Availability, nutritional balance, and needs for dairy cattle feed resources in Derashe Special District, Southern Ethiopia

The goal of this study, which was conducted in the Derashe District of Southern Ethiopia, was to balance the district's needs for dairy cattle with the availability of feed resources. Data were gathered by field observations, key informant interviews, and a standardized questionnaire. With 149 responses, the district was divided into three agro-ecologies. Using a technique called probability proportional to size-sampling, the number of responders was calculated. Lowland,mid-altitude, and highland regions all had average land sizes of 1.67, 0.27, and 1.38 ha, respectively. The research district's entire livestock population was calculated to be 134,948.84 TLU. Cattle made up 83.23% of this, followed by goats 6.19%, donkeys 5.09%, sheep 3.51%, chickens 1.19%, mules 0.53%, horses 0.18 percent, and camels 0.002% of the district's total TLU of the animal population. There were 9.5 heads of local and crossbred cows in each household'saverage herd. Dairy cattle in the study locations primarily ate natural pasture, crop residues, crop aftershock grazing, standing hay, maize that had been thinned, and unconventional feeds (Cheka atella and Areke atella). Grazing land produced 97.75 tons of dry matter per year, crop leftovers 827.21 tons, conventional feeds 264.78 tons, fodder trees and shrubs 1.29 tons, crop aftermath grazing 110 tons, concentrates 0.5 tons, and forest land 30.54 tons. A total TLU value of 1693.5 was obtained by analyzing the overall feed balance in terms of DM yield annually. The present TLU units with a negative balance of 2513.16 tons demand about 3861.85 tons of DM annually. There was a deficit of 140 tons in the total CP produced and needed for the TLU, which came to 477.18 and 617.72 CP tons, respectively. Overall metabolizable energy (ME) produced and needed for the TLU were 25,739.3 and 73683.72 tons MJ, respectively, with a negative balance of 47,944.42 tons MJ of ME. Free grazing, stall feeding, and tethering were the three main feeding methods used in the research locations. Lack of feed, a lack of grazing pasture, subpar extension services, and a lack ofwater were the main obstacles and issues for the development of dairy cattle. Possibilities for increasing dairy feed output include favorable meteorological conditions, cereal crop productivity, and road access. The growth of forage, the collecting and storage of crop leftovers under sheds, the conservation of forage, particularly hay and silage, and the facilitation of feed selling mechanisms in local market areas could all help ease feed scarcity issues.