Beef cattle fattening practices and marketing system in Gondar, Ethiopia

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Gondar town, Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia with the objective of assessing beef cattle fattening practices, marketing systems, constraints and opportunities of beef cattle fattening cooperatives and individual farmers.Data were gathered using a semi-structured questionnaire that had been pre-tested.In the study, 102 households from the town of Gondar were chosen using a stratified sampling technique.Both econometric and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.STATA software was used to code, enter, and clean data on household characteristics and cattle fattening practices that were gathered from the field.27.2% of respondent's overall castrate their animals, compared to 72.8% of respondents who do not.The criteria used to select cattle for fattening included age (17.2%), breed (3%), body size (30%), health (36.4%), and price (13.4).Cattle that had been fattened had the highest price from January to April and the lowest price from May to June.The primary marketing obstacles impeding the efficacy of cattle fattening operations within the studied region were capital, price volatility, insufficient market size, and insufficient market intelligence.The results of the Heckman two-stage sample selection model showed that household income, veterinary service accessibility, and beef cattle body condition all had a substantial impact on sample producers' participation in beef cattle markets.The physical state of the beef cattle, the overall number of cattle possessed, and the distance from the closest market all have an impact on the quantity of cattle provided to markets.