Morphological Characterization and Production Performance of Begait Sheep Breed in Tigrai, Ethiopia

This study was conducted in two districts of Tigray region, northern Ethiopia in 510 animals from 144 small holder farmers aimed to estimate morphological parameters and evaluate production traits, and inbreeding levels in Begait sheep. Data were collected between 2019 and 2022 and analyzed using descriptive statistics of SPSS V20 and GLM of SAS V9.1 for the qualitative data and linear body measurements respectively. Large muscular body frame, long thin tail, markedly convex facial profile were distinctive features of Begait sheep population with predominantly plain (49.80%) coat color followed by plain (44.51%) and spotted (5.69 %) of various colors. Of the total Begait sheep, white with black patchy (49.00%) was the most frequent coat color followed by white (33.33%), light red (7.45%) and fawn (4.31%). The population has relatively heavy live body weight and large body size with a mean live body weight of 55.76 ±0.70kg and 42.40 ±0.36kg for males and females respectively, which indicates the potential of the population for meat production. GLM revealed almost all the morphometric measurements were significantly (p < 0.05) different among districts, sexes and age groups of Sheep. The higher body weights (49.22 ±1.09 kg) and most other linear body measurements were also recorded in the age group of three pair of permanent incisors (3PPI), whereas the lower values (41.49 ±0.85 kg for body weight) were recorded in the age group of one pair of permanent incisors (1PPI) and bdy weight was significantly correlated (P<0.01) with linear body measurements with the correlation coefficients ranging from 0.069 - 0.768. Begait sheep are known as early maturing and prolific breed with Twin (39.66%) and triple (0.98%) births. To concluded Begait sheep may possess unique adaptive features that should be useful and considered in designing and implementing a sustainable sheep improvement program.