ResearchArticle Performance Evaluation of Boer × Central Highland Crossbred Bucks and Farmers’ Perceptions on Crossbred Goats in Northeastern Ethiopia Zeleke Tesema , 1 Kefyalew Alemayehu, 2 Damitie Kebede , 2 Tesfaye Getachew, 3 Belay Deribe, 1 Getachew W. Alebachew, 1 and Liuel Yizengaw 1 1 Sirinka Agricultural Research Center, Woldia, Ethiopia 2 Bahir Dar University, Colleges of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia 3 International Center for Agricultural Research, e Dry Areas (ICARDA), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia CorrespondenceshouldbeaddressedtoZelekeTesema;zeleketesema1991@gmail.com Received 24 November 2021; Revised 8 February 2022; Accepted 22 February 2022; Published 24 March 2022 AcademicEditor:XinqingXIAO Copyright©2022ZelekeTesemaetal.isisanopenaccessarticledistributedundertheCreativeCommonsAttributionLicense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. estudyaimedtocharacterizetheproductionsystem,toevaluatethegeneticmeritofBoer × CentralHighlandcrossbredbucks, andtosolicittheperceptionoffarmersaboutcrossbredgoatsandcrossbreedingprogram.Datawerecollectedthroughapersonal interview, focus group discussion, field observation, and measurement of the live animal. Besides, data on growth performance wereextractedfromavailableperformancerecordsatSirinkasheepandgoatsbreedingstation.DatawereanalyzedusingSAS,and thebreedingvaluesforbuckswereestimatedusingWOMBATsoftware.Goatswerethesecondmostimportantanimalspecies, and income generation, home meat consumption, and saving were found to be the main reasons for keeping goats with index valuesof0.484,0.355,and0.085,respectively.eproductionsystemwascharacterizedasalow-inputproductionsystem.Feed shortageanddisease/poorveterinaryservicewerethemostimportantconstraintsforthegoatcrossbreedingprogram.eoverall meanestimatedbreedingvalues(EBV)forthree-andsix-monthweightofdisseminatedcrossbredbuckswere0.53and0.31kg, respectively.ethree-monthweightEBVforcrossbredgoatsdisseminatedinAmharaSayintandHabrudistrictwaslowerthan theircontemporarygroup.Likewise,thesix-monthweightEBVforcrossbredgoatsdistributedinAmharaSayintwaslowerthan the contemporary group mean. ese results depict the absence of buck selection based on their genetic merit. As per farmers’ perception,crossbredgoatsweresuperior(oddsratio � 3.94to20.9, P < 0.001)toindigenousgoatsintermsofproductiontraits. Besides,thepriceofthecrossbredgoatwashigher(213to372ETB/head)thanindigenousgoatswithsimilarmanagementandage. However,pooradaptabilityandfitnesswerethemajordemeritsofBoer × CentralHighlandcrossbredgoatsunderasmallholder management system. erefore, while introducing exotic breeds, it is imperative to give due attention to nutrition and veterinary service. 1. Introduction Smallruminantsplayanindispensableroleinimprovingthe livelihoods of resource-poor farmers in Ethiopia by pro- viding meat, milk, skin, manure, and short-term cash in- come[1].edevelopmentplantointensifygoatproduction in Ethiopia has been and continues to include cross- breeding with exotic breeds as an option to rapidly in- crease the productivity of animals [2]. Accordingly, various exotic dairy-type goat breeds (Saanen, Toggenburg, and Anglo-Nubian goat) have been introduced to Ethiopia starting from late 1975, and meat-type Boer goat has been introduced to Ethiopia since 2007 [3]. Boer goat breed is known for large frame size, high growthrate,andcarcassattributes[4].us,indigenousgoat breeds in Ethiopia such as Central Highland, Abergele, and Woyto-GujigoatswerecrossedwithimprovedBoergoatto improve growth performance and meat production. e crossbreeding program involves the importation of pure Boer bucks, on-station multiplications of 50% F1 crossbred Hindawi Advances in Agriculture Volume 2022, Article ID 6998276, 10 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/6998276