Economic opportunities exist for small ruminant producers to supply animals to both the export and domestic markets. The growing demands of meat products at the domestic as well as international markets also increase the importance of goat in the national economy of the country. Despite the large size of the country's goat population, the productivity per unit of animal and the contribution of this sector to the national economy is relatively low. The phenotypes of the goats have important influence socio-cultural and economic values to the Ethiopian communities; as a result, most farmers have specific consideration and choices for goat coat colors followed by body sizes. Nowadays, there is a great interest worldwide in conservation and utilization of genetic resources aiming for a more efficient use of present genetic resources of the goat species. In Ethiopia, a number of organizations attempted to evaluate performances of farm animal genetic resources at different times predominantly under on-station management in ranches and research farms. Although, performance levels, genetic parameter estimates and breeding program practices are available for limited number of breeds, indigenous goat populations have developed certain valuable genetic traits such as ability to improve the performance under low input condition and climatic stress, tolerance to infectious diseases and parasites. These genotypes can help in meeting future challenges resulting from possible changes in production systems and consumer requirements. Hence, to efficiently utilize these special features of indigenous breeds, there is a need of planning and implementing viable breeding programs that fit to the existing low input production systems.
The study was conducted to estimate flock dynamics of western lowland Arab goat and to assess their contribution to income of smallholder farmers in Kurmuk and Assosa districts, western Ethiopia. Flocks of 30 households were monitored for a period of 12 months in 2016. Data were analyzed using the general linear model procedure of SAS and two-way interaction effects were fitted in the model and retained when found significant in the preliminary analysis. The study result indicates that total entrances for all flock were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in dry and hot-cool seasons than wet season. Most of the entrance was kids born in hot-cool season (January) (4.0 ± 0.42) and hot-dry season (May) (5.4 ± 1.09) for Assosa and Kumruk study sites, respectively. Kid mortality constituted the greater part of outflow. High kid mortality was occurred during July, February, January, and September. Most of the sell of castrated goats were occurred in September and April for both small and large flocks targeting holidays celebrated during this months. Male goat owners had significantly lower goat production potential (GPP) value than female (0.47 ± 0.02 vs. 0.52 ± 0.02). The GPP was lower in small flock than in large flock (0.48 ± 0.02 vs. 0.51 ± 0.02). Higher GPP was recorded in the months of January, February, and March for both large and small flocks. The off-take was higher (P < 0.05) in Assosa (0.06 ± 0.01) than Kumruk (0.02 ± 0.02) district. The average goat production efficiency (GPE) was higher (P < 0.05) in Assosa large (193.23 ± 20.0) and small flocks (93.44 ± 17.3) than Kumruk large (84.71 ± 15.6) and small flocks (33.33 ± 26.3).The production efficiency recorded was not comparable to the potential that the farmers had to sell goats or consume goats' meat and milk. The lower goat production potential observed for small flocks implies that high mortality rates severely restrict receiving higher benefits from goat. Therefore, in order to optimize the productivity of goats flock dynamics, developing health intervention strategies that target reduction of kids' mortality is imperative.
The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of groundnut haulm and maize bran mixture supplementations on feed intake, digestibility, body weight gain and carcass characteristics of local sheep fed hay basal diet at Salga sheep farm in Assosa district, Western Ethiopia. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four treatments consisting of six blocks with four animals per block based on their initial body weight of 20.12 ± 0.05 kg (mean ± SD). Treatments comprised of feeding natural pasture hay ad libitum T1 = 0; T2 = 100% maize bran (MB); T3 = 50% MB and 50% Groundnut haulm (GNH), and T4 = 100% GNH. The amount of supplements offered was 300 g/day/animal on DM basis. The daily feed intake, daily body weight gain, feed conversion efficiency, dry matter and nutrient digestibility, and carcass characteristics parameters were measured during the experimental period. The study result indicates that the crude protein (CP) contents were 7.12% and 11.6%, and the neutral detergent fiber (NDF) contents were 67.9% and 57.5% for natural grass hay and groundnut haulm, respectively. The total DM intake was higher (P < 0.001) in T4 (941 g/day) followed by T3 (937 g/day), and T2 (934 g/day). However, the control group (T1) consumed relatively higher basal dry matter (DM) (767 g/day) as compared to all other groups. Local Sheep supplemented with T4 had significantly different (P < 0.001) FBW (33.2 vs 24.3 kg), FCE (0.17 vs 0.08) and ADG (156.2 vs 46.4 g/day) as compared to the control group. The mean DM,
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