This study was conducted in Maale district Southwest Ethiopia with the objective of evaluating the productive and reproductive performance of Maale goats under agro-pastoral management conditions. Thirty households that have flocks numbers of more than ten were purposely selected and monitored from July 2018 to July 2019. Growth data of birth weight, three month, six month, nine month and yearly weight; birth type and parity were collected. The data were analyzed using the General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SPSS (21). The overall mean birth weight of the kids was 2.57±0.05 kg (males 2.68±0.07 and females 2.47±0.07 kg). The weaning and six months weight of kids was significantly different (p<0.05) between sexes of kids with 7.66±0.25 and 6.90±0.23 kg for male and female kids, respectively. The average body weight of males and females for six months; nine months and yearly were 11.57±0.30, 10.42±0.28; 15.42±0.27, 14.69±0.25 and 19.03±0.28, 18.43±0.25 kg, respectively. The birth type showed a significant (p<0.05) difference in birth weight. The result further indicated that the weaning weight of single and twin kids was highly significant (p< 0.001) and recorded as 7.66±0.25 and 6.90±0.23 kg, respectively. The overall pre-weaning average daily gain was 51.64±1.89 g day-1 (54.47±2.81 male and 48.93±2.53 g day-1 female). The birth type was significantly (p=0.01) different in pre-weaning growth rate and recorded 57.24±1.63 and 45.24±3.59 g day-1 for single and twin kids, respectively. Twins had higher post-weaning average daily gain than single and recorded as 43.61±1.48 and 40.76 ±0.70 g day-1, respectively. It was concluded that, along with other management interventions, the reproduction and growth performance of Maale goats is reasonably good and suited for community-based breeding strategies and higher performance could be expected. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 12(2): 7-13, December 2022

The objective of this study was to evaluate and demonstrate the production performance of “Koekoek Potchefstroom” chickens in pastoral areas of Hammer woreda. Twenty women pastorals from rural areas were purposely selected based on their interest to construct chicken shelters or who had house access, interest to rear exotic chickens, well-managing ability and up-come all related challenges, enough time for chickens, cover the required inputs costs and ability to recording production data. Training on poultry housing construction, poultry health, feeds and feeding, watering and important data recording system were given. Quantitative data like body weight, egg weight and first egg laying date were taken. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (v-21). Results revealed that the mortality of chicks from 45 to 60 days was 5%. The overall mortality from 60 days to 90 days was 8.75%. About 83.5% of the chicken survived until the laying age. The overall mean body weights were 0.96, 1.91, 2.14 and 2.12 kg at 3, 5, 7 and 9th month’s age, respectively. Body weight at different ages was significantly different between the sexes. The average weight of eggs at 24, 28, 34 and 38 weeks of age were 47.3±0.9, 47.3±1.1, and 48.2±0.9 and 46.9±1.3 g, respectively.  Age at first egg laying was recorded as 167.4 days. The major causes of death were diseases (Coccidiosis) and poor management practices like lack of follow-up, letting them go out of their home and allowing them to scavenge and poor nutrition. In a conclusion, this breed has been familiarized with scavenging and partial-scavenging production areas of the existing pastoral system with appropriate housing, feeding and good health service provision. Verification in large-scale pastoral areas with different breeds should also be seen to look at its full potential as compared to agrarian areas. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 12(2): 1-6, December 2022