The current study adopted system approach to characterize the current crop/livestock farming system of small scale farms and to assess its economical efficiency in the New Valley Governorate of Egypt. Four districts were identified, Elkharga, Eldakhla, Baris and Balat. A random sample of 120 farms was taken to represent the four studied districts (30 farms from each district). A questionnaire was designed to cover available production resources, farming activities, variable costs and revenues. Data were collected over the agricultural year from September 2015 to August 2016. Least squares analysis of variance technique using a fixed effects linear model was performed to derive technical coefficients of the considered productive traits for livestock and major crops. Whole farm budget was applied for economical efficiency to determine the overall gross margin (GM) per feddan and benefit/cost ratio (B/C) of the four studied districts.

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This study was aimed to recognize the reproductive performance and herd composition of sheep and goat in six studied area located in east and west river Nile at Assiut governorate. A set of semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information from 300 sheep owners based on single-visit-interviews. The study revealed that farmers keep mixed livestock species. Sheep and goat production are the major livestock activity in located study area. The average farm size of households surveyed in Assiut Governorate was 8.2 feddan. The farmers cultivated 50.74% and 50.86 % of their lands for green fodder and field crops in winter and summer, respectively. About 50.89 % of the total farm size area cultivated with animal fodder around the year. In summer 25.37%. Of the area was cultivated with field crops. The reproductive and productive performance of sheep and goats were discussed and data showed that, no significant differences were observed in lambing interval and age at first lambing between sheep and goats, while goats were significantly higher in litter size (P<0.01), lambing mortality (p<0.05) weaning weight (p<0.01) and age at marketing (p<0.05) than sheep. Generally, Sheep and goat production in the studied areas was constrained by different problems; where the major ones are availability and cost of feeds, limitation of land for the expansion of production and poor extension services. Sheep and goats are very important smallholder producers due to their biological factors such as short generation interval, twinning, short growth periods, do not require much space and low food requirements. In this domain, reasons of high lamb mortality rates should be identified and reduced in order to make sheep and goat production profitable and sustainable.

Forty pregnant ewes of more than two successive lambing seasons, at the second half of gestation period, were used to evaluate the effects of supplemented vitamin A on growth performance, blood constituents, levels of vitamin A and β carotene of Saidi ewes and their offspring. Pregnant ewes (48.48 ± 0.09 kg B. W.) were assigned to 4 treatment groups of 10 ewes each in the Farm of Animal Production Department, the Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.. Vitamin A was drenched in the form of pale yellow to brown granular powder as vitamin A acetate content ≥ 1,000,000 IU/g which had been certified by china council for the promotion of international trade. In group I both ewes and lambs were not treated. In group II ewes were not treated while lambs were given 10,000 I.U. In group III ewes were given 150,000 I.U. of vitamin A /head fortnightly while lambs were not treated. In group IV ewes were given 150,000 I.U. of vitamin A /head while lambs were given 10,000 I.U fortnightly. Feeds were offered once daily and fresh tap water was free available allover the day. Ewes were housed in semi open pens under the normal environmental conditions. Before feeding and drinking, ewes were weighed fortnightly throughout the experimental period. Lambs were weighed at birth and then weighed fortnightly throughout the experiment. Blood was obtained every 14 days to evaluate blood constituents in blood serum of ewes and offspring. In general, body weight and daily weight gain in ewes and offspring improved (p>0.05) by supplemented vitamin A. However, blood profiles were not affected by vitamin A supplementation, except mean of platelets volume (MPV) levels were higher (P<0.05) in treated ewes (group IV), while number neutrophils was lower (p<0.05) in untreated lambs (group I) compared with other ones. Concentrations of total protein and globulin were higher (p<0.05) in blood serum of untreated ewes (group I) , while albumin / globulin ratio were higher (p<0.05) in group IV , but levels of albumin reduced (P<0.05) in blood serum of group III compared with other groups. Concentration of total cholesterol increased (p<0.05) in blood serum of group IV compared with other ones. Concentrations of glucose, triglycerides and urea in blood serum were not different (P>0.05) among treatments. Vitamin A and β carotene levels in blood serum of ewes were not different significantly among treatments, while Vitamin A concentration was higher (P<0.05) for lambs in group II and IV of ages 30 and 60 days than other groups. In conclusion, addition vitamin A improved body performance of ewes and their offspring without any harmful effecton blood constituents.