PREDICTIONS OF BODY WEIGHTS OF BALAMI, UDA AND YANKASA SHEEP USING LINEAR BODY MEASUREMENTS

Abstract

Three breeds of sheep (Balami, Uda and Yankasa) were bred at the Sheep Project Unit of Small Ruminant Research Programme (SRRP) of National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI), Ahmadu Bello University, Shika-Zaria to produce pure breed lambs which were used to generate prediction equations for body weight of lambs at birth, 90, 180 and 360 days of age using body linear measurements of lambs {neck length (NL), back length (BL), height at wither (HW), chest girth (CG), loin girth (LG) and leg length (LL)}. The data obtained were subjected to PROC REG procedure of SAS with stepwise selection. Prediction equations for the association between body weight and linear body measurements were generated. The results showed that loin girth accounted for almost 100% of the variability at the 90-day weights of Balami (both male and female) and Uda males. Height at wither featured prominently in the equations for the prediction of the weight of lambs at 90-day for the overall population, YK X YK, female YK X YK, UD X UD 2 and female UD X UD. The respective R for these equations that featured height at wither were 0.177, 0.152, 0.737, 0.993 and 0.502. Back length accounted for most of the variability of the 360-day weight of female Uda (62.28%) and the overall population (55.39%). All the prediction equations for 180 and 360-day 2 (yearling) weight of Balami, Uda and Yankasa sheep had high R values (0.692-0.954). Height at wither, chest and loin girth featured more prominently in explaining the variations of body weight of lambs of Balami, Uda and Yankasa at birth, 90, 180 and 360 days. Weighing charts and bands should be produced on 2 the basis of prediction equations that have high coefficients of determination (R²)