Assessment of productive and reproductive performance of dairy cows in the agro-ecoogical zones of Lesotho

Abstract

Dairy cows, in most part of the world, are primarily reared for milk production even though in Lesotho they can also be sufficiently used in socio-cultural activities. Moreover, reproductive performance remains an essential trait in dairy production because if a dairy cow is infertile, there would be no milk production. A cross sectional study was conducted for the purpose of assessing the productive and reproductive performance of dairy cows in four agro-ecological zones of Lesotho. The specific objectives were to evaluate farmer’s experience in dairy production, determine age at puberty and conception rate of dairy cows per year, determine the age at first calving and calving interval, determine types of concentrates utilized in feeding strategies, evaluate reproductive health and related problems in dairy cows and determine milk yield in 300 days per cow. Farmers (249) were interviewed by means of a phone call and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 20) was used for data analysis. Farmers (47.6%) had experience of 10 years in dairy production which increased significantly (p<0.05) in the Lowlands and Highlands. Again, natural mating (49.9%) had high conception rate than AI (34.6%). The current study revealed that calving interval ranges between 10 and 15 month hence most dairy cow bore a calf every year which also indicated that milk production cycle fell within 12 months. In terms of milk yield, the majority of dairy cows in the Low lands (18.6%), Foothills (31.8%) and High lands (37.5%) were producing an average of 10 litres of milk per day except in the Senqu RV (63.6%) where production decreased significantly (p>0.05) to 5 litres of milk per day. It’s also revealed that Friesian produced more milk than all breeds followed by Jersey and that was vivid in the Low lands and Foothills. However, milk production was still below optimum and that has been associated with factors such as poor feedingregimes, inadequate knowledge of milking, utilization of local bulls at the expense of using high quality semen for AI. In conclusion, based on the current study, dairy cow’s reproductive performance was very efficient and it confirms that dairy cows in Lesotho are very fertile. This is made on the basis of high conception rate. The major limiting factor on reproductive efficiency was the quantity and/or quality of feeds availability and dairy farmers who attempted to formulate ration at their own backyards lacked knowledge and skills. Hence they produced mixtures that could not meet animal requirements as such mixtures did not contain specific nutrient quantities and/or qualities.