Sheep breed characterization

Ethiopia is ranked first in livestock population. This huge livestock poulation is promising for the country future development. The sector provided 17% and 50 of the total GDP and Agricultural GDP.It has also created many employmeents. But this sector has not yet not full utilized. It needs more attention and this paper will have considerable roes for livestock development. Since the country has many agroecology and weather condition, livestock bussiness becomes profitable. This study was aimed to generate organized information on physical characteristics, selective breeding objectives, traits preferences and production system of native sheep types in Habru and Gubalafto districts of North Wollo Zone under smallholders¿ management conditions. The sheep types in the study areas were also small in size thus careful cross breeding with other large sized indigenous sheep types should be considered but genetic improvement programmes for the sheep types should be built considering farmer breeding practice, production system and trait preference.