Designing Breeding Programs For Improving Milk Yield Performance Of Indigenous Genous Dairy Cattle In Sudan

The overall aim of the present study was to design appropriate breeding programs for the sustainable improvement of Butana cattle in Sudan. Four studies were conducted, beginning with a comprehensive review of literature on indigenous dairy cattle breeding strategies in sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on the factors that contribute to their success or failure. It showed that crossbreeding of indigenous breeds with exotic breeds has been widely used for genetic improvement, but it largely failed under low-input traditional production conditions due to harsh environments and poor management. Mostly, within-breed selection practices have been carried out in centralized breeding schemes controlled by state institutions, with a minimum participation of farmers. A second study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the Butana herd in a research station in order to determine the progress made over five decades of selection, from 1961 to 2010. The results showed a significant increase in milk yield from 1209 kg/lactation between 1961 and 1970 to 1689 kg between 2001 and 2010. The age at first calving significantly decreased from 55.6 months to 45.9 months between 2001 and 2010. With the currently reduced age at first calving as well as the large variation in lactation milk yield, intensive selection for rapid genetic progress in milk yield might be feasible. In the third study, an investigation of the production conditions of Butana cattle was conducted using a survey approach with 202 farmers across 17 villages. The analysis showed that the majority (65.3%) of farmers owned between 1 and 11 cattle heads per farm, and all of them relied on milk production for generating cash income or home consumption. Over 98% of farmers were willing to exchange information, and about 67% were willing to exchange breeding bulls and establish farmers’ associations as relevant aspects for future breed improvement, which could be useful for the establishment of a community-based breeding program. In the final study, the survey findings were used to simulate three breeding programs for future genetic improvement of Butana cattle, including the use of farm bulls, the use of village bulls, and the rotational use of village bulls within village groups using stochastic simulation. The results showed that the village bull breeding program with selection based on EBV of young bulls is the most promising breeding design for achieving the breeding goal, which could be recommended for future improvement of Butana cattle.