Breeding objectives, selection criteria and factors influencing them for goat breeds in Jordan

Abstract

Defined breeding objectives and selection criteria may never be practiced unless the farmer's perceptions and ideals are accommodated. Finding selection criteria that are widely accepted and implemented is a daunting task that requires considerable time and full interaction between scientists and the farmers. A survey was conducted to investigate the breeding objectives and selection criteria adopted by breeders representing different goat breeds and to determine the factors that affect the breeders’ decisions. The importance of breeding objectives to farmers in Jordan was to increase goat performance by adoption of both objective and subjective selection criteria. However, results showed that many of the goat breeders used subjective more than objective selection criteria. Different factors of goat selection were reviewed to ensure that the selection criteria meet the breeding objectives of the farmers. Furthermore, the factors that foster emphasis on doe/buck selection criterion were discussed to achieve the breeding objectives. It is essential that extension strategies to promote use of objective goat breeding criteria to farmers are put in place. In addition, further extension of subjective selection as well as its impact on achieving defined breeding objectives is required in order to increase farmer awareness of its effectiveness.

Introduction

The goat was one of the earlier animals to be domesticated by humans, about nine thousand years ago (Holcomb, 1994). Today, raising goats is a valuable part of sustainable farming. This has been achieved by integrating goat into farming system, which increases farm economics, health and diversity. Worldwide, goats of 570 known breeds produce a variety of products, including milk, meat and fiber (Galal, 2005). In Jordan, goats have recently received attention by researchers who so far identified and characterized several native breeds (Harb and Khaled, 1984, Zaitoun et al., 2004, Zaitoun et al., 2005). These breeds, Mountain Black, Dhaiwi, Desert and Damascus (Zaitoun et al., 2005), vary in their own morphological characteristics, predominant geographical areas and production systems. There are three production systems of goats in Jordan; sedentary, transhumant and nomadic (Abu-Zanat et al., 2005). The sedentary system is preferred by most goat farmers. In general, Damascus and Mountain black goats are large dual purpose breeds reared around towns and countryside. They are genetically closer to each other compared to other breeds in Jordan (Zaitoun et al., 2005). However, the majority of farmers rear Damascus goats under the sedentary system (DeBoer and Fitzhugh, 1983, Abu-Zanat et al., 2005). On the other hand, Dhaiwi and Desert are dwarf meat type breeds which are reared under the harsh desert conditions. Dhaiwi has the lightest body weight and is genetically closer to the Desert breed than the other two breeds. Finally, crossbred goats are derived mainly from Damascus and Mountain Black breeds (Zaitoun et al., 2005).

It is expected that farmers select each breed considering its own morphological and production characteristics. Breeding objectives assigned to each breed differ so as to maintain biodiversity among the breeds. In general livestock farmers place more weight on morphological selection criteria (subjective selection) than production selection criteria (objective selection). This procedure was implemented in the sheep industry where farmers were performing subjective selection of ewes and rams for improving wool and lambing performance (Gavigan and Parker, 1997). Similarly, some dairy farmers consider selection criteria of non-productive traits such as teat placement and udder depth to achieve breeding objectives of the dairy industry (Tozer and Stokes, 2002). Unlike other industries worldwide, the goat has limited research focused on the breeding objectives and selection criteria (Kosgey et al., 2006). Likewise, no reports have so far been found stating the selection criteria used by Jordanian farmers to achieve their breeding objectives.

Although, certain goat farmers are locally recognized as knowledgeable about breeding objectives, their breeding objectives are not actually defined, selection criteria for maximum return are not used and factors that affect both are not determined. The farmers’ decision of breeding objective and selection criteria could be affected by breed, production system and herd size (Jabbar et al., 1998, Wolfova et al., 2005). For example, Kenyon et al. (2004) identified some factors which maximize the lambing performance of hoggets in New Zealand. On the other hand, low calving percentage is well accepted by farmers in commercial beef farming enterprises in South Africa. The same is not true for communal farming systems where farmers are breeding for high calving percentages (Mokantla et al., 2004). Studying the effect of various factors on livestock breeding objectives has not been considered in-depth for goat farmers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the breeding objectives and selection criteria adopted by farmers of different goat breeds and find out the factors that potentially affected farmers’ decisions.