Towards objective measurement of reproductive performance of traditionally managed goat flocks in the drylands of Ethiopia.

ABSTRACT: Reproductive performance is a key determinant for the efficiency of goat production. Regular monitoring of reproductive efficiency is essential to assess management and to avoid financial losses due to poor performance. To allow more objective measurement and comparisons over time, we propose a novel quantitative approach for defining annual reproductive performance by combining common performance indicators into a goat flock index. Commonly used reproductive performance measures were collected from 242 goat flocks in four districts in dryland of Ethiopia between July 2018 and February 2019. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to identify biologically meaningful latent components that explain annual reproductive output (ARO) and annual reproductive wastage (ARW). Together with

SUBMITTER: Alemayehu G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7870603 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature