ODI Livestock breeds WP.pdf - Roger Blench

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Saharan Africa, ruminant livestock are allowed to mate freely, and thus the only control exercised
over the quality of sires is the fertility of individuals. Castration is practised in sub-Saharan Africa
but it is neither common nor carried out with the primary goal of improving genetic quality but
rather to control animals of unsuitable temperament.
Unlike Eurasia, where marked climatic seasonality causes seasonal oestrus, African cattle can come
into oestrus at any time of the year. Oestrus is usually the result of nutritional factors, but this is
only statistical; in any herd there are likely to be some females in oestrus at any given time. Males
can always have access to females and breeding is therefore uncontrolled. What little evidence there
is suggests that the greater the precipitation the more variable the oestrus, since the mother and calf
are more likely to find nutrition subsequent to parturition.
Nevertheless, in the arid and semi-arid regions, some pastoralists give considerable attention is
given to the ancestry of animals, especially males retained or brought in for breeding purposes.
Ful≡e in Niger, who are herding principally Azawak, take great care to ensure that males brought
into a herd are of known quality (Swift, 1984). Herds in the arid region are extremely small in
overall size compared with further south and there are virtually no surplus males, since owners are
compelled to sell male calves to buy grain. In order to ensure the viability of herds and to make sure
that females produce calves during the season of maximum pasture resources, pastoralists do
control both the time and quality of sires.
6.2 Small ruminants
The processes outlined above for cattle also apply to other species, most notably ruminants. Goats
and sheep were spread all over Nigeria in the precolonial era, and West African Dwarf (WAD)
types dominated the forest and derived savannah (Blench, 1993). These seem to have had the same
advantages as taurines, the ability to digest a broad diet and resistant to high-humidity pathogens.
Long-legged savannah breeds are being crossed with WAD goats and sheep or are thriving in purebred
form in regions far south of their previous limit.
6.2.1 Sheep
Sheep are kept both in villages and by pastoralists in the north, and along the northern borders of
Nigeria, there are occupationally specialised pastoralists who depend on very large herds of sheep
for subsistence. Sheep are more prestigious than goats in Islamic ceremonies and substantial
changes in price within the ritual year encourage sheep-production. In the south, the traditional
purpose of sheep was as sacrifices at social and religious ceremonies, and they do not form a
regular source of protein in human diet.
Uda sheep are adapted to long-distance transhumance and are less popular for fattening. Map 11
shows the approximate range of pastoral Uda and the seasonal fluctuations in their southern limit.
Recent years have seen a considerable expansion in the distribution of this breed, since it apparently
resists footrot and other high-humidity pathogens considerably better than the Sahel sheep.
Pastoralists have been exploiting the derived savannah in the south-west of Nigeria, bringing Uda
down to the edge of the forest, thereby bringing the flocks close to the large urban markets of the
south.