Awqaf New Zealand Discussion Paper No. 1 · 2026
The Economy of the Qurbani Ritual and an Open Invitation to Research, Test and Improve a Proposed Livestock Production System
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Permanent identifier for Version 1.0, archived on Zenodo (CERN). Please cite the DOI in preference to this web address.
| Series | Awqaf New Zealand Discussion Paper Series, No. 1 |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.0 · published 30 September 2026 |
| Publisher | Awqaf New Zealand · Open Waqf Knowledge |
| Repository | zenodo.org/records/23044285 |
| Licence | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). The Awqaf New Zealand name and logo are excluded. |
The English edition is the master. The Arabic edition is the Arabic-language reference for the research content.
Eid al-Adha follows the Hijri calendar and moves about ten to eleven days earlier through the solar year, every year. Livestock systems run on solar seasons. This paper proposes an experimental framework for aligning sheep breeding, lambing, dairy production and Qurbani supply with the annually shifting Hijri calendar, treating the expected Eid date as an input to each year’s plan and working backwards through lamb age, lambing window, gestation and mating.
It sets out the research problem, a proposed breeding-cycle architecture, three production architectures to compare, the data an experimental flock would need to collect from the first animal, and a way of measuring the economics of the whole Qurbani chain without double counting. It then openly invites researchers and specialists to test, challenge and improve the model before anyone treats it as replicable.
What this paper is not. It presents a research problem, a proposed architecture and hypotheses to be tested. It is not a validated agricultural, veterinary, commercial or Shariah production protocol. There is no farm and no flock, and no field data exist.
10–11 days
How much earlier Eid al-Adha falls in the solar calendar each year.
29 days
Working target for the lambing window. A design assumption, subject to expert and Shariah review.
~147–150 days
Approximate sheep gestation, used to calculate the mating window backwards from the target.
3 architectures
Fully Hijri-aligned, staggered dairy cohorts, and rolling Hijri-aligned cohorts, proposed for comparison.
From the first animal
Agriculture 4.0 data on identity, reproduction, welfare, milk, feed and the Qurbani chain.
Open research
Offered for challenge, testing and improvement, not presented as proven.
These numbers are research framing devices. They do not replace breed-specific animal science, local regulation, animal-welfare requirements or Shariah review.
Awqaf New Zealand invites animal scientists, sheep-dairy specialists, veterinarians, agricultural economists, livestock producers, processors, supply-chain specialists, data scientists, Agriculture 4.0 researchers, Waqf scholars and other relevant experts to examine the proposed system.
The question is not “is the model right?” It is what is biologically feasible, economically sustainable, operationally scalable, ethically responsible and scientifically measurable, and what must change before any replication is attempted.
A world-first system, a proven production protocol, guaranteed economics, a validated livestock forecast, or universal Shariah agreement on every operational assumption. The purpose of the paper is to expose the model to scrutiny before it is treated as a replicable system.
Evidence-based critique, alternative models, datasets, case studies, published research, practical farm experience and proposals for collaborative testing are all welcome. The paper suggests five questions for each response:
Write to smartwaqf@awqafnz.org. Substantive comments are recorded in the public feedback log, including those Awqaf New Zealand does not act on, with its reasons. The paper is version-controlled: material changes will be documented, and earlier versions kept online rather than silently replaced.
Open review principle. We do not use discussion to prove the model. We use discussion to test it.
Related Awqaf New Zealand research: Feasibility Study — Qurbani Sheep-Dairy Pilot · Qurbani Utilisation Index (QUI-Awqaf NZ)