Diseases were named according to their symptoms.Vaccination services were provided by Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development of the district at seven clinics. In addition, farmers use modern drugs either from government clinics or open markets and treat their animals themselves.Some farmers also claimed that veterinary officers were called to treat their sick animals. The most extensively used drug in the area was oxytetracycline and locally known as lesh lesh. Likewise, branding was applied when animals get sick and for identification purpose. In the area the breed is also known as Barka/Hassan. From individual interviews,37% of sampled farmers agreed that the breed’s name “Barka” is an indicator of the breed’s origin that is Barka area from Eritrea while most of the respondents believed that the breed’s origin could be Eritrea and Sudan.
From the focus group discussions,dutch buckets system it became obvious that Begait goat is primarily kept by Beni Amir ethnic group who lives in Eritrea and Sudan bordering Ethiopia. This observation is supported by, who documented that BeniAmir ethnic group occupies the borders between much of Eritrea’s Barka valley and eastern Sudan.Despite the exact date of immigration remains unclear, Begait goat is extensively distributed across northwestern lowlands of Ethiopia. It is estimated that >110,000 Begait goats are found in northwestern and western zones of Tigray region. Based upon the results of focus group discussions and individual interviews, population size of the breed is at increasing trend. The possible reason reported for this trend was the involvement of more farmers in Begait goat production as the breed is more prolific and resistant to drought conditions with better milk yield and meat quality. At present, Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tigray region has established a ranch, at Mai Woyni kebele ,western zone of the region, for all Begait animal species aiming at conservation,breeding and improvement.
The famous methods used to acquire goats were new born, buying and inheritance with the index values of 0.390, 0.343 and 0.186, respectively . This is in good agreement with the findings of and in Uganda. Whereas disposal was through selling,dutch buckets slaughtering in holidays and death in that order.Goat marketing in the study area was traditional type. All of the respondents reported that weighing balance is unknown for selling and/or buying animals; rather visual assessment was used to estimate body condition of animals.Hence, selling price was fixed by negotiation between sellers and buyers.This result agreed with many research reports from Ethiopia. The study results also indicated that higher numbers of goats are sold and better price is fetched in holidays although farmers sell goats at any time of the year depending on their need for money. Goat owners sold their goats primarily for purchasing food items, health expenses, farm input expenses , labor expenses , school expenses for children and to pay back credit. Interviews with the sampled farmers revealed key problems constraining goat production in the area .
Water shortage, feed and grazing land shortages and inadequate veterinary services were ranked first, second and third, respectively.In line with the present findings previous studies indicated that the major problems of small ruminant farming include inadequate supply of water and pasture mainly in the dry season and problems arising from inadequate veterinary services and infrastructure. Fur farming first appeared in Greece around 50 years ago in the prefectures of Kastoria and Kozani with the main processing centers for livestock products located in the cities of Kastoria and Siatista. Fur processing companies primarily used and still use imported raw material with only a small quantity produced in the area where fur-bearing animals are bred. The last 20 – 30 years has seen effort focused on increasing the domestic production of fur with the prospect of substituting the import of furs at least in part and making the industry more competitive. As such, the aspiration is to raise at least 50,000 breeding animals.As a means of improving economic efficiency, vertical small and medium-sized processing companies which incorporated the breeding and marketing of furskins were created. Thus, and given that there were similar farms in other countries, the first “bold and pioneering craftsmen” established the first fur farms around the prefectures.