The study was conducted in Gacho Baba Woreda, Gamo Zone with the aims to assess dairy cattle breeding practices of the communities. A total of 80 households were selected purposively by setting the criteria of having dairy cattle. In the study area 70.6% of the respondents practices natural free mating. Around 26% of the respondents practice natural controlled mating. The remaining 3.4% of the sampled household use AI technology trough AI technicians. natural mating (77.5%) was the common practice of mating in the study area followed by both (natural mating and artificial insemination) (12.5%)methods. irrespective of the agro ecologies, most of the respondents depended on bulls (60%) reared by their neighbors/friends. The primary problem identified by respondents was lack of AI Technicians skill, AI Equipment’s, Management problem, and Lack of AI were reported to be the most limiting factors to cattle breeding practices with index value 0.283, 0.237, 0.259, and 0.219 respectively.
Traditional cattle breeding practices and rate of inbreeding in the mid rift valley of Oromia, Ethiopia
