Tazeb GESSESS, Godadaw MISGANAW, Yohannes DAGNEW

Evaluation of survival rate of fogera calves and their crossbred at Chagni Cattle breed improvement and andasa livestock research centres

The study was conducted in Chagni Cattle Bred Improvement and Andassa Livestock Research Center of Western, Amhara region to evaluate the survival rate of pure Fogera and their Holstein–Friesian crossbred calves. A retrospective type of study design was used for conducting the study. The data used in the study was taken from the records of Chagni ranch and Andassa Livestock Research Center between 2011 and 2017. The survival rates were estimated by using cox regression and Kaplan–Meier model of Stata software. The mortality rate was 3% which was nearly the optimum level that many scholars agreed for successful rearing practices. The result showed that breed, birth weight and season effects are significant risk factors of calves’ survival. Our findings suggest that better management practices targeting at the first two months of age to and following weaning should be implemented to improve the survival rates of calves.

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