This study was conducted to assess the dairy husbandry practices in the study area. A total of six districts were purposively selected to represent the highland, midland, and lowland agroecologies. From each district, two rural kebeles were identified, and from each kebele, 10 households owning dairy cattle were randomly selected. In total, 120 households participated in the survey. 58.3% of the respondents use selected bull for dairy cattle breeding practices while 30.8% use locally unselected bull and the rest 6.7% use artificial insemination. The majority 85.8% of respondents use local breed cow for milk production and the remaining 14.2% of respondents used cross breed. About 51.7% of the respondents were washing teat and udder of the cow before milking by using cool water 77.5%, towel 9.2% and warm water 5.8%. About 43.3% of HHs used separate class under the same roof, 33.3% open barn and the remaining 23.3% of HHs used separate class for their dairy cattle at night time housing. There was significant difference between the two breeds on the mean age at first calving. Local zebu cow has significantly (P < 0.05) higher mean age at first calving 46.73 ± 0.30 than cross breed cows 31.41 ± 0.53 at the study area. Cross breed cows had significantly shorter 14.44 ± 0.43 months of CI than that of local zebu cow 16.02 ± 0.29.
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