A quick survey study was conducted with the objectives of assessing farmers trait preference and productive performance of Sasso provided by Ethio-chicken private poultry farms under village production system in three agro ecologies of SNNPR, Ethiopia. Totally, 135 randomly selected respondents (45 from each agro ecologies) were included in the study. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and one way ANOVA. According to the respondents most of the farmers were currently rearing more Sasso breeds in all agro ecologies (40.4, 72.7 and 47.7 in highland, midland and lowland respectively) than Bovans brown (17, 6.8 and 20.5% in highland, midland and lowland respectively). Current study exposed that 94.4% of respondents on average in all agro ecologies select Bovans brown for egg production while Sasso breed was selected by respondents (97.7%) for having large body size and producing high amount of meat. The information collected on age at first laying disclosed that the mean ages at first laying were 5.9±1.5, 5.7±1, and 7.1± 1.6 months for Sasso, Bovans brown and local breeds respectively. The result in the current study revealed that the average egg production per month of Bovans brown (22.2) is higher than that of Sasso (16.2) and local chickens (12.6). Most respondents repeatedly mentioned feed shortage as the first ranked chicken production constraint in all districts (25.4%) whereas predators (20.1%) were the second and disease was the third problem in overall agro ecologies though there were significant (p<0.05) differences among agro ecologies. To have a clear understanding of the performance of Sasso breeds of ethio-chicken private farms, on-farm and on-station controlled experiment on management practices and feeding strategy is important.
As discussed at the result part, this study has done by reviewing different research papers conducted in southern region peoples nations and nationalities regional state, research institute on poultry feed resource availabilities at different agro-ecologies with its’ average cost variability and formulated based on growers and layers feed by considering nutrient content of it. Accordingly, most common feed types identified at highland areas were Kocho, Taro root and Barley midland areas Kocho, Taro root, Barley, maize and sorghum, sweat potato and lowland area maize, Sweat potato. Not only the locally available feed but also concentrated feeds (noug cake, wheat bran, premixes, salt and minerals) were investigated depending on their accessibility/availability. Therefore, considering these all conditions formulation was done with 100% supplementation of feed to overcome with the feed shortage problems of chicken and to enhance production and productivity of them by using those feed types that available at three different agro ecologies (highland, midland and lowland) in the region.
The study was conducted at Threekebeles namely Tenkaka, Umbulowacho and Kajima kebele in Hawassa Zuria woreda, Sidama Regional state, Ethiopia with the objective of to increase improved poultry breeds option to resource small scale farmers' condition in the region by demonstration and evaluating production performance of Lohman Layers breed. Thirty (30) Participant farmers were selected purposively from three kebeles (10 farmers from each kebele) on the basis of willingness to construct poultry house; to cover all the associated package costs and record the required data. Under each household 30 pullets of Lohmann brown chicken were distributed that purchased from Debre Zeyt poultry Multiplication and Dissemination center. Before the distribution of pullets training was given for those farmers about general management and husbandry of breeds essential data like body weight at monthly basis, mortality and cause of mortality, age at the start of egg lay, body weight at the start of egg lay, weight of egg at the egg lay start has been collected and spread out on the Microsoft office excel 2007. SPSS (version 20.0) was used to analyze data. The survivability of chickens under farmer's level averagely 89.3% up to the age of 22th week or on set of egg lay observed. On averagely 2.8% mortality rate was occurred at 12 th and the main causes of mortality was the disease and predatory. Generally 10.7% mortality rate or 89.3% survival rate was observed in this study. The average weight gain also recorded using sensitive balance to evaluate growth performance. As a result, there was increasing trend of weight gain starting from initial to onset of egg production. So, maximum average body weight gain of Lohmann brown chickens was 1.32 kg at 22 nd week. Similarly, average egg weight has been increased averagely 54.1 gm around 22 nd week of age. Finally, the Lohmann Brown chickens in all aspects of production and productivity were feasible to enhance family nutrition and income generating aspects, as a result has indicated on this study at Hawassa Zuria Woreda or mid land area and the same investigation should be done in other ecologies specially high and low lands of the region.
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