Matching Genotypes with Feed Resources: Performance of female Holstein-Friesian and Ayrshire crosses under varying feeding regimes and production systems in Western Kenya

Abstract

Smallholder dairy production can be a powerful tool for reducing poverty, raising nutrition levels and improving the livelihoods of rural people in Kenya. For sustainable development of this important industry, promotion of genetic resources/breed types should be done with an understanding of the farmers' objectives and the limitations and opportunities of the production environment. To identify appropriate genotypes, the current study was conducted and it assessed the performance of dairy cattle with different levels of exotic genes in different production environments in Western Kenya. Feed intake and liveweight are critical factors in animal performance. The study therefore generated groundtruthing data that can be used to develop algorithms for estimating intake of individual grazing animals with precision. In addition, a model for estimating liveweight of dairy cattle under smallholder dairy context was developed.