JIMMA UNIVERSIT

College of Agriculture and Veterinary

Medicine
Department of Animal Science
Assignment of Draught Animals Production
and Management

Second Semesters, second years

Frist Individual Assignments

Name Bonsa Kusha RU 3222\10

1. Briefly discuss the contribution of animal power in cropping system
The use of animal power in rain-fed crop production can increase farm
productivity, through increased area cultivated, yield per farm and improved
access to markets.
Area cultivated

 In semi-arid areas, farmers owning draught animals tend to have larger farms
than those not owning animals.

 Animal power in semi-arid areas that are farmed extensively, if only because
farmers take less time to prepare and plant land if they use animal power than
if they use manual tillage methods

 Animal power has been largely used to extend cropping area in order to
increase total production.

 Animal power can improve farm activities and increase yields.

Crop yields

 Farmers with access to animal power tend to optain for more extensive
production than those using hand-tillage techniques with a resulting lower
yield per hectare.
 Provided the area cultivated is increased, output from the farm can increase.

 Adoption of animal power in crop production is often associated with use of

other inputs such as improved seeds and fertilizers,
 The use of animal power can improve-timeliness of planting

 The use of animal power can improve timeliness of planting, and optimize
yields per hectare in areas, where growing seasons are short and time of
planting is crucial to ensure a good crop
Transport - crop harvesting and marketing

 Animal transport can reduce post-harvest losses from pests by allowing timely
removal of crops from the fields

 Farmers with a cart seem to make better use of crop residues than those
farmers that do not have access to a cart and are better able to market their
goods.

 Farmers with a cart also find it easier to move manure or purchased fertilizer
to the field to boost soil fertility.

 Greater use of fertilizer and manure has been recorded on farms which own
an animal cart

2. Elaborate the feed resource and their management for draught animal

Feed resources, such as natural pastures, crop residues, cut-and-carry grass, forage
crops and local feedstuffs (including agro-industrial by-products).

 Fodders and pastures;

 On-farm by-products;
 Industrial by-products;
 Bought-in roughages;
 Concentrates.

Fodders and pastures;

Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by
domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine.

 is typically grazed throughout the summer, in contrast to meadow which

is ungrazed or used for grazing only after being mown to make hay for
animal fodder
 Have forage that is adapted for livestock and managed, by seeding,
mowing, fertilization and irrigation.
 Fodder is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated
livestock, such as horses, cattle
 foods or forages given to the animals (including plants cut and carried to
them), rather than that which they forage for themselves
It includes hay, straw, silage, compressed and pelleted feeds, oils and mixed
rations, and sprouted grains and legumes.

Farm by products; supplies used or produced in a farming operation;

 Products of crops or livestock in their unmanufactured states.

 Produced locally by farming for feeding

Industrial by-products.

 is a residual material from an industrial, commercial, mining, or agricultural

operation that is not a primary product and not produced separately in the
process
 Wheat bran, rice bran, wheat middling, rye middling, and rice polish are by
product feeds from the grain milling industry.

Roughage is a feed that contains a lot of crude fibre.

Regularly bought only in a few areas of exceptionally high prices for milk.
Roughages include pasture forages, hays, silages, and by product feeds that
contain a high percentage of fiber.

Concentrate

 is a form of substance which has had the majority of its base component (in
the case of a liquid: the solvent) remove
 One benefit of producing a concentrate is that of a reduction in weight and
volume for transportation,
 Reconstituted at the time of usage by the addition of the solvent.
 are the energy-rich grains and molasses, the protein and energy rich
supplements and byproduct feeds, vitamin supplements, and mineral
supplements
 Corn, oats, barley, and milo (sorghum grain) are the most important energy
rich grains in concentrates.
  Good quality silages are a suitable replacement for up exposure destroys the
carotene or vitamin A value.
 Heavy to half of the hay or pasture allowance

3. Discuss clearly the essential component of animal draught and equipment

1. Harnessing (yoking) and walking the animals

Yoking is done in the kraal and then the animals are moved to the field .Normally
the bulls are still nervous at this stage; hence care should be taken

2. The yoke

Yokes are used to hold two ploughing animals together; hence, the implement should
be straight, strong, of medium weight and durable. The yoke also serves as a link
between a draught animal and the working implement. It transmits the force for
draught while the harness helps to control and direct the bulls doing the work.
Parts of yoke
 Shaft: This is a shaped pole with 4 holes into which the skiers that hold the
animal’s legs are inserted. It should be strong enough to with stand breakage
during work.
 Strops: These are short strings made of twisted animal skin or sisal rope.
 They fit around the draught bull’s neck and hook the notches on the outer
edge of the skiers.
 They also prevent the yoke from slipping over the animal’s hump when
pulling the load.
 U- bolt: This is a curved metal rod with nuts at both edges. It is set in the
middle of the shaft to connect the trek chain to the load. It also serves as a load
equaliser.
 Eyes; these are metal rings fitted to the end of the yoke shaft to hold the
steering rope of the harness.
 Trek chain: This links the draught animals to the working implement.
It should be relatively long and strong enough to prevent the implement from
injuring the animals’ back legs
3. Ploughs
The selection of a plough will depend on various factors including soil type and
nature, the user, the type of animal intended to draw it and the cost of the plough.
Components of a plough
 For most ploughs designed to be drawn by oxen or donkeys.
 Few wearing parts which will need periodic replacement.
 These parts include the share, the landslide and to a lesser extent the wheel
and wheel arms
Parts of a plough and their function
Beam: This is a strong piece of metal that is curved at one end. It is a crucial part of
the tool because nearly all other parts of the plough are attached to it
Spreader bars: These are two metal bars attached to each arm and joined to the
beam. They prevent the arms from slipping upward or down spread
Cross- bars: These are (usually two or three) metal bars that join the arms at
particular points and hold both arms firmly.
Arms/Handle: These are two long, strong met- al bars which the farmer holds while
ploughing. They are joined together at the curved end of the beams
Share; this is a strong flat piece of mental in the form of a blade. It penetrates and
then under-cuts the soil horizontally during ploughing operations. It wears out faster
than the rest of the plough as it is always in contact with the soil, but it can be easily
fabricated by local blacksmiths and should therefore be replaced regularly.
Landslide: This is a strong piece of steel about 25 mm in width that runs against the
wall of the furrow. As it pushes against the furrow it resists the sideways thrust of
the plough, thus helping to stabilise the plough and prevent it from moving sideways
when ploughing.
Wheel and wheel arms: These control the depth of tillage of the plough. For deeper
tillage, the wheel is raised while for shallow tillage, it is lowered.
U-bolt: This is a D-shaped metal rod joined to another piece of metal and nuts. It
holds the wheel arms firmly to the beam
Mould board: This is a slightly curved sheet of metal. It overturns the soil cut by
the share and fills in the furrows to cover the seeds.
Limk; this is a metal ring that is fixes the chain to the plough at the end of the beam.
4. Explain steps needs to be followed in buying and training of draught animal

The training involves several stages, each about a week:

1) Habituation to a dresser man:

 Allows to approach and touch the animal without causing his concern.
 Restraint can be total while immobilizing the animal to the ground (often
standing) to perform delicate operations such as:
 Treatment and care of the nasal septum piercing.
 For piercing nasal septum, use the nose clip easy to use and much more secure
 The harness consists of the following parts: halter chain or nasal ring, yoke,
head joint rope, steering rope.
 The head joint and steering ropes are attached to the halter chain or nasal ring
to control the oxen.
 Avoid wrong adjustment of the head joint.
2) Installation and safety of yoke:

 Animals are tied by the horns to the horizontal rod to familiarize them with
human activities.
 The yoke connects the two draft animals.
 All traction implements are attached to the yoke by the pulling chain (prow,
harrow) or the beam (cart, roller cutter).
 The yoke consists of the yoke beam, the yoke pegs and the peg beam.

 The short yoke used for plowing, harrowing, transport, clearing

 The long yoke, used mainly for ridging, weeding and molding.-For weeding
or Ridging use the maximum distance between the animals. For plowing,
reduce the distance between the animals by changing the pegs Weeding:

3. The practices to walk:

 Change positions from time to time. Allow both the farmers and the
partner to learn the handling exercise
 each them to start and stop: use the commands "go" and "stop
 Continue to call the names and the commands until the animal have
learned to follow the commands
  Start to teach them to turn left and right by using the commands "go
left" "go right"
4. The development of a traction effort:
 Consists to accustom the draft animals to tow a load which is gradually
and progressively increased in weight.
5. The traction with agricultural tools:
 Consists of accustoming the draft animals to perform the agricultural work
on a field.
 The traction with one cattle is less common than the use of two pair cattle.
 Itis recommended for small work which require little effort, as the medium
transport, weeding, hilling

6. The management of the Careers of draught animals (cattle):

 The duration of use of draft cattle is highly variable.

 Market conditions fixing the purchase price of young cattle and the sale price
of cull cattle.
 To assure the effectiveness of animal traction including housing, food, health
and hygiene

7. Housing of draft animals:

 Located near the residence of the user, the housing must provide good
comfort to the draft animal.
 Housing of draft animals must have a pen where animals are constrained
or free, means of distributing water and food (buckets, troughs, racks and
fodder troughs),
8. Castration:
 Castration makes the animal more gentle and docile
 The age animal castrated is between two and three years
 operation occur after 3 years, the character of the bull effect is small;
 Done before two years, it may limit muscle development of the animal.
 Castration must be made at least four weeks before the start of training.

9. Health risks and prophylactic standards:

  To maintain a satisfactory state of health, it is important to ensure
compliance with the basic rules of hygiene and working conditions.
 It is even more important for draught animals as well as for others to do
the mandatory vaccines in campaigns struggles against major out breaks.
 It's the same regular internal and external deworming.
 All illnesses or injuries constants on a draught animal, you need to alert a
near veterinary or technician for potential treatment advices

5. Write in detail current status and future prospects of animal traction in

Ethiopia
Current status of draught cattle in Ethiopia
 Tillage is mostly carried out using the traditional wooden and plough, the
maresha.
 The maresha is used to cultivate several crops at different elevations in the
highlands. Include the cereals - barley, wheat, teff, sorghum, maize, bulrush
and millet;
 Two or three ploughings are usually needed for plots, dependifig on use and
the type of crop currently being planted.
 Integrating work with fattening is to improve income.
 Comprehensive studies of the feeding of crossbred cows for work have been
undertaken.
 Staple feedstuff are not of a sufficient quality to provide enough nutrients for
work and other productive functions.
 Considering of level of feeding to ensure multipurpose only in the rains does
the quality of the feed approach that necessary to meet requirements
 Emphasizes the importance of encouraging schemes to enhance the quality of
feed resources available use multi-purpose of work animals is promoted.
Future Prospects for Working Animals
Farmers in small scale agricultural production are change to motorized power
for cropping and transport, particularly when cash crops are grown alongside
the food crops.
Tractors do, require considerable capital investment.
In order to raise power inputs in developing countries to achieve agricultural
growth, greater reliance on working animals will be necessary.
Draught animals are likely to assume much greater importance in farming
systems in developing countries in the future.
Smallholder mixed farming systems, working cattle, buffalo, donkeys and
horses will continue to play a role, with cattle predominating where draught,
and meat/ milk, requirements are high and equids pre-dominating where soils
are light and draught needs are correspondingly lower.
Continued investigation of the management of working animals in the
different agro-ecological zones in which they are found would seem to be
justified by researchers.
The main challenges to the researchers, are to translate the understanding of
systems into a form in which the knowledge can be put to practical use by the
farmers.
Improve the effectiveness with which they use animal power for crop
production and transport.
Research and extension activities have to be undertaken in an environment in
which population is increasing, grazing land is diminishing and labor
expectations are changing