A REVIEW ON DAIRY CATTLE IMPROVEMENT PRACTICES BASED ON CONFORMATION TRAITS IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
Abstract
Author(s): Addis Getu and Godadaw Misganaw
This paper was aimed to review and indicate the Ethiopian dairy cattle improvement activities including the practices made by developed countries. Hence the production and reproductive performances, the traditional replacement selection practices of farmers and the gaps already exists between Ethiopia and other developed countries in using conformation traits as an improvement tool are indicated in detail. There is no as such satisfactory indigenous dairy cattle production and reproductive performances. This is implication for which the previous indigenous dairy cattle improvement activities were not successful. Unlike developed countries, Ethiopia has no any sort of recording habits and systems for dairy production. That is the reason why dairy improvement is not effective as other countries. Even though, conformation traits have known to be essential for dairy herd improvement, there are no any established correlations and patterns between conformation traits and production potentials for indigenous dairy cattle. In developed countries conformation traits are objectively evaluated its genetic and phenotypic correlation with milk production and being act as improvement engines. Therefore, in Ethiopia, there is a need to measure conformation traits which is being used as a selection criterion by farmers and would be evaluated and used for indigenous dairy cattle improvement. Key words: Dairy, improvement, conformation traits, Ethiopia
