Pasture Management Practices On Individually Owned Grazing Land

Abstract

This study examined pasture management practices on individually owned grazing land in Kakuuto county - Kyotera district –Uganda. The general objective was to establish pasture management practices and cattle productivity in terms of milk production and reproductive efficiency on individually owned grazing land while as the specific objectives of the study were to assess the current pasture management Practices applied on individually owned grazing land, to assess the current milk production and reproductive efficiency under the current management practices and to establish the abundance of common legume pasture/fodder plant species in grazing land. The targeted and actual sample was 60 respondents for interviews as all the 60 responded while as 18 observations were scheduled for 18 quadrants and all the quadrants were visited and observed, the resultant response rate of 100%. The study findings indicated that 47 farmers representing 78.3% of the total number of respondents did not have paddocks on their farm, most of the respondents 66.7% of the total number of respondents had not cultivated trees/shrubs/pasture on their farm. Most of the respondents 53 (88.3%) of the total number of respondents agreed with the experience of pasture scarcity on their farms. The findings showed the highest milk production in wet season was 1-30 litres(85%) while in dry condition 1-30 litres was the highest with 53% of respondents. The findings also showed that number of calves got from adult cows in range of 1-10 was the highest with (63.33%) respondents yet respondents owning 1-21 cows was 61.7%. The study concluded that many adult cows cannot give a calf every year. This study concluded that the commonly observed pasture grass was Hyperrhenia rufa and Bracharia spp at average percentage cover of 10.47% and 22.1% respectively. The most abundant pasture legume plant species was Centrocema pubescens with average percentage cover of 1.07%. Hyperthelia dissoluta, Eragrostis mild braedii, Ocimum suave, Lantana camara and Sporobolus pyramidalis as common non targeted plant species.