Revista de Ciencias Animales y Producción Ganadera Acceso abierto

Abstracto

Growth and Milk Production Performance of Abergelle Goat under the Community based Breeding Program at Ziqula District, Northern Ethiopia

Yeshiwas W*, Bekahagn W, Mulatu G, Wubeneh A, Alemu D

Community based goat breeding program is becoming a new approach which is implemented nationwide in Ethiopia. The program was also being implemented in Abergelle goat breed for the last six years (2014-2019) at Bilaque village in Ziquala district, Wag himra zone of North Eastern part of Ethiopia. The objective of this study was device and implementation of community based goat breeding program for the improvement of growth and milk production performance of the breed. Goats from 33 goat keepers were monitored for the buck selection process. Best bucks were selected at yearly basis based on their indexed Estimated Breeding Value (EBV) and unselected bucks were culled out from the population through castration and sale. Generalized Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SAS (9.0) in support with descriptive statistics and micro soft excel programs were used for data analysis. Birth type, year of birth and parity had significant (P<0.05) effect on pre-weaning growth performances of Abergelle goat. Mean yearling weight of kids had slightly increased from 12.8 ± 0.11 Kg to 13.7 ± 0.12 Kg respectively, during the course of four round selections. Yearling weight had better correlation with six month weight (r=0.3) and nine month weight (r=0.31) at (p<0.05). Daily milk yield was significantly (p<0.05) affected by season of lactation, and selection years. Daily milk yield was increased from 300.31 ± 7.41 ml to 352.62 ± 14.33 ml during the selection years. It was concluded that, the program was found to be compatible strategy which can suit with the existing breeding practices of farmers as it can allow for the use of elite bucks and removal of inferior once from the population.