, feed shortage, lack of land, diseases and parasites, lack of improved genotypes, lack of access to credit, low productivity of dairy animals, lack of and/or inadequate AI/bull services, low milk prices, scarcity and high cost of labour, and shortage of water were ranked as the major constraints to dairy production in decreasing order of importance.These findings obtained in the present study are in conformity with those of previous research studies who also reported these as the major constraints to dairy farming, but with different importance.According to respondents, feed shortage both in quality and quantity, especially during the dry season was rank as the most important critical challenge affecting smallholder dairy production and ensure optimum output.This results is supported by earlier studies , who also reported feed shortage as the most important constraint to urban dairy farming.The feeding strategy in the present study area was mainly relied upon unimproved communal natural pasture grazing for feeding dairy cattle all year round.However, the availability of natural pasture was influenced by season, whereby it was most available both in quantity and quality during the main rainy season, however it declines in both availability and quality as dry season advanced, resulting in sever scarcity of feed.According to the respondents milk yield of their cows was higher during the rainy season which was attributed to the adequate availability of natural pastures.During dry season,nft channel animals fed on poor quality crop residues and non-conventional feed resources due to scarcity of green natural pastures.It was observed that crop residues were poorly utilized due to lack of proper storage facilities, transportation, and technologies for improving their quality among the farmers.This finding is in agreement with that of.Lack of land for forage production, lack of supplemental feeds, unavailability and high cost of concentrate feeds, seasonal fluctuations in feed availability and quality, population growth and the competition for land use for housing and public infrastructures, and increasingly encroaching on communal grazing areas at the outskirts of the study towns were the main causes of feed shortage reported by respondents.Based on the findings of this study, there is a need to adopt feed conservation, efficient utilization of locally available conventional and non-conventional feed resources, proper conservation and utilization of crop residues, natural pasture improvement, supplementary feeding based on milk yield and physiological status, balancing the number of animals to pasture productivity and quality, improved feeding strategies , supporting farmers via improved feed supply through value chain development, provision of training to farmers on adoption of improved technology such as urea-molasses-mineral blocks, feed formulation using locally available feed resources, and treatment of crop residues to improve its nutritive value as important interventions to cope with feed shortage.

A lack of land was ranked as the second most important constraint to dairy farming in the present study area.This finding concurs with results of earlier studies.Kavana and Msangi also reported that most dairy farmers fail to establish pastures due to land scarcity, which compromise the sustainability of urban and peri urban dairy production.The lack of land was attributed to lack of private land and shrinking of communal grazing land, which in turn was attributed to increasing urbanization and population growth, leading to encroachment of communal natural pastures by housing and other public infrastructures, resulting in feed scarcity and low productivity of dairy animals.Interviewees who practiced zero-grazing system kept their animals within their residential compounds due to lack of access to land.Lack of access to land together with rapidly diminishing communal pasture lands could hamper the sustainability of dairy production in the present studied towns and requires the attention of towns’ municipalities to maintain the existing communal grazing lands for livestock grazing, and make future efforts in designing and implementing land use plan that consider urban livestock production in general and dairying in particular.Respondents who practiced free grazing system keep their animals within their residential compound at night due to lack of land for separate housing.This has created a problem for manure disposal leading to pollution from animal waste and can also increase risk of zoonotic infectious diseases.Interviewed farmers reported that they dispose manure wherever open land is available, which could cause air and water pollution from nutrients leaching out from manure.This study suggests government and town’s municipality support through policies that integrates dairy farming into town land-use planning and assigning specific land areas for dairying to mitigate the problem of grazing land the respondents are currently experiencing.In this study, high prevalence of diseases and parasites was ranked as the third most important challenge of dairy production.This finding is in agreement with reports of earlier studies.The major diseases and parasites identified in the current study area was reported in the earlier part of this study.Diseases have negative effect on production and reproductive performance of dairy cows, and impede introduction of improved breeds of dairy cows due to their higher susceptibility to diseases and parasites, especially tick-borne diseases compared to the local breeds.Feed scarcity, poor disease prevention skill, lack of adequate veterinary services and lack of routine vaccination practices could account for the high prevalence of diseases in the present study area.Farmers stated that disease occurrence was higher when they experience feed scarcity, particularly during the dry season.According to Payne and Wilson , disease prevention has to be adjusted to the management system, the disease pattern in the herd, and by providing good hygienic conditions.Vaccination, vector control, and securing colostral immunity for young animals are ways of controlling diseases.Based on the results of this study, provision of effective health care services, regular vaccination and training of farmers on disease prevention and good health practices would be imperative to reduce economic losses due to diseases and parasites.