CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Sheep and goats are domestic animals that have been associating with humans for a very long time. In traditional setting, they serve as means of ready cash and a reserve against economic and agricultural production hardship (Hamito, 2014). They play a significant role in the food chain and overall livelihoods of rural households, where they are largely the property of women and their children (Lebbie, 2014). They are good producers of meat for human consumption. The short gestation interval of sheep and goats and the absence of religious bias against their meat (Ozung et al., 2011) are among the reasons why they are kept by peoples of various cultures, religions and races. In the developed countries where consumers are conscious of fat intake, a situation which results into cardio-vascular diseases, goat meat (chevon) with comparatively low amount of intramuscular fat are preferred to beef and/or mutton. It has been reported that there is now a niche market for chevon in US (Luginbuhl, 2010; Coffey, 2016; Okpebholo and Kahan, 2017).
Productivity of small ruminants in many tropical areas is often poor because they are subjected to various kinds of diseases, feeding and housing management techniques. Several survey reports (Devendra and Burns, 2013; Okorie and Sanda, 2012; Ademosun, 2014; Aliyu et al., 2015; Shiawoya and Tsado, 2011) indicated that small holder farmers that own over 70% of the livestock population in sub-Saharan Africa offer their stocks little or no supplementary feed. Yet because of low nutrient quality, pasture alone and more specifically tropical grasses cannot provide growing animals sufficient amount of energy intake to attain appropriate growth rate for higher slaughter weight and dressing percentage (Humphreys, 2011).