Research Results - (PDF, 101 mb) - USAID

availability, described by such parameters as
distance walked, time spent grazing, biting rate,
grazing efficiency, and diet quality,
Characterizing Livestock Production
Systems in the Semi-Arid Steppe
Most of the range research in the Moroccan
SR-CRSP has addressed technical questions
regarding the forage resource and its utilization
by grazing small ruminants. The value of this
kind of research can only be appreciated in the
context of specific production systems, which
are a function of social, cultural, and economic
facore factors asnto as well as asiofoiclral biological and and climatic c ionmic ones.
A component of the SR-CRSP in the
Eastern plateau region has been a study l,.-d by
Dr. El Aich of 45 flocks managed by producers
with the objective of characterizing the total
livestock production system and identifying
principal constraints to production. The relevance
of this study to the more technical
research is apparent in the following example.
The production sytem study found that the
majority of lambs sold are between three and six
months of age; young goats are sold slightly
older on average. The sale of lambs is particu­
larly affected by both the religious festival of
Aid el Kebir and the onset of summer. By the
end of summer the price of lamb in the market is
increasing and more goats are being sold.
Improved management would allow producers
to carry their lambs over the summertime and
sell them at a higher weight and better price.
Thus research on the use of supplementary
feeds in combination with range forage and
perhaps crop residues can have a direct economic
payoff. Even providing a simple mineral/vitamin
supplement with 5% urea to sheep
grazing alfa grass (Stipa tenacissima),an abundant
but generally low quality grass in summer,
will almost double the intake of alfa grass and
increase its digestibility from 46 to 70% (result of
a pen trial by Dr. Narjisse using alfa grass from
Ain Beni Mathar).
This survey of production systems also
his the orancon system in
illuminated the importance of management in
determining the productivity and economic
value of flocks. As illustrated in table 4, producers
with large flocks and more intensive, specialized
management have lower mortality and
more offspring sold per 100 breeding sheep than
producers with smaller flocks.
Table 4. Productivity of sheep in three producer groups (gp 1, small producers with less than 150
head; gp 2, producers with flock size of 150-500 head; gp 3, large producers with more than 500
head) and of goats.
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 goat
offspring born 94 108 120 136
%mortality of young >3 mo
3-10 mo
number offspring sold 3-6 mo
6-12 mo
21.3
16.2
11.1
9.4
10
8.3
total offspring sold 49 72 81 44
31
18
43
29
42
39
32.4
26.1
kg production per animal unit 10.8 18.4 22.7 8.3
112
31
13