Body weight and linear body measurements of indigenous goat population in Awi Zone, Amhara region, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted with the objective of undertaking morphological characterization of indigenous goat population. A total of 640 goats were randomly selected from three districts and body weight and linear body measurements were recorded. All the quantitative traits were significantly (p < 0.05) affected by sex, age classes and agro-ecology except ear length and tail length. The lowland goat population had significantly higher body measurements than midland and highland goat population. The overall (LSM ± SE) of matured goat body weight, heart girth, and height at withers were 29.13 ± 0.22 kg, 71.24 ± 0.20 cm, and 66.61 ± 0.18 cm, respectively. The multiple regression analysis showed that heart girth explained more variation on body weight than any other linear body measurements. Therefore, body weight can be predicted using hearth girth with the equation y = −41.6 + 0.99x for does and y = −44.3 + 1.10x for bucks.

KEYWORDS:

• Body weight
• indigenous goat
• linear body measurements
• Amhara Region
• Ethiopia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was carried out under Bahir Dar University and sponsored by Assosa University.