On-Farm and On-Station Comparison of Early Growth and Survival Performances of Horro Sheep in Western Ethiopia

Abstract

Even though sheep is one of the most important species of livestock with estimated population size was about 52.5 million heads, the genetic improvement made to this species was not encouraging. On station small ruminant research was reported for being inefficient and Community Based Breeding Program (CBBP) has emerged as alternative. However, empirical evidences were not available which presented performance evaluation results of Horro sheep under on station and on farm conditions. Hence, the objective of the current study was to compare early growth and survival performance of Horro sheep breed managed under on-farm conditions with those managed under on-station condition. The on-farm and on-station data for this study was collected from two Kebeles in Horro district namely Gitilo and Laku Igu and at Bako Agricultural Research Center (BARC). The effect of fixed factors including location (on farm and on station), parity, type, sex, season and year of births of lambs were investigated on early growth traits including birth weight (BWT), three-month weight (3MW), six-month weight (6MW) and survival to three months of age using data collected from 2009 through 2018 at BARC and CBBP of sheep in Horro district. The overall means (kg) for BWT, 3MW and 6MW, in respective order, was 2.80±0.70, 12.27±3.27 and 16.31±2.86. The location of birth, year of birth, and type of birth of lambs had highly significant effect (p<0.0001) on the early growth traits where the early growth traits from on-farm (from the CBBP in this context) and single birth were heavier. Regarding the year of births, the growth performance of the lambs had shown an improving trend from 2009 to 2013 and declined thereafter. However, the trend BWT was almost constant across years compared 3MW and 6MW. The place of birth (being on farm or on station), type of birth (being born single or twin) and the magnitude of birth weight had highly significant effect (p<0.0001) on Horro lambs’ odds ratio of survival to three months of age. Sex of lambs also had significant effect (p=0.0313) on Horro lambs’ odds ratio of survival to three months. It was concluded that unless full commitment, at government and technical staff level, is ensured neither genetic improvement nor conservation of Horro sheep breed could be realized under on-station condition. The genetic improvement of Horro sheep at village level, under on-farm condition was confirmed to be better alternative as health interventions and use of selected rams for breeding backstopped the traditional raising practices of sheep owners in Horro district.