Rabo Butswat, Isaac Sammani

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PertanikaJ. Trap. Agric. Sci. 21(2): 129 (1998)CommunicationISSN: 1511-3701© Universiti Putra Malaysia PressRelationship Between Chest Girth and Live Weight in Tankasa Sheep andRed Sokoto Goats -Validation Tests of Prediction EquationsISAAC SAMMANI RABO BUTSWATAnimal Production ProgramAbubakar Tafawa Balewa UniversityPM.B. 0248, Bauchi, NigeriaSmall ruminants (sheep and goats) constitutethe bulk of the meat supply (second only tocattle) and hide in Nigeria (Bukar et al. 1997).They are a ready source of funds in times ofneed and are readily affordable by even the low-income earners. The most numerous and welldistributed breed of sheep in Nigeria is theYankasa, while that of goats is the Red Sokoto.These breeds of small ruminants are sold at themarket and at the site of slaughter slabs. Oneof the problems with the purchase of theseanimals is the subjective assessment of weight.Both buyers and sellers use the rather subjectivemethod of sight and touch at the lumbarvertebrae.While the use of weighing scales is commonin the developed countries, the cost of a set ofscales makes it impossible for the local dealersto procure one. Even though weigh bands areused in cattle, pigs and horses in these countriesat a low cost, these tools are not readily availablein Negeria. However, Osinowo et al. (1989) at-tempted to adopt this approach. Since animalsmay vary in size and shape with ecological niche,this study was undertaken as a validation test oftheir prediction equations.One hundred and thirty one yankasa sheepand 109 Red Sokoto goats oflive weight rangingfrom 2 - 53 and to10 - 42 kg, respectively wereused in this study. In both groups, the relation-ship between chest girth (x, cm) and live weight(y, kg) was clearly curvilinear and was well de-fined by the following geometric regression equa-tions (Osinowo etal. 1989).1. Yankasa sheep: Y = 0.00016x2.78 , r2 = 0.992. Red Sokoto goat: Y = 0.0000658x3.o38 , r2 = 0.98Verification of both prediction equationsshowed close agreement between expected andactual live wight of goats (r = 0.85, n = 109) andsheep (r = 0.97, n = 131). The verification wascarried out by taking the chest girth (cm) of thestudy animals, fixing the value into the regres-sion equation and thus obtaining the expectedweight. The expected values were then com-pared with actual weights of the same studyanimals using a weighing scale. Since there wereclose agreements between expected and theactual live weights, the prediction equations couldbe used for future estimation of bodyweight forthese sheep and goats.REFERENCESBUKAR S., A. ADA.\1U and J.S. BAKSHI. 1997. In NigeriaNational Agricultural Research Strategy Plan. 1996-2010, p. 144.OSI:-WWO, OA., S.A.S. OLORL':\'jL', E.O. OTCHERE, andL.A. ARICI. 1992. Relationship between chestgirth and live weight in Yankasa sheep andRed Sakata goats. Journal of Animal ProductionResearch 12(2): 69-71.(Received 9 April 98)(Accepted 15 January 99)

Relationship Between Chest Girth and Live Weight in Tankasa Sheep and Red Sokoto Goats -Validation Tests of Prediction Equations

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Relationship Between Chest Girth and Live Weight in Tankasa Sheep and Red Sokoto Goats -Validation Tests of Prediction Equations

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