The aim of the study was to compare chemical composition and quality attributes of meat between male long fat tailed sheep (n = 17) and Small East African goats (n = 17) existing in Tanzania. Animals of 1.5 to 2 yrs in age and live body weight of 22.59±0.50 kg were purchased from livestock auction markets. Animals were fasted for 18 h and slaughtered according to standard halal procedure. Left carcasses were dissected into muscles, fat and bone and the muscle and fat were mixed together and chemically analysed. Meat quality attributes were measured based on Muscle longissimus thoracis et lumborum excised from right sides of carcasses. Goat carcasses had significant higher (p = 0.0302) moisture content (70.65% vs 66.96%) and lower (p = 0.0027) ether extract (2.49% vs 5.82%) than sheep but there was no significant species differences in protein and ash content. Sheep had lower (p = 0.0157) ultimate pH (5.74 vs 5.88) and higher (p = 0.0307) temperature (3.77°C vs 3.15°C) than goat carcasses. Sheep meat had lower (p = 0.0021) shear force values (29.83 N vs 34.07 N) than goat. Within species, at day 9 of ageing, meat tenderness improved (p = 0.0001) by 44.63% and 34.18% for sheep and goat. Pooled data showed that at d 9 of ageing, meat tenderness improved (p = 0.0001) by 39.25% (from 39.54 N to 24.02 N) compared to tenderness of meat which was not aged at day one of slaughter. The present study demonstrated the differences in chemical composition and quality attributes of meat existing between sheep and goats originated from East Africa.

This study characterized breeding, housing, feeding and health management practices in positive deviants and typical average performing smallholder dairy farms in Tanzania. The objective was to distinguish management practices that positive deviant farms deploy differently from typical farms to ameliorate local prevalent environmental stresses. In a sample of 794 farms, positive deviants were classified on criteria of consistently outperforming typical farms (p < 0.05) in five production performance indicators: energy balance ≥ 0.35 Mcal NEL/d; disease-incidence density ≤ 12.75 per 100 animal-years at risk; daily milk yield ≥ 6.32 L/cow/day; age at first calving ≤ 1153.28 days; and calving interval ≤ 633.68 days. The study was a two-factor nested research design, with farms nested within the production environment, classified into low- and high-stress. Compared to typical farms, positive deviant farms had larger landholdings, as well as larger herds comprising more high-grade cattle housed in better quality zero-grazing stall units with larger floor spacing per animal. Positive deviants spent more on purchased fodder and water, and sourced professional veterinary services (p < 0.001) more frequently. These results show that management practices distinguishing positive deviants from typical farms were cattle upgrading, provision of larger animal floor spacing and investing more in cattle housing, fodder, watering, and professional veterinary services. These distinguishing practices can be associated with amelioration of feed scarcity, heat load stresses, and disease infections, as well as better animal welfare in positive deviant farms. Nutritional quality of the diet was not analyzed, for which research is recommended to ascertain whether the investments made by positive deviants are in quality of feeds.

The aim of the experiment was to study the effect of feeding system on meat quality characteristics of Small East African (SEA) goats and their crosses with Norwegian (SEA×N) goats finished under small scale farming conditions. Twenty four castrated goats at the age of 18 months with live body weight of 16.7±0.54 kg from each breed (SEA and SEA×N) were distributed in a completely randomized design in a 2×3 factorial arrangement (two breed, and three dietary treatments). The dietary treatments were; no access to concentrate (T0), 66% access to ad libitum concentrate allowance (T66) and 100% access to ad libitum concentrate allowance with 20% refusal (T100) and the experimental period was for 84 days. In addition, all goats were allowed to graze for 2 hours daily and later fed grass hay on ad libitum basis. Daily feed intakes were recorded for all 84-days of experiment after which the animals were slaughtered. Feed intake of T100 animals was 536 g/d, which was 183 g/d higher than that of T66 group. Supplemented goats had significantly (p<0.05) better feed conversion efficiency. The SEA had higher (p<0.05) hot carcass weight (8.2 vs 7.9 kg), true dressing percentage (54.5 vs 53.3) and commercial dressing percentage (43.3 vs 41.6) compared to SEA×N. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) for dressing percentage and carcass conformation among supplemented goats except fatness score, total fat depots and carcass fat which increased (p<0.05) with increasing concentrate levels in the diet. Increasing level of concentrate on offer increased meat dry matter with subsequent increase of fat in the meat. Muscle pH of goats fed concentrate declined rapidly and reached below 6 at 6 h post-mortem but temperature remained at 28°C. Cooking loss and meat tenderness improved (p<0.05) and thawing loss increased (p<0.05) with ageing period. Similarly, meat tenderness improved (p<0.05) with concentrate supplementation. Shear force of muscles varied from 36 to 66, the high values been associated with Semimembranosus and Gluteobiceps muscles. The present study demonstrates that there are differences in meat quality characteristics of meat from SEA goats and their crosses with Norwegian breeds finished under small scale farming conditions in rural areas. Therefore, concentrate supplementation of goats of both breeds improves meat quality attributes.

In smallholder dairy-cattle farming, identifying positive deviants that attain outstanding performance can inform targeted improvements in typical, comparable farms under similar environmental stresses. Mostly, positive deviants are identified subjectively, introducing bias and limiting generalisation. The aim of the study was to objectively identify positive deviant farms using the Pareto-optimality ranking technique in a sample of smallholder dairy farms under contrasting stressful environments in Tanzania to test the hypothesis that positive deviant farms that simultaneously outperform typical farms in multiple performance indicators also outperform in yield gap, productivity and livelihood benefits. The selection criteria set five performance indicators: energy balance, disease-incidence density, daily milk yield, age at first calving and calving interval. Findings proved the hypothesis. A few farms (27: 3.4%) emerged as positive deviants, outperforming typical farms in yield gap, productivity and livelihood benefits. The estimated yield gap in typical farms was 76.88% under low-stress environments and 48.04% under high-stress environments. On average, total cash income, gross margins and total benefits in dairy farming were higher in positive deviants than in typical farms in both low- and high-stress environments. These results show that the Pareto-optimality ranking technique applied in a large population objectively identified a few positive deviant farms that attained higher productivity and livelihood benefits in both low- and high-stress environments. However, positive deviants invested more in inputs. With positive deviant farms objectively identified, it is possible to characterise management practices that they deploy differently from typical farms and learn lessons to inform the uptake of best practices and extension messages to be directed to improving dairy management.

The aim of the pilot study was to evaluate slaughter characteristics and carcass composition of indigenous long fat tailed sheep and Small East African goats purchased from the auction markets slaughtered at 1.5 to 2 yrs of age and 20 kg to 25 kg live weight. The animals were slaughtered according to halal standard procedures. The left half carcasses were jointed into eight wholesale joints, and dissected into muscles, fat and bone, which were weighed separately. Sheep had greater (p<0.05) slaughter BW (22.29 kg vs 20.50 kg) and empty BW (20.17 kg vs 18.67 kg) than goats (p<0.05). Dressing percentages were lower (p<0.001) in sheep than goats when carcass weight was expressed as percentage of slaughter BW (42.31% and 47.15%) and empty BW (46.75% and 51.79%). Sheep carcasses had lower (p<0.001) proportion (66.18% vs 71.64%) of muscles and higher (p<0.001) proportion of fat (7.41% vs 3.44%) than goat carcasses. Sheep had proportionally lighter (p<0.001) shoulder (18.89% vs 22.68%) and heavier (p<0.05) proportion of chump (7.916% vs 6.76%) and main rib (8.12% vs 7.07%). Sheep had more (p<0.001) muscles in the leg (28.83% vs 27.08%) and main rib (7.62% vs 6.36%) than goats. Sheep had less (p<0.001) muscles (20.28% vs 23.56%) in shoulder joints when expressed as percentage of total muscle of carcasses. It is concluded that there are differences in sheep and goat both in terms of carcass and joint yields and composition. The present study also implies that there is need to consider setting different meat cuts and prices for these cuts when one takes into account the differences in muscle distribution within joints in sheep and goats.