SHEEP AND GOATS MANAGEMENT

By

Mr. Jackson Muchiri

Department of Animal Production
University of Nairobi
28th October, 2022
 Advantages of shoats over large
ruminants
1. Low capital investment
2. Low feed requirement
3. Small space requirement
4. Spreading risk of loss
5. Manageable sized products when marketing is a challenge
6. Faster maturity= Faster Return On Investment (ROI)
7. Faster herd growth (twins, triplets and quadruplets):
disadvantage of freemartins
8. Their meat is acceptable in most religions
9. Easily converted to cash
10.Healthier products
 BIOLOGY OF SHEEP AND GOATS
Trait Time
• Males
• Age at sexual maturity 5-10months
– Light service of females 12-18 months
– Full service of females >2 years

• Females
• Age at sexual maturity 5-12 months
• Age at first breeding 12-18 months
• Oestrous cycle
– Between cycles 15-19days
– Return to heat after lambing/ kidding 21 days
– Length of gestation 140-150days
– Lambing/ kidding interval 8-9 months
 1. Fertility

•  Oestrous cycle can be affected by:

1. Suckling
2. Absence of a ram/ buck (useful when
practicing synchronized breeding)
3. Season (nutrition)
2. Gamete Production

• Females: The main factors that affect ovulation rate

are:
• Genotype (breed)
• Body condition
• Age.
3. Mating behaviour:
• Controlled mating achieves:
– Selective breeding
– Synchronized breeding
• Advantages of synchronized breeding:
– Easier management
– Better efficiency of males (less aggression
towards each other)
BREEDING CONTROL: OPTION 1
(anti-mating apron)
 BREEDING CONTROL: OPTION 2
• The ‘Ram effect’ or ‘Buck effect’
• Separate males and females. The females should not see,
hear or smell the males
• After 3-6 weeks, introduce a teaser male (either add a
vasectomized male, a fertile male with an apron or keep a
fertile male on a paddock/ housing next to the females)
• Female to teaser male ratio is 200:1
• Females will start cycling after 1-6 days
• Introduce the breeding males 14 days after introduction of
the teaser male
• An 8 day mating period. Female to male ratio of 10-20:1
• Attach a marking harness on the males 2-3 days before
introduction to the females: identify females bred
BREEDING HARNESS
BREEDING SUCCESS?
BREEDING TRACABILITY
4. Pregnancy:
• High temperature effects:
– During mating:
• delay implantation of fertilized ovum
(depress conception)
• reduces the efficiency of rams and bucks.
– During pregnancy depress growth of foetus
(weak lambs/ kids).
• Vaccinations administered during 4th month.
Also shearing around udder and crutching
should be done around this time.
5. Mothering ability:
•  first time mothers and mothers with twins or
triplets can easily abandon their young
especially if they do not bond well soon after
lambing/ kidding due to disturbance or poor
nutrition
• Apply salty water on lamb/kid to encourage
licking and bonding
6. Lactation:
• During the first 6-8 weeks after birth, the
lamb/ kid is dependent on mother's milk thus
inhibiting oestrus cycling.
•  Factors affecting milk yield are:
• Plane of nutrition of the mother
•  The appetite of the lamb
•  twining – ewes/ does yield 50% more milk
than those with single births.
 7. Products
•  There are five major products from small
ruminants:
– Meat
– Wool
– Milk
– Skin
– Manure
 Meat
• Carcass yield (proportion of edible parts or killing-out
percentage) = 45-50%
• However, in the tropics this may not be an important
measure as the offals and other parts are eaten and
are valuable.
• Meat products:
– Mature mutton/ chevon: more than 18 months
old (most common)
– Yearling mutton/ chevon: about 12-18 months old
(most appropriate for rangelands in Kenya)
– Lamb/ kid meat (6-8 months old): requires high
quality feeds. High end/ niche markets
 Milk
• Importance increasing due to their proven
benefits on the health of immune depressed
humans (especially HIV+), and other diseases
such as lactose intolerance, diabetes,
cholesterol levels etc
 Wool
• The industry requires quantity and quality
• Quantity affected by: Nutrition (check
sheepbytes.ca for making nutritionally balanced
diets)
• Quality affected by:
– Nutrition (absence of sulphur containing amino
acids, copper)
– Excessive moisture
– Excessive solar radiation
• Skins
• Blemishes may be caused by:
– Branding
– Cuts and scratches (barbed wire, thorns),
– Ecto-parasites (ticks, mites, fleas)
– Bruises at slaughter.

• Manure
• Has recently become important as soil fertility
deteriorates and chemical fertilizers become
expensive
•  Goat manure has been used to raise fish in Asian
countries.
 8. Shearing
• Crutching (ewes) and ringing (rams)
• Shear:
– Wool rams: monthly
– Wool ewes: two months before mating and two
months before lambing (increases lamb birth
weight).
 9. Common management
practices
• Castration
• Ear marking
• Docking
• Debudding (removing buds of horns)
• done early (7-14days) but under 4 weeks to
minimize stress.
 RECORDS
•   Three types of records are important:
– Biological performance (fertility, growth)
– Efficiency of feed conversion (intensive
systems only)
– Economic performance
•  Performance records can be flock based or
individual based. Individual based only
important when producing breeding animals.
DETERMINING THE AGE OF
SHOATS
DETERMINING AGE OF SHEEP
DETERMINING AGE OF GOATS
FEEDING MANAGEMENT
FEEDING MANAGEMENT
 THE END

THANK YOU