RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LIVE WEIGHTS, BODY CONDITION SCORE AND CONFORMATION TRAITS IN RED SOKOTO GOATS GRAZING IN GUINEA SAVANNAH AREA

Abstract

Data from 32 Red Sokoto goats were used to study the Relationship between Live weights; body conditions score and conformation traits in Red Sokoto goats. The data were collected from College of Agriculture and Animal Science, Mando Road, Kaduna. The traits recorded were live weight (LW), body condition score (BCS), height at wither (HAW), body length (BL), chest girth (CG), parity and age. The data were analyzed using general linear model procedure of SAS. The average LW (kg),
HAW(cm), BL (cm), CG(cm) and BSC recorded were 23.851.41, 51.801.07, 57.681.23, 64.901.63 and 2.700.13 respectively. The traits were significant and positive and range between 0.47 and 0.83. There was significant effect (p<0.05) of age and parity of the does on LW, HAW, BL, CG and BCS. This study discovered that live weight and conformation traits showed significant and
positive correlations and the tendency to show some progress with advancing of age and parity, these characters could be improved by conditioning the environment.