Investigation of Current Situation of Dairy Cattle in Rize Province

In this study, we aimed to; determine the general characteristics of dairy cattle farming, reveal the general condition of the animals, and identify deficiencies. The main material of the research was the primary data collected through surveys of livestock farming from the central villages of Rize. The number of cattle was 27.817 while the number of animals per livestock farming was 1.2 in Rize. Considering the status of educational level of breeders; 102/149 (68.5%) were primary school graduates, and only 5 (3.4 per cent) of them were identified as being a University graduate. In addition to livestock breeders, 137 (91.9%) of them were also dealing with agriculture. Consequently; it was determined in Rize province that, the livestock breeding has been suffering from the danger of extinction since the livestock breeding considered as being not profitable by breeders and thus the agricultural (tea) sector has mostly been preferred instead.