Household Income Investigation in Smallholder Cattle Farming At Minahasa Regency North Sulawesi Province-Indonesia

The study was performed out in Tumaratas Village, Minahasa Regency Indonesia.The aim of this research was to know the income obtained in smallholder cattle farmer’s household , examine earning share of cattle farming to the total household income and factors affecting household income from cattle farming business as well. Data collection were conducted through 100 farm households which were selected as respondents using stratified purposive sampling method. Respondents were grouped into three strata based on the number of cattle ownership. Stratum 1 raised 1≤ 5 AUs consisted of 93 respondents, stratum 2 owned 5-10 AUs consisted of 5 respondents and stratum 3 managed > 10 AUs consisted of 2 respondents. Data were analyzed by using descriptive and quantitative analysis. The study indicated that more than 50% of household’s income derived from cattle farming. Earnings from cattle business in stratum 2 and 3 showed a higher (>60%) contribution to household’s income compare to stratum 1 (50%). The returns from cattle farming tend to increase with an increase on herd size. Besides, Households in stratum 1 get more income from crops (i.e. onion, maize, tomato, red bean , peanut) due to a few cattle they had raised. Partially, the variables that could significantly effected farmers’ income from cattle business were number of cattle, family labor, inseminator cost, cost of natural mating, value added of cattle and land size whereas education of head had significantly not influenced farmers income.