Presented by Gemeda Duguma (OARI Bako Agricultural Research Center) at the Africa-RISING Quick Feed Project Inception Workshop, Addis Ababa, 7-8 May 2012

1. HORRO SHEEP AND PRODUCTION
SYSTEM IN HORRO AREAS OF
ETHIOPIA
Gemeda Duguma
Bako Agricultural Research Center
OARI
Africa-RISING Quick Feed Project Inception Workshop, Addis Ababa, 7-8 May 2012

2. OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION
05/07/12
 Introduction
 Description of Horro sheep
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 Production system in Horro area (Home tract of
the Horro sheep)
 Interventions made so far and major bottlenecks
 Improvement options
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3. INTRODUCTION
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 Sheep is the second most important livestock species
in Ethiopia
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 The country possesses ≈ 26 million head of sheep
 Ethiopia’s great variation in climate & topography
represents a good reservoir of sheep genotypes
 Diverse sheep breeds and ecotypes are kept in
different regions and ecologies – from the
mountainous highlands to the arid pastoral lowland
areas
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4. INTRODUCTION
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 Few of them have been studied and
characterized – only nine sheep breeds have
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identified by phenotypic and molecular
characterization methods
 Horro sheep is one of the nine sheep breeds
identified & is situated in western Ethiopia
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5. HORRO SHEEP - HABITAT
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 Most dominant sheep breed in western
Ethiopia
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 Widely distributed:
 Parts of west Shewa zone
 Wollega (East, West, Qellam and Horro
Guduru Wollega zones)
 Jimma and Ill-Ababora zones
 These areas approximately lie within:
 35° - 38°E, and
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 6° - 10°N

6. HORRO SHEEP - HABITAT
05/07/12
 Altitudes of the region
range from 1400-2400m
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 Population – estimated
at 3 million
 Horro sheep are reared
by about 6.9 million
people
 Horro breed lives at the
 Home tract is believed to fringes of trypanosome
be Horro district – where infested areas - degree of
the ICARDA-ILRI-BOKU trypanotolerance not
CBSB project is operating
studied 6

7. BREED DESCRIPTION – COAT COLOR
05/07/12
 Horro sheep – almost uniform in color (mostly solid
tan / light brown)
There are also creamy white, dark brown, black or
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
spotted
 The body is covered with short smooth hair
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 Both males and females are hornless

8. BREED DESCRIPTION – GROWTH
PERFORMANCE
05/07/12
 Larger size - most apparent asset of the breed
Breed Category Number LWt (kg) LWt range (kg)
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Afar
Yearling male 12 21.8±0.86 16.8 – 26.0
Yearling female 167 21.0±0.23 12.8 – 30.2
Bonga
Yearling male 5 38.2±1.20a 36.0 – 40.0
Yearling female 80 31.0±0.47b 20.0 – 41.0
Horro
Yearling male 5 31.2±1.70a 25.0 – 35.0
Yearling female 148 26.5±0.31b 20.0 – 39.0
Menz (Mehal Meda) Yearling male 43 24.4±0.63a 14.6 – 38.5
Yearling female 105 20.8±0.42b 12.8 – 32.4
Menz (Molale) Yearling male 26 20.4±0.57a 13.4 – 25.6
Yearling female 87 18.1±0.31b 11.8 – 29.0
Afar Adult ewes 449 24.9±0.23a 13.6 – 38.6
Bonga Adult ewes 357 36.3±0.26b 25.0 – 55.0
Horro Adult ewes 727 33.4±0.18c 21.0 – 56.0 8
Menz (Mehal Meda) Adult ewes 497 23.6±0.16d 15.0 – 35.0
Menz (Molale) Adult ewes 298 21.3±0.20f 13.6 – 29.0

9. BREED DESCRIPTION – GROWTH
PERFORMANCE
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Traits On-Station On-farm (ICARDA-ILRI-
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(BARC) BOKU CBSB)
Birth Weight (kg) 2.7 3.0 (2847)
Weaning Weight (kg) 11.8 13.5 (1837)
Six month weight (kg) 15.4 17.9 (605)
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10. BREED DESCRIPTION –
REPRODUCTION PERFORMANCE
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 Horro sheep – the most prolific breed
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Attributes Indigenous sheep breeds
Afar Bonga Horro Menz
Number of lambings 3.45±0.08 3.56±0.09 3.90±0.10 3.59±0.09
Twining 0.17±0.03 1.13±0.08 1.29±0.09 ‡
Number born 3.61±0.09 4.71±0.15 5.22±0.18 3.59±0.09
Number weaned 2.83±0.10 4.53±0.15 4.71±0.17 3.02±0.10
 ‡ ewes are single bearers
 N.B.: Information taken from owners on mature ewes (ILRI-
ICARDA-BOKU CBSBP)
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11. PRODUCTION SYSTEM IN HORRO
AREAS
05/07/12
 Wet, humid
 Located in Horro Guduru Wollega
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zone,Oromia regional state – western
Ethiopia
 315km from Addis Ababa to the west
 Based on an ILRI classification of
recommendation domains within Africa
(Omolo et al 2009):
 Horro is located in an area mainly
characterized as having high
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agricultural potential

12. PRODUCTION SYSTEM…
 Mixed crop-livestock production is the
05/07/12
predominant production system in the areas
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13. MAJOR LS AND CROPS
RAISED/GROWN
05/07/12
 Cattle, sheep, horses, chicken, goats, mule,
donkeys, etc.
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 Average sheep possession about 12 head /house
hold
 Major crops grown in the area: wheat, barley,
faba bean, field pea, maize, etc.
 Average landholding in the area – about 2ha of
which > 88% used for crop production
 Sheep – the second most important LS species in
the area
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14. SHEEP BREEDING MANAGEMENT
05/07/12
 Breeding – uncontrolled
 Breeding rams – selected from within
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 Critical shortage of breeding rams in the area
(1:72) - male lambs are sold at as early as three
to four months of age
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15. WHY SELL MALES EARLY?
05/07/12
 for immediate cash income, fear of theft and
predation
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 mature rams are unmanageable and wander
away for mating
 Borrowing rams is very common among the
communities (i.e. owners cooperate with no
hesitation even to those individuals who sell
theirs very early) 15

16. MARKETING
05/07/12
 Producers sale their animals:
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 at farm gate, nearby/distant markets
 whenever there is an immediate need for cash
 High price differences between them
 High number of middlemen, less bargaining
power and thus small producer margins
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17. Intervention by ICARDA, ILRI, BOKU & the national
and regional research systems - 2007
Alternative breeding plans & implementation (ICARDA-ILRI-
BOKU)
05/07/12
• Production system study
• Choice experiments
• Own-flock ranking
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• Group-animal ranking
• Weighted ranks
• 3 objective traits
• 4 alternative scenarios (% ram
selected and use time)
Presented to communities for decision
• Base-line information
•Animal identification (ear-tag)
• Recording and monitoring
•Ram screening and selection 17

18. SHEEP BREEDING MANAGEMENT –
(ICARDA-ILRI-BOKU CBSBP
MEMBERS)
05/07/12
 No shortage of breeding rams – by creating revolving fund
with the seed money provided by the project
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 Ewes are mostly served by selected rams
 Number of marketed lambs has increased
 System of breeding rams exchange has improved
 Huge demand to be a member of the project 18
 Record and record keeping have gradually improved
(enumerators)

19. BOTTLENECKS - ICARDA-ILRI-
BOKU CBSBP
05/07/12
 Unable to scale-up/scale-out the improvement
program to wider areas - does have its own
influence on genetic improvement and marketing
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of more uniform animals at a time
 Lack of uniformity among young rams presented
for selection (eg. age differences)
 Production of uniform animals for market
 Matching of lambing with feed availability and
market
 Organizing project members into cooperative
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20. BOTTLENECKS…
05/07/12
 Having legally functioning breeding cooperatives
is important to coordinate and perform
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community-level collective actions like:
 exchange of breeding rams,
 culling of non-selected rams,
 joint procurement of medicaments, supplementary feeds
to condition/fatten non-selected rams before marketing
and marketing of such animals, etc.
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21. MAJOR FEED RESOURCES – HORRO
AREAS
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1) Natural pasture  Two types of grazing
(grazing) lands prevail in the
area: communal and
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2) Crop residues
the private
3) Fallow land
 The communal
4) Crop aftermath, and
grazing area is:
5) Hay from natural  The most commonly
pasture exploited and depleted
type - because all
livestock species found
in the area are kept on
it throughout the year
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22. MAJOR FEED…
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Communal grazing lands – Baqal (left) and Iggu (right)
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23. MAJOR FEED …
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 The communal grazing area is neither protected nor
given any sort of management.
It is decreasing in size & pasture production from
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
time to time:
 population pressure – newly emerging households forced to
settle on it
 animals are kept on it particularly during peak seasons to
minimize labor demand for herding
 still others do so in order to defer their private pasture
land for later use
 various health problems are common – due to different
species /herds / flocks mix
 most communal grazing areas are swampy bottom lands –
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hard to find a sheep with an unaffected liver

24. MAJOR FEED …
05/07/12
 The private grazing  Crop residues & crop
land: aftermaths:
 huge potential (ample feed
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 the most protected
and well managed ) – if properly conserved,
pasture land quality is enhanced &
compared to the utilized
communal grazing  less intervention in the
 sheep and horses do area of conservation &
not have access to utilization of these feed
such type of land resources
 commonly used for
milking cows and oxen
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25. PERIODS OF CRITICAL FEED
SHORTAGE
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 July to September: wet season
 most areas are covered with crops - animals are
restricted indoor lest they damage crop fields
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 though grass is available it is contaminated with feces
due to the large size of animals standing on it for a
longer time each day and hence animals refuse to graze
 April to May: dry season where there is shortage of feed
availability
If properly conserved, crop
residues like wheat, barely,
teff, faba bean and field pea
straws can be used during
this season as 25
supplementary feeds

26. IMPROVEMENT OPTIONS
05/07/12
 Oestrus synchronization
 Cooperative formation
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 Market linkage
 Conservation and enhancing quality of crop residues
 Harvesting and conserving pastures /grasses during time
of ‘plenty’
 Reduction of flock size in some cases and focus on
productivity rather than mere number –
genetic improvement (eg. ILRI-ICARDA-BOKU CBSB)
 Establishing backyard forage production
 Devising intervention mechanisms for the improvement of
communal grazing areas
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27. USAID Quick Feed Project_Inception
05/07/12
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Thank You!

28. FLOCK STRUCTURE
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Aged=older sheep above 5 yr of age; 4PPT=full-mouthed sheep; 3PPT=sheep with 3
pairs of permanent incisors; 2PPT=sheep with 2 pairs of permanent incisors; 28
1PPT=sheep with 1 pair of permanent incisor; 0PPT=sheep with milk teeth