Fig 1 - uploaded by Peter Wahinya
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
A deterministic bio-economic model was developed to estimate economic weights for genetic improvement of lactation milk yield, fat yield, age at first calving, calving interval, mature weight and survival under low, medium and high production systems in the Tropics. Input parameters were obtained from dairy production systems in Kenya which has a t...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... ( Kitalyi et al., 2020). Standard management practices including parasite and disease control were assumed to be carried out and did not differ between systems. Fixed herd size is assumed in all the three production systems; therefore, cull for age cows are replaced by heifers reared within the herd while the surplus heifers are sold. Fig. 1 shows the herd structure, dynamics and replacement policy under the low production system. A similar herd structure was adapted for the medium and high production systems with the same herd size but with different survival rates (Table 1) leading to different herd composition presented later in the results. Tables 1 and 2 show the ...
Similar publications
Ice cream is a dairy product with refreshing features, pleasing aroma and appearance as a result of the addition of different ingredients. Currently, there is little related documentation related to the economic evaluation of ice cream production plants, and none related to the simulation in SuperPro Designer of this type of process. In this paper,...
Citations
... Bio-economic models have been used to estimate economic values in various production systems for pigs (Mbuthia et al., 2015), dairy cattle (Wahinya et al., 2022), sheep (Gizaw et al., 2018), poultry (Okeno et al., 2013) and goats (Bett et al. 2007a, b) in the tropics. However, economic values have not been estimated for dairy goat production considering various breeds and production units under semi-intensive production system. ...
The current study aimed at development of breeding objectives and estimation of the economic values for traits of economic importance to various dairy goat breeders associations. This was achieved through the development of a bio-economic model to derive economic values for the selected traits. The input and output parameters used represented the average performance of Saanen, Toggenburg and Alpine breeds. The gross margin was estimated using the R software. Economic values for milk yield (MY, kg), pre-weaning survival rate (PrSr, %), post-weaning survival rate, (PoSR, %), doe survival rate, (DoSR, %), and kidding rate, (Kr, %) were estimated based on fixed flock size and fixed feed resources scenarios. The findings indicate varied gross margin across the breeds; Saanen (US$ 116.17), Toggenburg (US$ 68.21) and Alpine (US$ -1.11). In both scenarios, the economic values in selected traits were positive for the three breeds except for milk yield in Alpine, which was negative in both fixed flock and fixed feed resources. The positive economic values of selected traits indicated a unit increase in genetic merit of these traits. The developed bio-economic model was able to estimate the gross margin of Saanen, Toggenburg and Alpine breeds represented by Nyanza Dairy Goat Breeders Association (NDGA), Meru Dairy Goat Breeders Association (MDGA) and Dairy Goat Association of Kenya (DGAK), respectively, reared under semi-intensive production system. The study offers an opportunity to evaluate genetic and economic merit of alternative strategies for dairy goats reared in semi-intensive production systems managed by various dairy goat breeders associations.
... Cost of water was computed to account for the expenses if it were to be bought and accessed to meet the animal daily requirements. Calves are fed on milk equivalent to 15% of their birth weight for 7 weeks, 10% for the next 4 weeks and 1 L twice a day until weaning time at 120 days (Lukuyu et al., 2012;Rosenberger et al., 2017;Wahinya et al., 2022). Calves are introduced to solid and good quality feeds after two weeks and to concentrate feed in the optimal husbandry system. ...
... An additional marketing cost accounted for marketing levies and transportation cost based on prevailing market prices of milk and live animal sales (Kahi & Nitter, 2004). The prices of milk, reproductive technologies, concentrates and fixed costs were same in the two husbandry practice scenarios (Wahinya et al., 2022). ...
... The higher economic returns as observed in system applying optimal husbandry practices agrees with Study results indicate that highest contributions towards the total benefits in best-case scenarios would be milk sales (64%-73%) relative to calf sales (19%-25%), disposal value (7% -9%) and manure sales (1% -2%). Higher contribution to total benefits from milk sales well corroborates 61% to 78% contribution of milk sales towards overall farm benefits previously observed by Marshall et al. (2020);Ngigi (2005) and Wahinya et al. (2022) in Kenya. This implies the need for an efficient milk pricing system that ensures profitability and thus sustainability of pastoral farms. ...
Though using Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) can improve oestrus detection, conception and pregnancy success, thus benefit breeding program implementation, empirical evidence of their economic viability is lacking to inform investment decisions in pastoral herds. This study assessed economic viability of using OvSynch and fixed Timed Artificial Insemination (TAI) protocol in Sahiwal upgrading breeding program under two hypothetical cases of best and worst in activity-based money allocations when pastoral herds deploy either optimal or low input husbandry practices. From herd owners’ assessment of milk production, best-case scenarios attain on average 10 L/cow/day with optimal husbandry and 5 L/cow/day with low input husbandry. The worst-case scenarios attain 5 L/cow/day with optimal husbandry and 1 L/cow/day with low input husbandry. Benefit- Cost Analysis (BCA) estimated Net Present Value (NPV), Benefit–Cost ratio (BCR) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) to establish economic viability of using OvSynch and TAI Protocol in pastoral breeding programs. Both best-case scenarios retuned positive NPVs (82,028 and 6,912), BCR values (1.68 and 1.08) and IRR (27.46% and 8.08%) while worst-case scenarios returned negative NPVs (-135,855 and -141,025), BCR values of below 1 (0.87 and 0.66) and IRR values below the minimum rate of returns. These economic parameters were sensitive to price changes in inputs and outputs, under both optimal and low input husbandry practices. Results indicate that using OvSynch and TAI Protocol is a profitable and economically viable investment under optimal husbandry practices but not under low input husbandry practices. By implications, use of OvSynch and TAI Protocol in Sahiwal upgrading breeding programs need be accompanied with improved husbandry practices and de-risking pastoral herd owners from price changes in input and output markets.
... A study by Mutwedu et al. [19] found that crop residues and agricultural byproducts were the key sources for livestock feed in Democratic Republic of Congo. Likewise, smallholder farmers in Kenya widely used pasture land as their principal source of animal feed, which substantially determined feed security in the area [20]. Another study in Ethiopia revealed that feed production had significant impact on extent of animal yield, which also influenced producers' decision whether or not to create other livelihood options [21]. ...
... Bio-economic models have been used to estimate economic values in various production systems for pigs (Mbuthia et al., 2015), dairy cattle (Wahinya et al., 2022), sheep (Gizaw et al., 2018), poultry (Okeno et al., 2013) and goats in the tropics. However, economic values have not been estimated for dairy goat production considering various breeds and production units under semi-intensive production system. ...
The current study aimed at development of breeding objectives and estimation of the economic values for traits of economic importance to various dairy goat breeders associations. This was achieved through the development of a bio-economic model to derive economic values for the selected traits. The input and output parameters used represented the average performance of Saanen, Toggenburg and Alpine breeds. The gross margin was estimated using the R software. Economic values for milk yield (MY, kg), pre-weaning survival rate (PrSr, %), post-weaning survival rate, (PoSR, %), doe survival rate, (DoSR, %), and kidding rate, (Kr, %) were estimated based on fixed flock size and fixed feed resources scenarios. The findings indicate varied gross margin across the breed associations; Saanen (KES 13,656.27), Toggenburg (KES 8,018.53) and Alpine (KES -129.96). In both scenarios, the economic values in selected traits were positive for the three breeds except for milk yield in Alpine, which was negative in both fixed flock and fixed feed resources. The positive economic values of selected traits indicated a unit increase in genetic merit of these traits. The developed bio-economic model was able to estimate the gross margin of Nyanza Dairy Goat Breeders Association (NDGA), Meru Dairy Goat Breeders Association (MDGA) and Dairy Goat Association of Kenya (DGAK) represented by Saanen, Toggenburg and Alpine breeds, respectively, reared under semi-intensive production system. The study offers an opportunity to evaluate genetic and economic merit of alternative strategies for dairy goats reared in semi-intensive production systems managed by various dairy goat breeders associations.
... A common approach to derive economic value is the bio-economic model, which integrates both biological and economic information about animals and calculates the economic value of traits by constructing profit equations (Krupová et al. 2008;Souza et al. 2022). This model has been used to calculate the economic value of various traits in animals such as cattle (Wahinya et al. 2022), sheep (Farrell et al. 2022;Byrne et al. 2010), and pigs (Ali et al. 2018). Once the economic value is determined, the extent to which the trait affects the profitability of the production system can be determined (Samaraweera et al. 2022). ...
This study aimed to calculate the economic value (EV) of reproductive and growth traits for Yiling sheep. A bio-economic model was developed to assess the economic value of litter size (LS), litter size at weaning (LSW), age at first lambing (AFL), lambing interval (LI), birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), and 6-month body weight (6MW). The sensitivity of the economic value of traits to changes in market prices was also analyzed. In this study, the trait with the highest EV was LSW (427.97 ¥), followed by LS (419.96 ¥), BW (52.13 ¥), 6MW (14.46 ¥), WW (11.03 ¥), AFL (−0.51 ¥), and LI (−9.09 ¥). LS was the most important trait in the production system with a relative economic weight of 22.81%, followed by 6MW and LSW with relative economic weights of 18.98% and 19.01%, respectively. All traits assessed, except AFL and LI, had positive economic values, indicating that genetic improvement of these traits would have a positive impact on profitability. The results of the sensitivity analysis showed that the economic value of AFL was not sensitive to price changes. All growth traits were unaffected by price changes in labor and medical costs. In addition, the LS, LSW, LI, WW, and 6MW were sensitive to changes in liveweight and feed prices. Generally, as feed prices increased, the economic value of all traits except LI and BW decreased. Except for LI and BW, the economic value of all traits increased due to the rise in liveweight prices. This suggested that liveweight and feed prices significantly affect the profitability of the production system.
... The rearing of European Holstein Friesian (H) and Brown Swiss (BS) breeds under tropical climates has seldom been successful (1,2). On the other hand, most research on dairy cattle in tropical climates has been focused on analyzing environmental effect and the estimation of genetic parameters on reproductive, milk yield, lactation length, and other production traits (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10). ...
... The rearing of European Holstein Friesian (H) and Brown Swiss (BS) breeds under tropical climates has seldom been successful (1,2). On the other hand, most research on dairy cattle in tropical climates has been focused on analyzing environmental effect and the estimation of genetic parameters on reproductive, milk yield, lactation length, and other production traits (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10). However, there are other important economical traits such as longevity, useful life, and lifetime milk production. ...
Objective. To estimate the heritability (h2) of age at first parturition (AFP), longevity (L), useful life (UL), and productivity (P), as well as the genetic (rg) and phenotypic correlations between those traits in Brown Swiss and Holstein cows in Northwestern Honduras. Materials and methods. Cattle were raised under tropical conditions and intensive management. The model for AFP assessed the effect of contemporary group (herd, year and birth season combination) as fixed. The model used for L, UL and P included the contemporary group, age group at first calving and their interaction. Data were analyzed using restricted maximum likelihood procedure, adjusted to a univariate and to a bivariate animal model. Results. The h2 estimated for AFP, L, UL and P were 0.16, 0.18, 0.25 and 0.09, respectively, in Brown Swiss cows, and 0.53, 0.49, 0.7 and 0.22, respectively in Holstein. Negative but favorable rg among Brown Swiss cow traits ranged from 0.31 to 0.46 between AFP and the other traits. However, for Holsteins cows, positive rg among AFP and the other traits here studied varied from 0.49 to 0.96. In both cattle breeds, rg among L, UL and P, traits were positive. Conclusions. For all traits evaluated low to medium heritability’s for BS suggest that a slow genetic improvement could be achieved if independent selection of traits is applied, and better response could be expected for H breed. For both breeds the positive rg among L, UL and P suggest thar similar selection criteria could be used.
... This policy brings the natural consequence of limited genetic progress in the farms. Because of this, several farmers have increasingly adopted artificial insemination (AI) as an alternative to eliminate the shortcomings of NM and assume valuable genetic progress by using proven bulls in their herds (Wahinya et al., 2022). ...
A populational, observational and longitudinal-retrospective study with records of 28 dairy-specialized and dual-purpose farms was carried out to compare the productive performance of cows born by embryo transfer (ET), artificial insemination (AI) and natural mating (NM), using the database of Centro Regional de Investigación para la Producción Animal Sostenible (CRIPAS) of cattle herds in Costa Rica. Herds (system × altitude), conception method (ET, AI and NM), genetic background (DSpB: specialized dairy breeds [Bos taurus] and crosses, GYR × HOL: Gyr × Holstein Crossbred and DSpB × BI: crosses between dairy breeds and Bos indicus), year of birth (or at calving), lactation number and days in milk were evaluated for the productive parameters age at first calving (AFC), calving to conception interval (CCI) and lactation milk yield (LMY) using a GLIMMIX procedure on SAS. The AFC, CCI and LMY were affected (p < .0001) by all factors considered in each parameter. ET has lower (p < .0001) AFC in months (33.1) than AI (35.2) and NM (36.44). NM had lower (p = .004) CCI (110 days) than AI or ET (121 days) values which were similar (p > .05). The higher LMY (p < .0001) was observed in ET (4140 kg), compared to AI (3706 kg) and NM (3595 kg). There was no difference between AI and NM. In conclusion, the method of conception in calves affected their future reproduction and production during puberty, postpartum and lactation. The effects on management decisions will require a rigorous economical study to discern whether ET would be a cost-effective alternative to AI or NM.
... This policy brings the natural consequence of limited genetic progress in the farms. Because of this, several farmers have increasingly adopted artificial insemination (AI) as an alternative to eliminate the shortcomings of NM and assume valuable genetic progress by using proven bulls in their herds (Wahinya et al., 2022). ...
A populational, observational and longitudinal-retrospective study with records of 28 dairy specialized and dual-purpose farms, was carried out to compare the productive performance of cows born by embryo transfer (ET), artificial insemination (AI), and natural mating (NM), using the database of Centro Regional de Investigación para la Producción Animal Sostenible (CRIPAS) of cattle herds in Costa Rica. Herds (system × altitude), conception method (ET, AI and NM), genetic background (DSpB: specialized dairy breeds (Bos taurus) and crosses, GYR×HOL: Gyr × Holstein Crossbred and DSpB×BI: crosses between dairy breeds and Bos indicus), year of birth (or at calving), lactation number and days in milk were evaluated for the productive parameters age at first calving (AFC), calving to conception interval (CCI) and lactation milk yield (LMY) using a GLIMMIX procedure on SAS. The AFC, CCI, and LMY were affected (P<0.0001) by all factors considered in each parameter. ET has lower (P<0.0001) AFC in months (33.1) than AI (35.2) and NM (36.44). NM had lower (P=0.004) CCI (110 d) than AI or ET (121 d) values which were similar (P>0.05). The higher LMY (P<0.0001) was observed in ET (4140 kg), compared to AI (3706 kg) and NM (3595 kg). There was no difference between AI and NM. In conclusion, the method of conception in calves affected their future reproduction and production during puberty, postpartum, and lactation. The effects on management decisions will require a rigorous economical study to discern whether ET would be a cost-effective alternative to AI or NM.
... The production systems were defined as low, medium, and high production systems, categorized based on milk yield occurring within a standard lactation [2]. The low, medium, and high production systems differ in terms of inputs and outputs as detailed in Wahinya [16]. Genetic improvement was defined by the selection of six traits including milk yield (MY, kg) which was the total milk yield in a lactation, butterfat yield (FY, kg), the total butterfat yield in a lactation, age at first calving (AFC, days), the age in days at the time of first calving, calving interval (CI, days), the time interval between subsequent calving events, mature weight (MWT, kg), the live weight at maturity, and survival rate (SR) which is the average probability of an animal to survive between lactations. ...
... Genetic improvement was defined by the selection of six traits including milk yield (MY, kg) which was the total milk yield in a lactation, butterfat yield (FY, kg), the total butterfat yield in a lactation, age at first calving (AFC, days), the age in days at the time of first calving, calving interval (CI, days), the time interval between subsequent calving events, mature weight (MWT, kg), the live weight at maturity, and survival rate (SR) which is the average probability of an animal to survive between lactations. The economic importance of these traits has been shown by Wahinya [16]. Revenue from dairy cattle is mainly derived from milk and the sale of animals. ...
... The aim was to improve the breeding objective with eighteen traits representing the six traits in all three production systems simultaneously. Economic weights specific for each production system were obtained from Wahinya [16]. ...
Genotype by environment interaction influences the effectiveness of dairy cattle breeding programs in developing countries. This study aimed to investigate the optimization of dairy cattle breeding programs for three different environments within Kenya. Multi-trait selection index theory was applied using deterministic simulation in SelAction software to determine the optimum strategy that would maximize genetic response for dairy cattle under low, medium, and high production systems. Four different breeding strategies were simulated: a single production system breeding program with progeny testing bulls in the high production system environment (HIGH); one joint breeding program with progeny testing bulls in three environments (JOINT); three environment specific breeding programs each with testing of bulls within each environment (IND); and three environment-specific breeding programs each with testing of bulls within each environment using both phenotypic and genomic information (IND-GS). Breeding strategies were evaluated for the whole industry based on the predicted genetic response weighted by the relative size of each environment. The effect of increasing the size of the nucleus was also evaluated for all four strategies using 500, 1500, 2500, and 3000 cows in the nucleus. Correlated responses in the low and medium production systems when using a HIGH strategy were 18% and 3% lower, respectively, compared to direct responses achieved by progeny testing within each production system. The JOINT strategy with one joint breeding program with bull testing within the three production systems produced the highest response among the strategies using phenotypes only. The IND-GS strategy using phe-notypic and genomic information produced extra responses compared to a similar strategy (IND) using phenotypes only, mainly due to a lower generation interval. Going forward, the dairy industry in Kenya would benefit from a breeding strategy involving progeny testing bulls within each production system.
