Reproductive Performance of Begayt Sheep under Different Management Systems in Western Zone of Tigray

Abstract

The study was conducted in North- Western zone of Tigray region, in Humera District Northern part of Ethiopia; with the objective of to measure reproductive performances of "Begayt" sheep under farmers and ranch management conditions. The data on reproductive performance of Begayt sheep (n=150) kept at three different sheep farms in Western Zone of Tigray, Quafta Humera district, Government Ranch (GovR) (n=50), Privet Ranch (PrivR) (n=50) and Privet Farm (PrivF) (n=50), under semi-intensive management system, were analyzed. General linear model was used for analyzing the data. The fixed effects in the model included location of flock, age, type of birth, sex of lamb and their interactions. The overall findings of reproductive traits such as fertility, prolificacy, single lambing, twinning rate, lambs born alive and sex ratio (male: female) were 92.67, 101.33, 89.86, 10.14, 96.33% and 50.33:49.67, respectively. The highest value for twinning rate was recorded in GovR (13.04%) and the lowest in PrivF (6.52%). All traits were significantly different (P0.05) between flocks. The overall results revealed that age of dam, age at first service (AFS), service period (SP), age at first lambing (AFL) and lambing interval (LI) were 1078±2.2, 579.61±0.6, 206.25±0.2, and 731.67±0.3 and 256.60±0.3 days, respectively. The results of ANOVA showed that locations had significant effect (P<0.05) on AFS and SP; however lambing interval and age at first lambing were not affected. Age of ewe, type of birth, sex of lamb(s) born and interaction between these factors did not influence the traits significantly. It was concluded that reproductive performance of Begayt sheep was modest so it is vital to improve management, nutritional and breeding practices at the farm.