Determination of Breeding Objectives for Smallholder Dairy Cattle in Senegal Using Breed and Trait Preferences, and Economic Analysis

Abstract

Across Africa, there is a need to identify the most suitable livestock breeds for specific livestock production systems. This identification is particularly important for livestock systems that are intensifying, and forms the starting point for genetic improvement strategies. This is pertinent in Senegal which has very low dairy productivity and subsequent net importation of dairy products. The objective of this study was to identify a breeding objective for smallholder dairy cattle keepers in Senegal by determining farmers’ dairy cattle breed and trait preferences, and analysing the dairy cattle farming economics. Baseline and longitudinal survey data from 257 and 220 smallholder dairy farming households was collected using questionnaires at two study sites (Thies and Diourbel), located in the Center-North of Senegal’s groundnut basin. Pearson’s Chi Square (X2) was used to analyse counts of categorical responses on dairy cattle breed and trait preferences and Monte Carlo test using 10 000 replications used to compute the p-value at p≤0.05. Cattle breeds were assigned to breed type based on farmer recall as local, crossbreed or exotic. Further, using the Bovine 50K SNP chip, 624 cows that had full lactation records were genotyped for the breed assignment. The calculations for breed types’ and household groups’ Net returns (NR) were analysed using a One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Tukeys post hoc approach. There was a significant difference (p=0.00) in preference for cattle breed types, trait advantages and disadvantages for local, cross and exotic breeds among smallholder dairy cattle farming households. For all households, crossbreed cattle with the highest standardized residual (10.87), were preferred more than either local or exotic cattle. The main advantage of both the crossbreed and exotic dairy cattle was high milk yield with 9.53 and 6.17 standard residuals respectively. In contrast, the main advantage for the local breed of cattle was good adaptation to the local conditions with standard residuals of 14.06. The main disadvantage for the local breed of cattle was low milk yield with a standardized residual of 20.82. In contrast the main disadvantages of crossbreed and exotic dairy cattle was high feed intake and poor adaption to local conditions with standardized residuals of 9.63 and 5.91 respectively. Although milk yield was the most important preferred cattle trait on the farm (rank=1), all named dairy cattle traits except sale value of calves and calf mortality were ranked first by some farmers. In this study there were significant differences (p≤0.05), in milk yield, feed consumption and breeding (as reproductive cost) between exotic breeds and either crossbreeds or local breeds. Economic analysis of 113 dairy cattle keeping households showed that the mean NR per cow per annum (pcpa) was 21.7 USD. Only 52.2 % of the dairy cattle enterprises had a positive NR. The households grouped in 5 groups, (group 1 having least mean NRpcpa and group 5 having the greatest) showed that group 5's incomes from milk and animal sales were significantly greater at (p≤0.05) than the other 4 groups. Additionally, for groups 1 and 5, expenditures on purchasing animals, feed, and labour was significantly greater compared to the other groups at p≤0.05. Further, farmers in group 5 mainly raised the indigenous zebu by Bos taurus cross (IZ x BT) cattle breed type. Based on breed types, High Bos taurus (HBT) had significantly higher income from milk sale and expenses on purchase of feed, animals, water, animal health care and animal reproduction compared to the other 3 breed types. IZ x BT had significantly greater incomes from animal sale, milk consumed and cost of hired labour compared to the other 3 breed types at p<0.05. Although, the mean NRs of households grouped by the main breed-type were not significantly different from each other, the mean total income and costs were significantly higher for improved dairy breeds (HBT or IZ x BT) compared to IZ or IZ x GZ (Guzerat) crosses at p≤0.05. There is multiplicity of trait preferences of dairy cattle keepers in Senegal. As a result, IZ x BT crossbreeds are preferred more. There is high variance in profits across the dairy cattle keeping households and almost 50%) made losses. This study recommends a breeding objective defined as ‘Improvement of milk and meat yield without loss of adaptable traits