SOKOINE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE

DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL, AQUACULTURE AND RANGE SCIENCES (DAARS)

COURSE NAME: BREEDING STRATEGIES FOR FARM ANIMALS.

COURSE CODE: AS 604

MSc. TROPICAL ANIMAL PRODUCTION

TOPIC: GOAT BREEDING PROGRAM IN KIHONDA WARD.

STUDENT’S NAME; MASWI, M. RAPHAEL

REGISTRATION NUMBER; MTA/D/2024/0010

INSTRUCTOR; PROF. S. MBAGA

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Contents
1 Introduction.........................................................................................................................................2
2 Description of the Environment..........................................................................................................3
3 Public Awareness.................................................................................................................................4
4 Breeding Goals.....................................................................................................................................4
4.1 Primary Goals...............................................................................................................................4
4.2 Secondary Goals..........................................................................................................................5
5 Selection criteria..................................................................................................................................5
5.1 Breeding Bucks............................................................................................................................5
5.2 Breeding Does..............................................................................................................................5
6 Breeding Nucleus.................................................................................................................................5
7 Breeding Strategy................................................................................................................................6
8 Monitoring and Evaluation..................................................................................................................6
9 Sustainability.......................................................................................................................................6
10 Time Line.........................................................................................................................................8
11 Reference......................................................................................................................................10

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1 Introduction
Goat keeping is an important part of small holder farming in Tanzania, playing a crucial role in
the livelihood and income generation of small holder farmers (Nguluma et al., 2018). Goats are
favoured over other livestock because of their small size, making management costs for low
income farmers affordable (Solomon, 2014). Majority of goats in Tanzania are the Small East
African (SEA) breeds, which are composed of many strains distributed through all ecological
zones of the country (Nguluma et al., 2018). Other goats include the imported temperate goats,
their crosses and blended goats.

Goat meat is preferred in many areas in Tanzania contributing to about 22% of meat supply in
the country when combined with mutton (Nguluma et al., 2021). The demand is usually high
during religious festivals and holidays like eid for Muslims, Christmas for Christians and New
Year celebration. Demand for live goats is also plummeting with market opportunities rising in
the gulf countries, Madagascar, and Comoros.

Goat production however, is low compared to the demand and the quality is not satisfactory,
especially in arid and semi-arid areas of the country. This can be simply be attributed by the
predominance of the Small East African (SEA) breeds which are considered hardy and could
easily survive the extensive production system carried out by the majority of goat keepers. These
goats are characterized with low birth weight, long kidding interval (12 months), very advanced
age at first pregnancy (18-24 months), small mature weight (24-28 kg) and low carcass weight
(8-10 kg) (Msalya et al., 2020).

Efforts to improve goat production have been made by introducing temperate breeds, crossing
the exotic goats with the SEA and creation of blended goats (Nguluma et al., 2022). The progress
though is very low in all cases. This is because of the failure of these breeds to fully adapt to
harsh environments of the tropics associated with diseases, low feed quality and availability in
the dry season and the extensive system of agriculture that is preferred by most farmers
(Nandolo et al., 2016). Selection within indigenous breeds is highly suggested in areas like
Tanzania where the maintenance of traits that help with survivability is paramount.

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This breeding program aims to improve the production qualities of goats at Kihonda ward in
Morogoro CBD while considering the environmental and financial constraints associated with
production.

2 Description of the Environment

Kihonda ward is the most populated area in Morogoro CBD located along the Dodoma main
road. It is agreeable to say it is the most arid area in the Municipal with little vegetation and
water sources. Rainfall in Kihonda ward is always less compared to other areas of the municipal,
especially those along the Mount Uluguru. This makes the area experience a very long and
severe drought compared to other areas in the CBD. Most areas in the Kihonda are rocky leaving
little space that can favour vegetation growth. The space is made even less available for forage
by the growing human settlements and farm activities in the area.

Goat keepers in Kihonda ward depend on natural forage for the nutritional requirements of their
goats. Forage is abundantly available in the short rainy period experienced in the area. Droughts
are very drastic and force the goat keepers to walk long distances to find forage or minimize their
stock to reduce the impact of the lack of forages during the period.

Despite these constraints, goat herders remain optimistic and have tried to improve the traits in
their herds but to no avail. Common improvement goals for most herders are goat size, twinning
ability, mothering character and kidding interval. With these improvements in mind, farmers aim
to increase the herd size to meet the market demand, whilst increasing chances to negotiate
higher prices per goat. Most farmers try to add improved goats from various areas like Iringa but
the efficiency of these efforts in improvement is still heart breaking. Herds are still predominated
by the Small East Africa (SEA) breeds obtained from Singida, Dodoma and rural areas. The
silver lining in this situation is that the improved breeds that were incorporated in the herds have
left offsprings that show superior characteristics when compared to Small East African breeds
yet they are able to survive the dry season in the area. This can be an opportunity of
improvement by ensuring that breeding concentrates on the superior lineages rather than random
breeding.

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3 Public Awareness
Since breed improvements are done individually by farmers, it is necessary to create a sense of
awareness that combined efforts among goat owners in the ward would be the only option to
make the improvement possible. Corroborating with the goat owners themselves is important to
help a successful breeding (Karnuah et al., 2018). Through interaction with the farmers the goals
will be set.

Most farmers at least have knowledge on management aspects like vaccinating, deworming and
pest control. Record keeping and regular follow ups are the issues causing poor management in
the area. Proper training should be offered to the goat owners on how to make proper records and
how to use them in managerial practices. The merit they experience would help motivate them to
keep on taking records.

The program will be clearly briefed to the farmers to get their views on an approach that would
work for them. Their participation consent would be the cradle of the program. Willing farmers
will be assigned into groups of fifteen based on their locations for easy monitoring. A leader
would be chosen among them to help oversee the meetings and progress reports on the project.
Group members would be able to promptly assist one another in case of any challenges before
the officers reach the site.

4 Breeding Goals
The goals will be obtained by interviewing farmers during visits and observing the negotiation
criteria used to set goat prices in the market. The goals were then divided to primary and
secondary goals based on their level of importance as listed below.

4.1 Primary Goals

 Increase growth rate for a higher mature weight (above 50kg).
 Improve milk yield and quality to ensure sufficient nutrition for kids.
 Improve reproductive traits mainly twinning ability, kidding rate and kidding interval.
 Improve tolerance to drought to increase survival chances in the dry season.

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4.2 Secondary Goals
 Increase tolerance to common diseases in the area, mainly Contagious Caprine
Pleuropneumomia (CCPP).
 Retain white coat color.

5 Selection criteria
Since the program aims to improve the traits within herds, goats that are to be used in the
breeding scheme will be bought from the farmers. Observation of traits would be done from birth
to a year before deciding whether the goat will be eligible for breeding. Traits that will be
observed for does and bucks are;

5.1 Breeding Bucks

The bucks will be selected based on their birth weight (above 2.7 kg), weaning weight (above 10
kg) and yearling weight (above 15 kg). Matured bucks will be selected based on the
performance records of their offsprings available, body conformation, their ability to mount and
reproductive capacity. Medical records and current health status will also be considered. Bucks
that show lesser traits during every stage of selection are castrated to ensure that those that will
be associated to breeding are just those selected to be superior.

5.2 Breeding Does

Does selected included those with birth weight above 2.5 kg, weaning weight above 8kg and
yearling weight above 13kg. Matured does selected are those that could produce more than 3
healthy kids in a year with kidding interval less than 180 days. Does with bigger udder sizes and
higher nurturing ability will be selected to ensure the kids attain proper nutrition.

Superior bucks and does were bought by the project and stationed in a breeding unit at the
Morogoro Prison Service farm at Kihonda, Veta.

6 Breeding Nucleus
The breeding nucleus will be an open nucleus, allowing only bucks to be taken from farms to the
nucleus. The selected goats will be tested to meet the required performances and the best does
and bucks will be selected to create the top tier. The top tier would contain 50 does and 5 bucks.

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The offsprings of the top tier goats would be selected and the best bucks would be sold to the
farmers.

Savannah breed and Boer goats would be added to the nucleus occasionally to create more
diversity with time whilst improving goat size.

7 Breeding Strategy
The selected goats would be mated to produce offsprings that will be selected and the bucks with
promising traits within the year will be sold to the farmers for breeding while those with lesser
traits will be castrated and raised for meat. The superior does will be returned to the nuclear herd
to improve production. Does and bucks with lesser attributes will be sold for meat.

After buying the superior bucks, farmers will be encouraged to castrate all their bucks to ensure
that the lesser traits are segregated from the herd pool. Buck rotation will also be encouraged to
help with diversifying the traits.

8 Monitoring and Evaluation

All management practices would be thoroughly maintained to ensure the health trends of the
animals are effectively monitored and recorded. Regular inspections, vaccinations and
deworming activities will be thoroughly done.

Performance testing would be done through progeny testing to see for those bucks and does that
significantly produce the desirable offsprings.

The Best Unbiased Linear Prediction (BLUP) would be used to execute the values of
performance qualities recorded to determine the genetic progress of the Program.

After evaluation, the proposed results will help review the breeding goals and see any chances of
adjustments that will be required to improve the program.

9 Sustainability
The program will be funded by the Morogoro Municipal Council through the animal
improvement campaign. The campaign is meant to help animal producers in the municipal to

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attain the best possible results. Together with financing, the CBD will offer their livestock
officers to aide in issues like; creating community awareness, monitor the recording schemes and
analysis on the program. In corroboration with the CBD, the Kihonda Prison Service farm will
provide housing facilities and pasture lands for the entire production period for the breeding
nucleus.

Regular vising of farmers to see the progress in their herds and accuracy in recording will help
keep track of progress of the program. This will also help realize the challenges facing breed
improvement and make way for solution finding. Awarding farmers that show a committed
execution of the program will be done yearly to motivate farmers to be consistent on the scheme.

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10 Time Line
year Major activity Minor activities
1 Initiating the program  Engaging the community to create awareness and see the
readiness of farmers to participate.
 Training livestock officers and farmers that would be
involved in the program on best managerial, record keeping
and breeding practices.
 Creating a sense of familiarity and trust between farmers and
officers.
 Setting up facilities for housing, breeding and record keeping.
 Creating a feeding plan for the nucleus.
 Recording traits of the available population.
2-3 Establishing the Scheme  Selecting the foundation stock based on the baseline data.
 Creating a nucleus.
 Implementing controlled breeding through selective mating.
 Recording offspring traits from birth to 1 year old and
comparing them to their parent performance.
 Health monitoring and management.
4-6 Genetic Progress  Using progeny testing to identify the best breeding bucks and
Monitoring and does.
dissemination.  Using BLUP analysis to determine the heritability and
correlation of selected traits.
 Disseminating the selected bucks to the farmers.
 Diversify the nucleus with improved bucks from other areas.
7-9 Scaling and Optimization  Gathering of feedback on the performance of disseminated
bucks in reference to breeding goals.
 Extending the program to other areas that seem to fit the
breeding profile.
 Adjusting the breeding program based on the impact it has
shown through feedback analysis.
10 Evaluation and awarding  Evaluating the genetic gain acquired over the whole period.

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 Recognize the most committed participants in the program
and awarding them.
 Sharing the knowledge for better development of the
program.

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11 Reference
Karnuah, A. B., Dunga, G., & Rewe, T. (2018). Community based breeding program for improve
goat production in Liberia. 1(5), 216–221. https://doi.org/10.15406/mojcrr.2018.01.00036

Msalya, G. M., Nguluma, A. S., & Chenyambuga, S. (2020). Characterization of carcass and
preference of consumers for meat from four strains of the Tanzania small East African
goats. March. https://doi.org/10.18697/ajfand.90.18105

Nandolo, W., Wurzinger, M., Mészáros, G., Tassell, C. V. A. N., Gondwe, T., Mulindwa, H.,
Lamuno, D., & Sölkner, J. (2016). IDENTIFICATION OF BREEDING OBJECTIVES IN
COMMUNITY - BASED GOAT BREEDING PROGRAMMES IN MALAWI. 103–108.

Nguluma, A., Kyallo, M., Mekuriaw, G., Loina, R., & Nziku, Z. (2022). Typology and
characteristics of indigenous goats and production systems in different agro - ecological
zones of Tanzania. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-022-03074-1

Nguluma, A., Kyallo, M., Mekuriaw, G., Loina, R., Nziku, Z., Chenyambuga, S., & Pelle, R.
(2021). Mitochondrial DNA D- loop sequence analysis reveals high variation and multiple
maternal origins of indigenous Tanzanian goat populations. September, 15961–15971.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8265

Nguluma, A. S., Huang, Y., Zhao, Y., Chen, L., Msalya, G., Lyimo, C., & Guangxin, E. (2018).
Assessment of genetic variation among four populations of Small East African goats using
microsatellite markers Assessment of genetic variation among four populations of Small
East African goats using microsatellite markers. February.
https://doi.org/10.4314/sajas.v48i1.14

Nguluma, A. S., Msalya, G. M., Lyimo, C. M., & Ee, G. (2018). Polymorphisms of myostatin
gene and its association with growth in two strains of small east African and blended goats
of Tanzania Polymorphisms of Myostatin gene and its association with growth in two
strains of Small East African and Blended goats of Tanzania. February.

Solomon, G. (2014). Design of community based breeding programs for two indigenous goat
breeds of Ethiopia Solomon Abegaz Guangul Doctoral Thesis January 2014 Vienna ,
Austria Design of community based breeding programs for two indigenous goat breeds of

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Ethiopia Solomon Abeg. January.

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