Demonstrated that low input production system is found in all livestock production systems prevailing in the country except in Peri-urban and urban system. Animal feeding is free grazing. Prior to site selection, livestock experts in the district were contacted for brief discussions. In addition, secondary data were reviewed to better understand the current production systems and the area dominated by Begait goat. Based on this information, four rural kebeles and the special district were selected as study sites. A total of 150 Begait goat owning farmers were selected at random.Interviews were conducted at the farmers’ residences using structured questionnaire with the assistance of development agents. The questionnaires covered information on key household characteristics, livestock possession, flock structure,purposes of keeping goat, mating system, marketing system and production constraints. To complement the survey work, focus group discussions were held with a total of 8 – 10 key informants per selected study site.
In addition,hydroponic channel general information about the district was obtained from secondary data sources. The overall average age of the sampled household head was 50 ±10.44 years, implying that the respondents were adults with a good experience in goat farming. The overall mean family size was 4.85 ± 0.89, which is comparable with the national estimate of 4.80 persons per household .Of the total sampled household heads, 98.67% were males. The rest households were female headed. Indeed, it is unlikely to find a female headed household unless she is widowed or divorced. Literacy rate among the household heads was 69.67%. Similar results were reported by in Dale district and in Goma district. The better educational background obtained in this study would be a good opportunity for further animal genetic improvement programs in the study area, since literate communities are more likely adopt and practice new technologies. The study also revealed that most of the respondents were married. The percentage of unmarried and widowed was 0.67% and 1.33%,respectively. The present findings indicate that goat farming can be performed by every social class of the community regardless of their background characteristics,viewing the significant importance of goat for its owners. There was a slight increase in mean livestock holding of respondents from small-scale to large-scale farming even if the difference is not statistically significant except for cattle. None of the respondents owned mules and horses. This finding supports the fact that mules and horses could not adapt the hot environmental conditions of the area.The mean flock size of goats in the present study was close to the work of and ,hydroponic dutch buckets who reported that 44.0 and 48.5 heads per household in Siti zone of Somali region and Abergelle district of Amhara region, respectively.
In contrast,the mean flock size recorded in this study is higher than the previous average flock size of 21.20 Begait goats in the area . This difference might be due to random sampling error or due to changes in goat farming system over time in the area.The number of males and females in the sample population and their ages were often used as an indicator of a traditional management system in Africa. The present finding revealed that the proportion of does represents the largest class followed by suckling kids, while castrates represent the lowest proportion. This is in good agreement with previous findings in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa. The higher proportion of does than other age groups suggests that adult females stay in a flock for breeding purposes and/or milk production. However, the less number of buckling as compared to doeling is because of marketing and slaughtering of buckling.Small ruminants were the predominant livestock species in the area and this shows that their wide acceptability and ease of adaptation in the area.Sheep and goat numbers are growing fastest in the mixed farming systems as subsistence farmers prefer small stock because the risk of losing large ruminantsis high . In rural areas of Ethiopia, because of their subsistence and economic reasons, goats and sheep have been described as bank reserve which can be drawn upon when cash money is required. This confirms a study by ,who reported that keeping livestock, especially small ruminants plays role as safety net that enables households to get quick income to settle urgent financial needs.