A Critical Review of Tsegay et al, 2013, Application of ordinal logistic regression model

for evaluation of skin quality grading data in Sheep, African J ournal of Agricultural
Research, vol. 8, no. 39, pp 4918-4921.

Using international standards for skin quality assessment, Tsegay et al. (2013) conducted a
study on the application of ordinal logistic regression model for evaluation of skin quality
grading on Sheep. This research aimed to compare and evaluate the impact of cross breeding
on skin quality grading of four breed-groups, namely two crossbred (B3 and B4) and two
indigenous breeds (B1 and B2) lambs since efforts made so far to improve their productivity
through genetics is inadequate (Alberto, 2002 and Costa et al., 2005). The study reveals that
skin quality grading of the indigenous breed B2was found to be better than both B4 and
B1. The preference ordering for skin quality grading to have the rank B2 > B4 > B3 > B1.
The result agreed with the prediction that crossing of B1 with Dorper sheep has brought
an improvement in skin quality of the B3. This improved leather quality and uniformity are
also expected to bring higher revenue on the skin export market. However, the results of the
other dimension provided less clear relationship whether the introduction of exotic breeds in
order to improve meat and milk production through cross breeding has an impact on skin
quality or not. To the extent that this research is exploratory, the authors found that further
studies on similar experiments and evaluation on additional data sets are required to support
the above finding.
In summary, the current study is still far from being conclusive. Further studies must be
undertaken and larger samples must be used to improve our understanding concerning the
effects of skin quality on leather industry. Despite some deficiencies in methodology, the
study has provided some insights into account that the introduction of Dorper through
crossbreeding can improved cutting value of skins of the indigenous breeds with low possible
defects and thus, improves the quality of leather products.