Breeding Practices and Use of By-Products Derived from Mango and Cassava in Cattle and Sheep Fattening in Western Burkina Faso

Breeding and feeding practices were analyzed through field surveys of farmers in the Bobo-Dioulasso and Orodara areas. Fifty-four breeders identified with the support of technical services and breeders’ organiza-tions were interviewed on the socio-demographic characteristics of the breeder, information on the farm, the conduct of the breeding activity, economic parameters and the main constraints of the activity. Confirma-tion of a k-means classification result by Discriminant Factorial Analysis (DFA) enabled us to retain 35 farmers out of the 54 surveyed. Breeding practices have been classified into three categories: Class 1, made up mainly of cattle fatteners; Class 2, made up of sheep fatteners and dairy farmers; and Class 3, made up of farmers practicing fattening (cattle and sheep) and dairy production. Feeding methods were grazing supple-mentation, practiced by 56.17% of breeders, and rationing, practiced by 43.83%. All farmers used roughage, concentrates and minerals at varying rates according to class. Concentrates were used more in Class 3. Mango by-products were used by a minority of farmers. Cassava peelings were mainly used by farmers in Class 3 (87.5%) and Class 2 (12.5%). The number of cattle fattened per rotation was higher in Class 1 (28 animals) than in Class 3 (15 animals). According to the majority of farmers inter-viewed, fattening is a profitable activity. The profit margin per animal was higher in Class 3 (112,154.49 XOF) than in Class 1 (93,463 XOF). Despite all this, livestock farming is faced with food, commercial, health and technical constraints that hamper its development in the Bo-bo-Dioulasso and Orodara zones.