Sheep breeding practices and reproductive performances in Arba Minch Zuria district of Gamo zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was carried to characterize sheep breeding practices and reproductive performances in Arba Minch Zuria Woreda of Gamo zone, Southern Ethiopia. The district was selected based on its potential for sheep production and distribution of different sheep breeds in the most of villages of the district. It was stratified in to three distinctive agro-ecologies; highland, midland and lowland. A total of 138 households were interviewed using structured questionnaire and probability proportional to size sampling technique was used to select respondents. Data were analyzed using statistical procedures for social science version 20. The overall purpose of sheep rearing across all AEZs was source of income, saving, meat production, sharing the risk and manure production which were ranked first to fifth in the given order. Observed sheep breeding system was generally uncontrolled and no planned selection of breeding stock is practicing. Rams are herding together with ewes. Body size, coat color and long and fatty tail type (from Bonga/Dawuro and Doyagana/Wolaita) were the most frequently reported traits in selecting breeding rams; whereas size, color, tail size and twining rate were mentioned as traits given due emphasis in choosing future breeding ewes. The overall age at first lambing was 12.81±0.14 months, lambing interval was 7.52±.08 months and litter size were 1.50±.08 lamb per sheep (P<0.05). A high lambing month was extended from April to May. As per the current findings, the reproductive performance the sheep of the study area could be categorized as medium level of productivity. Therefore; further confirmatory study is recommended to identify and select the superior breeding animals based on well documented information for economically important traits.

Keywords: Arba Minch Zuria district, Breeding practice, Reproductive performance, Sheep