Beef Cattle Production Practice and Quality of Beef Produced in Kembata Tembaro Zone SNNPRS, Ethiopia

The study was conducted to assess cattle production practices in the Kembata Tembaro Zone and to evaluate the meat quality of cattle slaughtered in four local municipal abattoirs (Durame, Damboya, Kedida, and Angecha). A total of 457 respondents were interviewed, including 401 cattle producers, 29 traders,and27 abattoir workers. Atotal of 48 meat samples were collected from four abattoirs to evaluate meat quality. The samples were taken from the longissimus-dorsi (LD) muscle (located between the 8th and 13th ribs) of animals of four ages (>5, 5-7, 7-9, and >9 years) groups. Then the samples were evaluated for pH, water holding capacity, instrumental tenderness, sensory attributes, and color. The collected meat samples were aged for 14 days to evaluate instrumental tenderness with the Warner Bratzler Shear Force Device. The sensory analysis was done at Oda Bultum University usingsemi-trained panelist. The result of the survey revealed, that 34.4 % of respondents kept cattle for multiple purposes. During the wet season, natural pasture, enset by product, and crop residue were the top three feed resources available for cattle production, while during the dry season, crop residue, enset by product, and natural pasture were ranked first, second, and third, respectively. Major constraints to cattle fattening included shortage of waterand grazing land;drought; diseasesand parasites; lack of startup investment and limited access to credit; insufficient veterinaryand insufficient extension services.The majority of cattle producer respondents sold more than nine years old oxen (29.9%), unproductive cows (26.93%), and others (15.71%).The overall mean value for instrumental tenderness, sensory tenderness, Juiciness, flavor, water holding capacity(WHC),intial pH(ipH),ultimate pH(upH), Lightness (L*), Redness (a*), and Yellowness (b*) were found to be 41.21N, 6.81, 6.69, 7.55, 71.09, 6.31, 5.89, and 31.77, 10.69, 9.73, respectively. Age of cattle significantly (p