Breeding practices and trait preferences of sheep farmers from two villages in Lepelle-Nkumpi municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Despite the large genetic diversity within South Africa’s sheep population, average productivity on smallholdings remains low. This study therefore aimed to identify the breeding practices and trait preferences of sheep farmers in the Makurung and Lenting villages, Limpopo Province, for use in the development of a community-based breeding programme. Data were collected from 70 purposively sampled farmers in the two villages using a questionnaire survey method. Descriptive analysis, significance testing, and index ranks using SPSS software were employed to describe and analyse the collected data. Most (48.8%) of the sheep farmers in both villages kept sheep for savings and investment, and meat production purposes. The overwhelming majority (90.0%) of sheep farmers in both villages practised uncontrolled mating, but a significant difference in breeding practices was observed between the villages. Knowledge of castration and culling practices did not significantly differ between the villages. The sheep farmers’ preferred traits for breeding rams were mating ability (0.3), body size (0.3), and growth rate (0.2), while for breeding ewes they were twinning ability (0.3), mothering ability (0.2), and lambing interval (0.2). We conclude that farmers should focus more on ewe reproductive anatomy traits (such as udder size and shape, and teat size and placement), and ram reproductive anatomy traits (such as scrotal size and circumference, and testicular size and weight), as these can have an impact on long-term flock productivity. These findings could guide interventions such as the establishment of sustainable community-based breeding schemes to improve sheep production in the study area.