Determination of economic weights for breeding traits in indigenous Nguni cattle under in-situ conservation

This study was conducted to determine the economic weights of most preferred traits in young breeding Nguni bulls and first parity cows. Fifty-four farmers from low-input cattle production enterprises participated in the choice experiment. Sixteen individual animal profiles were formulated from four traits of three levels each using a fractional orthogonal design of SPSS 14.0 (2005). 120 pair-wise choices were deduced for each breeding animal class. A total of 6480 (54×120) observations were obtained for each class of the animals. Data was subjected to multinomial logit (MNL) models using econometric software NLOGIT 4.0.1 Version (2007). All computed economic values for bull traits were significant (p36 months (base level). Farmers were willing to pay R37,939 (US$4864) for a bull with high aggression and mating behavior score and R17,185 (US$2203) for a first parity cow of less than 27 months old. Enterprise ownership and demographics factors of the farmers were significant in determining economic weights within trait levels. Economic weights were high for reproductive efficiency of the breeding animals followed by the high adaptive characteristics. The choice experiment procedure can be the tool for determining importance of animal characteristics under low-input production systems. It is recommended to make use of the economic weights of preferential traits in designing selection models. Keywords: Choice experiment, Age at first calving, Aggression and mating behavior, Body condition score, Tick infestatio