The majority of Tswana sheep and goats in Botswana are indigenous. These animals provide income, employment and food security to the resource-poor farmers. Limited characterization of these species has been done, resulting in poor efforts to fully exploit and conserve them. The objective of this study was to phenotyically characterize indigenous sheep and goats countrywide. Measurements were collected from 2783 goats and 1282 sheep kept by traditional farmers, covering nearly all the districts of Botswana. In each district a total of 15 farmers with sheep and goats were selected randomly and records were taken on 4-12 animals per farm, depending on average district flock size. Traits recorded for each animal were body length, body weight, ear length, heart girth, height at withers, hip width, neck length, rump height, shoulder width, tail length (goats only) and horn length. Age (estimated from dentition) and sex of the animals were also recorded and vegetation type was noted. The data were analysed using the general linear model procedure in Statistical Analysis System. Prior to analyses, a main effects model of sex, age and vegetation type was fitted. Later, two types of analyses were done: (i) within a vegetation type fitting sex and age and their interaction, and (ii) within sex fitting age and vegetation type and their interaction. Least-squares means were separated using Student's t-test. Sex, age and vegetation significantly (p<0.05) affected the magnitude of traits. Phenotypic body measurements of castrates were generally higher than in both females and entire males, which were similar. The body measurements of younger animals were less than those of older age groups since the former were still growing compared to the latter. Different vegetation types promoted different body measurements, which should be expected due to differences in nutrient supply from different vegetation types. The indigenous breeds of sheep and goats can be classified as medium-size breeds. The breeds should be conserved since they are well suited to the harsh environment of Botswana where drought and livestock diseases are ever present. Efforts should be undertaken to characterize them genetically and increase their productivity.

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A total of 153 communal farmers in four agro-ecological regions of Botswana were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The aims of the survey were to characterise existing communal goat production systems, evaluate the importance of goats to farmers and identify breeding practices and constraints encountered in goat production in Botswana. Data was collected on socio-economic parameters, general and breeding management practices and major constraints limiting goat production in Botswana. All respondents were small-scale communal farmers with 63% respondents practising mixed crop-livestock farming and 37% keeping livestock as their primary activity. The majority (33%) of respondents were older than 60 years. Over 80% of the farmers kept goats for cash required for tuition, school uniforms and household commodities as well as re-stocking of animals. Most farmers (62%) kept indigenous crossed genotypes. Generally, uncontrolled mating was practised with the majority of farmers (41%) using on-farm reared bucks for more than two years of breeding and communal bucks (36%) as an alternative. The major constraints limiting goat productivity in communal areas included uncontrolled breeding, predators, theft and diseases. Issues raised by farmers should be considered in designing and implementing effective breeding programs for goats to improve their overall productivity and contribution to poverty alleviation in these communities.

Tswana goats that were kept in communal systems in three agro-ecological regions in Botswana were characterized according to phenotypic measurements and genotypic data. Objective measurements for 123 goats included bodyweight (BW), body length (BL), heart girth (HG), height at withers (HW), and tail length (TL), while qualitative traits included coat colour and presence or absence of horns and beards. Age was estimated based on dentition. Hair samples were collected from 48 of the phenotyped animals in the largest region (central region) and genotyped with the Illumina Goat50K SNP chip. Mixed coat colour was predominant and across regions 95% of the goats were horned and bearded. Goats in the northwest region had the lowest BW and significantly higher HG values in all age groups compared with other regions. Goats over four years old in the central and northwest regions were significantly longer in body compared with the ones from the southern region. The average expected heterozygosity and inbreeding coefficient were 0.423 ± 0.03 and 0.009 ± 0.05, respectively. Principal component analysis clustered most animals, with a few outliers. The effective population size has decreased over time and at 13 generations ago was estimated at 266. There were high genetic and phenotypic variations in the indigenous Tswana goats, which should be exploited to increase performance through within-breed selection and structured crossbreeding.

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