Indigenous selection criteria in Ankole cattle and different production systems in Uganda
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Date
2005-06Author
Wurzinger, M
Ndumu, D
Baumung, R
Drucker, A
Okeyo, AM
Semambo, DK
Sölkner, J
Type
PresentationLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Ankole cattle are kept in South-Western Uganda, which is part of the cattle corridor,
an area that was traditionally communal grazing land and pastoral systems.
Currently, the pastoral system is undergoing a dramatic change due to land shortage,
market forces and political reasons. Four different regions were identified and 30
farmers each were interviewed. In the two areas with more traditional systems main
selection criteria in cows and bulls are body characteristics (coat colour, horn size
and colour). Here, herds are generally larger and cattle are the main source of
income. During the dry season, some families still move with their cattle in search of
water and pasture. In the two other areas farmers are sedentary and both livestock
and crop production contribute to the income. Due to increasing population pressure
the trend is to keep few but more productive animals. Selection focuses more on
production traits like milk yield, growth and fertility. Crossbreeding with exotic cattle
breeds is becoming more popular. Farmers mention that Ankole have advantages
over exotic breeds in terms of disease resistance, heat tolerance, lower feed
requirements and the beauty of the animals. The study reported here was carried out
to describe the production system with a focus on indigenous knowledge and the
documentation of changes. Implications of the on-going changes on future
development and improvement interventions are also discussed.
URI
http://www.eaap.org/Previous_Annual_Meetings/2005Uppsala/Papers/L4.6_Wurzinger.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11295/43704
Citation
Wurzinger, M., Ndumu, D., Baumung, R., Drucker, A., Okeyo, A. M., Semambo, D. K., & Sölkner, J. (2005, June). Indigenous selection criteria in Ankole cattle and different production systems in Uganda. In 55th Annual Meeting of the European Association for Animal Production (EAAP), Uppsala, Sweden (pp. 5-8).Publisher
University of Nairobi. Department of Animal Production