Professional paper
GOAT PRODUCTION IN LIBYA: CURRENT STATE AND PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS
Fowad Akraim
Abstract
Libya has 2.5 million heads of goat. Libyan local goats (Mahali) represent more than 90% of total goat population. Mahali goat breed is kept mainly for meat production. Goats are medium in size of different colors, black, brown, red, grey, white or mixture of these colors. Horns are quite large extending sideward in bucks and short in does. Other breeds - like Targhai and Tibawi breeds- are concentrated mainly in the southern region. Production systems are based on rain-fed rangeland
and crop residues. Small scale of forage production is practiced especially in southern region. The precarity of these production systems leads to dependence on supplements with imported concentrates. Goats graze together in flocks of different sheep-to-goat ratios but usually with more sheep than goats. Flocks composed of only goats are common in mountainous region of Jabal Al-Akhdar in the east or Nafusa in the west of Libya. Damascus, Murciano-Grandina, French Alpine and Saanen goats were imported (mainly to research stations) in order to study the productivity of their crossings with Mahali goat. Productivity, crossing results and production constraints of Mahali goats are reviewed and discussed.
Keywords
Libyan goat breeds; crossing; productivity
Hrčak ID:
103782
URI
Publication date:
3.6.2013.
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