Abstract:
This study was carried out in Bench Sheko, Sheka, and West Omo zones of South West Ethiopia
with the objective of assessing management practices, productive and reproductive
performances, and feed resource availability of small ruminants. From three zones, four
potential districts were purposively selected. Sixteen kebeles were randomly selected from those
potential districts and a total of 384 households those have at least one or more sheep and goats
were purposively selected. Both primary and secondary data were collected by interviewing,
observations, FGD, and written materials from offices. The data was analyzed by using SPSS
software. Qualitative and quantitative data sets were analyzed by using appropriate statistical
analysis procedures. The descriptive statistics (mean, SE) for numerical survey data were
subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the general linear model procedure. ANOVA
model statement was used to investigate the effects of study area (zones) difference on small
ruminant performances. Extensive production with a low input low output system was the main
production system in the study area. Natural mating was the main breeding system and 70.3%
practiced the selection of small ruminants for breeding. Grazing was the main feeding system
and almost 84.4% of the respondents graze/browse their small ruminants. The major source of
feeds that was available was communal grazing land (41.1%) followed by private grazing land
(25.8%), roadside grazing (19.5%), and riverside grazing (13.5%). Sheep and goats require a
long time for sexual maturity which affects the performance of the flock. The lambing and
kidding intervals of sheep and goats were 7.7 months and 7.9 months in the study area,
respectively. Sheep need 12.8 months for lambing and goats need 13.4 months for kidding. Both
sheep (male 9.2 months, female 9.3 months) and goats (male 9.8 months, female 9.91 months)
need a long time to reach slaughter age. Age at first mating, lambing interval, average litter size,
and slaughter ages of sheep showed significant variations, however, AFL was not showed
significant variations in the study area. Age at first mating, age at first kidding, kidding interval,
average litter size, and slaughter age of goats were significantly different. Small ruminant
production was mainly constrained by disease and parasites. The government should take action
on disease prevention and treatment works to boost small ruminant production performance.
