Husbandry Practices, Breeding Systems, and Reproductive Performance of Indigenous Sheep Under Smallholder Farming Systems in Loma District, Dawro Zone, Southwestern Ethiopia.

Comprehensive understanding of farmers' breeding goals and reproductive performance of sheep is a foundational prerequisite in designing successful breeding strategies for smallholder systems. This study characterized sheep husbandry, breeding management, and reproductive performance among smallholder households in Loma District, Dawro Zone. A cross-sectional survey of 138 sheep-owning households was complemented by focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and field observations. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, chi-square tests, ranking indices, and qualitative triangulation. Results showed that sheep production was multifunctional, with income generation and risk management receiving the highest importance among the identified purposes. Natural pasture was the dominant feed resource, whereas improved forage and nonconventional feeds were used less frequently. Natural mating was the principal breeding approach practiced by the farmers; none of them used artificial insemination. Selection of breeding rams was widely practiced by farmers irrespective of agroecological differences, where the ram was sourced from neighbors and from the replacement flock. Farmers focus on body conformation (34.1%) and age (26.8%), considering pedigree (10.9%) and coat color (9.4%) less frequently. Disease and parasites (index = 0.18), feed and water shortages (0.18), and weak extension (0.16) were the most severe bottlenecks of sheep herding; marketing problems, drought, and lack of credit services were the least limiting ones. The AFS (age at first service) of rams and ewes was noted to be 6.55 ± 0.91 and 7.28 ± 1.21 months, respectively, whereas AFL (age at first lambing), LI (lambing interval), and SAR (slaughter age of ram) were 12.30 ± 0.93, 7.67 ± 1.28, and 8.11 ± 0.84 months, respectively. The findings indicate that improvement efforts in Loma should build on existing farmer practices while strengthening feed availability, animal health services, farmer training, community-based ram selection, and extension support.