HERD COMPOSITION, PRODUCTION LEVEL AND PHYSICAL APPEARANCE OF SHEEP KEPT UNDER NEW VALLEY OASES FARMING SYSTEMS.

ABSTRACT
The study was aimed to recognize the herd composition, sheep productivity and physical appearance in two oases (Dakhla and Farafra) located in the Egyptian western desert, New Valley. A set of semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information from 245 sheep owners based on single-visit-interviews. The study revealed that farmers keep mixed livestock species. Sheep production is the major livestock activity in Farafra oasis. On the other hand, households in Dakhla oasis own higher number of cattle per herd; this may be due to relatively larger land holdings that can be cultivated, as well as, more land allocation for green fodder in this area. About three quarter of sheep in the two oases have a white body, legs and tail colors. The prevailing sheep breeds raised in the studied areas are fat tail sheep in Dakhla flocks and thin tail sheep in Farafra flocks. The average litter size and weaning weight of fat tail sheep were significantly lower (1.22 and 12.2 kg, respectively) than that in thin tail sheep (1.37 and 17.4 kg, respectively). Higher lamb mortality rates (17%) were recorded for Dakhla flocks comparing to Farafra flocks (9%). Meanwhile, no significant differences were detected among sheep of the two oases for other traits such as age at first lambing, lambing interval and age at marketing. In average, females in the studied areas gave first birth at age 1.3 years and lambed every 8.6 months. It is concluded that the level of production of sheep in the studied areas is generally low. The relatively better performance of Farafra sheep may due to genetic superiority of the breed and /or better-feed situation of the area. Reasons of high lamb mortality rates, especially in Dakhla flocks, should be identified and reduced in order to make sheep production profitable and sustainable.