Abstract:
Livestock contributes-tremendously to the livelihood of the poor small holder peasant farmers in Soroti district. The livestock production system in Teso are characteristic of breeds with poor productive and reproductive performance-the. zebu, high vector and disease incidence, poor grazing and feeding systems, or housing and hostile environmental temperatures. As a result, poverty is still pronounced and it is a challenge among these livestock keeping rural communities. The government has put alot of interventions to eradicate poverty through the introduction of improved technologies like. the Friesian crosses with. high milk yield potential aimed at increasing the household. income. This study there assesses the performance of the Friesian crosses supplied to the farmers in the selected sub counties in Soroti district. The performance traits under study were; daily milk yield? the calving interval and the number of services per conception, the sample frame was the beneficiary groups and the sample size of 97 respondents was determined by Thrusfield (1995) equation at a 95% confidence level. The primary data was obtained by use of structured questionnaires, focus. group discussions, personal observation and NAADS records at the sub county and farmer groups provided the secondary data. Statistical tool (SPSS) Was used to analyse the data. The results were-presented in graphs, charts and tables of frequencies and percentages arid descriptive, statistics was used to interpret the data. The results showed-that the mean daily lactation yield of was 10 litres, the average number of SPC was observed at 3.0 and the population mean calving interval of 15 months. The' results on the key performance traits showed that; the milk yield of Friesian crosses under Local environmental and management conditions is low, with a high calving interval and a low conception rate. Generally, the performance is of the Friesian crosses is low and thus, Proper management of the animals through various phases of animals' life from birth to maturity ensures its' outstanding performance early age of service and' maturity better conceivability allowed calving interval and-high milk production
