Traditional sheep management and production situation in the south western part of Ethiopia
1998
Berhanu Belay (Jima College of Agriculture (Ethiopia))
This study was conducted in the Jima zone of southwestern part of Ethiopia to assess the traditional sheep management and routine husbandry practices and the flock composition. The most important husbandry practices established in this study include housing, feeds and feeding, disease situation, lamb rearing, castration, mating management and some problems facing sheep production. The livestock composition in the zone is 47.4 percent, 45.9 percent, 3.8 percent, 3.0 percent cattle, sheep, goats, and equine, respectively. of the total sheep enumerated ewes costituted 54.4 percent, ram 8.6 percent, lambs 34.3 percent and castrates 2.8 percent. the ewe to ram ratio recorded for the zone is 6.3 to 1. The average flock size is 4.2. The main source of feed is natural pasture supplemented with crop residues and crop aftemath. It was also noted that, in the wet season, farmers tether their flock to avoid crop damage. The most common diseases reported from the description of symptoms of diseases include pneumonia, liver fluke, parasite of the lungworms, diarrhea in order of importance. The most common problems indicated by the farmers related to sheep production, in order of importance are diseases and parasites, shortage of feed, labor scarcity and predators.
Show more [+] Less [-]AGROVOC Keywords
Bibliographic information
This bibliographic record has been provided by Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research