Assessment of Reproductive Performance and Flock Composition of Smallhoulders Sheep and Goat Production Systems Under Assiut Governorate.

This study was aimed to recognize the reproductive performance and herd composition of sheep and goat in six studied area located in east and west river Nile at Assiut governorate. A set of semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information from 300 sheep owners based on single-visit-interviews. The study revealed that farmers keep mixed livestock species. Sheep and goat production are the major livestock activity in located study area. The average farm size of households surveyed in Assiut Governorate was 8.2 feddan. The farmers cultivated 50.74% and 50.86 % of their lands for green fodder and field crops in winter and summer, respectively. About 50.89 % of the total farm size area cultivated with animal fodder around the year. In summer 25.37%. Of the area was cultivated with field crops. The reproductive and productive performance of sheep and goats were discussed and data showed that, no significant differences were observed in lambing interval and age at first lambing between sheep and goats, while goats were significantly higher in litter size (P<0.01), lambing mortality (p<0.05) weaning weight (p<0.01) and age at marketing (p<0.05) than sheep. Generally, Sheep and goat production in the studied areas was constrained by different problems; where the major ones are availability and cost of feeds, limitation of land for the expansion of production and poor extension services. Sheep and goats are very important smallholder producers due to their biological factors such as short generation interval, twinning, short growth periods, do not require much space and low food requirements. In this domain, reasons of high lamb mortality rates should be identified and reduced in order to make sheep and goat production profitable and sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]