DAIRY CATTLE PRODUCTION PRACTICE, MICROBIAL QUALITY, AND MARKETING OF MILK AND MILK PRODUCTS IN EASTERN WOLEGA ZONE OF SIBU SIRE DISTRICT, ETHIOPIA

The study was conducted in Sibu Sire District of eastern Wollega zone with the objective of to determine dairy production practice, milk quality and to identify the marketing system of milk and milk products in the study area. A total of 6 kebeles were selected randomly. From each of the selected kebeles 30 households were purposively selected based on the owing of at least one local dairy cows and interviewed with open ended and close ended questionnaire. Thirty samples of fresh milk was taken from farmers immediately after milking and 15 milk samples was taken from market chains and analysed for quality. The study revealed that majority of the respondents use natural grazing land as the major source of feed and river water as the major source of water for their Animals. The result indicates that 62.2% of the respondent use common house with their cattle and 36.8% of them use separate house for their cattle. About 60.18% of the respondent use natural grazing land for their cattle and the remains use crop residues for their cattle. The existing marketing system of dairy product in the study area was informal.Preliminary quality tests and laboratory analysis was carried out to determine the quality of milk in the study area. From the sample about 31.08% were coagulate on clot on boiling test and 55.55% samples were coagulated on alcohol tests. Overall mean totalbacterial counts, coliform and yeast and mould count were 5.74±0.10.65, 3.14±0.72 and 3.71±0.83 cfu/ml respectively and significantly different b/n producers source and markets channel source at (P