The piggery business: Strengthening the financial and management capacities of pig producers in Uganda

Irish Ai

The role of fodder markets in meeting the year‐round forage requirements of smallholder dairy farmers in Tanzania

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbei

Fodder market opportunities for smallholder dairying in Tanzania

Irish Ai

Feeding dairy cattle: a manual for smallholder dairy farmers and extension workers in East Africa

This booklet is designed to guide extension workers and possibly smallholder dairy farmers through the basics of feeding dairy animals. It includes essential background information as well as practical advice and suggestions. By better understanding how a cow digests its food, the importance of providing a balanced diet, how nutritional needs vary at different stages of the animal's life and how different types of feed can meet these needs, dairy farmers will be able to get the most benefit from their investment and keep their valuable animals healthy and productive

Simple and robust algorithms to estimate liveweight in African smallholder cattle

Measurement of liveweight of stock is one of the most important production tools available to farmers – playing a role in nutrition, fertility management, health and marketing. Yet most farmers in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to scales on which to weigh cattle. Heart girth measurements (and accompanying algorithms) have been used as a convenient and cost-effective alternative to scales, however despite a plethora of studies in the extant literature, the accuracy and sensitivity of such measures are not well described. Using three datasets from phenotypically and geographically diverse cattle populations, we developed and validated new algorithms with similar R2 to extant studies but lower errors of prediction over a full range of observed weights, than simple linear regression, that was valid for measurements in an unassociated animal population in sub-Saharan Africa. Our results further show that heart girth measurements are not sufficiently sensitive to accurately assess seasonal liveweight fluctuations in cattle and thus should not be relied on in situations where high precision is a critical consideration

Use of Body Linear Measurements to Estimate Live Weight of Crossbred Dairy Cattle in Smallholder Farms in Kenya

Animal weight is an important tool in livestock research and management. The most direct method of measuring liveweight (LW) is using a calibrated electronic or mechanical scale. However such equipment is usually costly and not readily available to poor rural livestock keepers. Farmers and livestock traders have been found to underestimate or overestimate the weights of the cattle by an average of 46 and 25% respectively of their true L W (Machila et al 2008). Linear body measurements, in particular heart girth are useful predictors of liveweight in livestock. However, the predictive ability of models developed from these measurements is influenced by body condition, age, breed and sex (Lesosky et al 2012; Ozkaya and Bozkurt 2009). The present study tested the accuracy of linear body measurements for predicting L W of crossbred dairy cattle of different genotypes in smallholder farms in Kenya and developed predictive equations appropriate to this context