ON-STATION AND ON-FARM COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF HAY BOX CHICK BROODER AT DILLA UNIVERSITY AND AMARO WOREDA, SNNPRS OF ETHIOPIA

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to evaluate suitability of hay box brooder in terms Body weight gain and mortality rate of Lohman chicks distributed under improved and farmer management production systems. The study was conducted in two peasant association of Amaro Woreda namely Jijola and Kereda as an On-Farm site and Dilla University as an On-station site of evaluation. Both Experimental site were found in Southern Nation Nationalities and Peoples Regional State of Ethiopia. About 8 households from each peasant association and a total of 16 households were selected to participate in the on farm trials. About 840 randomly selected and weighed day old chicks were divided into batches of 10, 30, 50, and 70 and transferred to each of 20 brooders. The hay-box brooder of 10, 30,50 and 70 chick capacity and each replicate 5 times and total of 20 hay-boxes were used. Mortality and cause of mortality, growth rate (body weight gain), and Dilla University site feed intake was used as evaluation parameters of the hay-box brooder distributed. All data collected were analyzed by using Statistical Analysis System (SAS, 2002) and statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 16.0 for windows. About 51.49% of chick mortality were occurred in 70 chick capacity hay box brooder which is significantly (P>0.05) higher than 50, 30 and 10 Chick capacity box. About 59.39% chick mortality was occurred at Kereda (On-Farm) while significantly lower (30.23%) occurred at Dilla University (On-Station). Statistically no significant (p<0.05) difference observed across the four different hay box size. About 64.38±4.72 body weight gain was attained at Dilla University site, which is significantly (P>0.05) higher than that of Jijola (34.32±1.75) and Kereda (32.39±1.53). The collected data clearly showed that there was no statistically significance (P<0.05) difference in feed intake between the different box size. Based on the result of this study the researtures recommend that Adoption and scale-up of hay box brooder, improved chickens, small scale layers housing, feeds, vaccination and training package would have a remarkable benefit to the extension and development programs in the study area

The influence of weather conditions on body temperature, milk composition and yields of the free-ranging dromedary camels in Southeastern rangelands of Ethiopia

This study was aimed to investigate the effect of heat stress and seasons on diurnal body temperature, milk yield, and physicochemical properties of dromedary camel in southeastern rangelands Ethiopia. Twenty lactating camels with 2–3 months postmortem and 3–4 parities were selected for evaluation of milk yield, physicochemical properties, and body temperature measurements. The current finding shows diurnal body temperature was significantly higher in hot weather conditions (dry season). Temperature-humidity index (THImax) showed a strong positive correlation to rectal body temperatures (r = 0.72) and daily milk yield (r = 0.6) of a camel. The mean daily milk yield observed in this study was 6.02, 4.99, 2.38, and 2.57 Liters (L) during autumn, spring, summer, and winter, respectively, and showed higher (P  0.05) across the seasons. The body temperature, milk physicochemical properties, and yield of dromedary camels were varied (p < 0.001) with local weather conditions and seasons. However, further investigation based on animal trials at on-station is needed in order to confirm the on-farm camel milk yield and physicochemical quality observed in this study