Abstract:
Improvement of the contribution of the untapped huge goat resource of Ethiopia can be achieved through alleviating constraints and adjusting inefficient production practices which requires knowledge about roles of goat, husbandry practices, production constraints, performance under the prevailing condition and available resources. With this understanding, a survey study on goat production systems of mixed crop livestock (MCL) and Agro pastoral (AP) Farming systems in the rural kebeles of Dire Dawa Administration (Paper I), and two on-farm experimental studies, to evaluate the effect of season and supplementation on growth performance and carcass characteristics (Paper II), and skin/leather quality (Paper III) of grazing Short-eared Somali Goats were conducted. Using semi structured questionnaire, data on goat production systems were collected from a total of 150 goat farming households, 75 households from each farming system. The on-farm experimental study was arranged in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 4 supplements x 2 seasons factorial arrangements. Twenty-four Short Eared Somali Goats were used for each season of study. The concentrate supplements were composed 4 different levels of ME and CP (T1: 1120 kcal/kg ME and 17.5% CP; T2: 1032 kcal/kg ME and 23.4% CP; T3: 944 kcal/kg ME and 29.3% CP; and T4: 984 kcal/kg ME 25.4% CP). Goats were blocked into six blocks of four based on their initial BW, randomly assigned to one of the treatments, grazing during the day time and supplemented 400 g in two equal halves before and after grazing; and were fed for 84 days in each season. Body weight were recorded every fortnight while pasture dry matter and chemical composition were assessed three times for each season. Finally, all animals were slaughtered to assess carcass characteristics and skin quality attributes. The survey study revealed that, mixed crop livestock farming were sources of livelihood for 92.7% of the total respondents. In both farming systems, goats form important component of the system accounting for 70.75% of the ruminant livestock holding. This proportion was higher in AP (74.5%) than MCL farming system (63.6%). Breeding doe holds the xiii dominant proportion of the goat flocks in both farming systems. Among others, cash income from sales of live goat (100% of AP and 73.3% of MCL farming), household consumption of milk and income from sales of milk were the first three purposes of goat production in their order of importance. The majority of goat producers (79.3%) have their own breeding buck. Lower AFK (16.08 vs. 17 month) and KI (7.64 vs. 8.23 month) were recorded for MCL as compared to AP farming system. Feed scarcity, health, predator attack, scarcity of water and market access were the production constraints reported by the respondents. Results of experimental study showed that, the feed biomass supply of wet season pasture was eight fold higher than that of the dry season pasture. Moreover, higher NDF, ADF and lower CP content were found for dry as compared to wet season pasture. Compared to dry season, supplementation to wet season grazing produced higher ADG (73.07 vs. 30.47 g/day), SBW (19.02 vs. 15.69 kg), EBW (15.9 vs. 12.3kg), HCW (8.42 vs. 6.56 kg) and DPS (44.17 vs. 41.73%). The ADG, SBW, EBW and HCW were higher for the most high energy containing feed (T1) followed by the second higher energy (T2) while value for T3 and T4 were statistically similar. Supplementation to wet season grazing promote higher dry skin weight (1.1 vs. 0.96 kg), thickness (1.38 vs. 1.13 mm), mean tear force (58.19 vs. 46.39 N), load at burst (430.59 vs. 329.9 N), load at crack (303.19 vs. 271.46 N) and lower water absorption of leather as compared to dry season. In conclusion, feed problem was the most important constraint hindering the contribution of goat to the livelihood of producers, in both farming system. In addition to the short supply and declining quality in dry season, the wet season pasture did not support maximum performance. The improved performance from high energy supplemented goat group and the high CP found in both seasons pasture may indicate the unbalanced supply of the two most limiting nutrients, energy being more deficient