Influence of age distribution on zoometric characteristics of some selected cattle breeds in Nigeria

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine the effect of age among Adamawa Gudali, Sokoto Gudali, Bunaji and Rahaji breeds of cattle. A multistage approach was used to select the breed of cattle from the States with large population of agro-pastoralists that rear Adamawa Gudali, Sokoto Gudali Bunaji and Rahaji cattle breeds. Four States were selected for the purpose of this study. Four (4) Local Government Areas (LGA) from Adamawa and Taraba States, three (3) Local Government Areas from Gombe State and two (2) Local Government Areas from Sokoto State were purposively selected. Snowball method was used to sample 1008 cattle consisting of 162 Adamawa Gudali, 306 Sokoto Gudali, 234 Bunaji and 306 Rahaji cattle from agro-pastoralist in many communities of the LGAs. Each breed sampled was grouped into three (3) age categories on the bases of sex, that is, male (168) and female (168) weaner, male (168) and female (168) young and; male (168) and female (168) adult. Age of the cattle were determined using teeth count. Data collected on biometric traits of cattle were subjected to General Linear Model procedure of the statistics software SAS statistical package to determine the effect of age, sex and breeds on some zoometric characteristics of cattle. Generally, body weight of cattle increases with increase in age across the age categories. Body weight was positively and highly correlated (p<0.01) with biometric traits of cattle. Most of the biometric traits of cattle increased with increase in age. High and positive relationships existed between body weight and biometric traits of cattle.