Performance of Yankassa sheep and Savanna brown goats under free grazing and tethering systems of management

Abstract

Sixteen Yankasa sheep and 16 Savanna Brown goats aged between 2-3 years were used to assess the body weight and body condition of sheep and goats under free range and tethering systems of management over a period 92 days. Four experimental groups were constituted by randomly assigning 8 animals from each species to either free range or tethered system of management. Free range goats recorded the highest live weight gain of 6.15 kg followed by free range sheep with a value of 4.32 kg. Tethered goats and tethered sheep recorded relatively lower values of 1.66 and 0.90 kg respectively. The body condition gains were also higher in free range animals compared with the tethered ones with values being 0.70 free range sheep, 0.49 for free range goats, 0.03/or tethered sheep and -0.29 for tethered goats. It was concluded that for tethered animals to perform well, their diet must be adequately supplemented with good quality fodder and/or concentrate and should also be adequately protected from adverse weather conditions.

Key words:  Sheep, Goats, Body weight, Body Condition, Free range, Tethering