الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Animal production in Egypt is highly concentrated in the hands of small holders Understand ,under small holders situations , sheep and goat production, production constraints, producers marketing behavior and the constraints limiting their participation in markets is useful in designing and implementing strategies to alleviate the problem of low market performance The objectives of this study were to assess the current commercial off take rates for sheep and goats ,(2) to analyze the marketing behavior of the producers, and (3) to identify sheep and goat production and marketing constraints and improvement options. A field survey using a pre-tested questionnaire was conducted with 60 households in four cities of Damietta governorate, located in the North Nile Delta , Egypt, namely, kafr Saad , Elzarka, Faraskor and El-Serw. Microsoft Excel was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequencies were conducted. The whole farm budget was performed using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The analysis confirmed that the traditional herd management system is not supported through the introduction of improved breeding and feeding practices and the local breeds are not differentiated and improved resulting in low productivity and off-takes. One important way to improve traditional livestock production is to link farmers to a relevant institution. Institutions such as agricultural extension services educate farmers on adoption of new technologies. Farmers supply animals of varying sex, age and weight , yearling are the dominant class of animals to be sold to cover immediate cash needs prior to their attaining mat attaning mature weights. In most instances the farmer do not benefit much from the sale of these sheep. This is mainly because conditioning of yearling sheep using supplementary feed is not often practiced. The benefits obtained from goat production in terms of cash, meat, and milk is low due to the high mortality rate .These indicate the potential of increasing commercial off take of goats by reducing sheep mortality and increasing the fertility rate.