Asresu Yitayew, Mengistie Taye, Shigdaf Mekuriaw and Hailu Mazengia
This study aimed to examine the rate of commercial off-take and mortality of Washera sheep targeting its effect on emerging market and breed conservation. The main sheep disposal reasons were sale (66%) and death (24%). In the five years off-take data, gross commercial off-take rate of sheep was 39%, which is high relative to the national figure. While mortality rate of sheep (14.53%) is moderate as compared to the highland part of the country. Within the study districts, high gross commercial off-take rate and mortality rate was observed at Quarit district. The highest disposal via sale (40.87%) and death (63.41%) occur at the age of below one year. The result indicates commercial off-take rate can be further enhanced by reducing lamb mortality and culling un-productive old ewe. Value addition (flushing) of lambs is recommended to enhance smallholder farmers’ income and to attract export markets. However, lamb selling has clear counter-balance effect on breed conservation and improvement. Therefore, breeders should design and implement breeding strategies compatible to contradicting features of market and breed conservation.
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