Evaluation Of Body Weight And Morpho-Structural Changes Of Bull Calves In The Humid Tropics:- Ikeokwu, Jane N.

ABSTRACT

 This study was conducted to evaluate the body weight and morpho-structural changes in pure and cross breed bull calves in the humid tropics. The experimental design used was Completely Randomized Design (CRD) while the statistical analysis was done using one way Analysis od Variance (ANOVA) procedure. Three bull calfgenotypes namely N'dama (ND), Gudali (GUD) and White Fulani (WF). Body weight(BW) and the following linear body parameters were recorded namely heart girth (HG), height at withers (HW), body length (BL), head length (HL), head circumfei ence (HC), and stomach circumference (SC). Results obtained showed no significant differences (P>0.05) for body weight and the body structures in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th measurements. However at the 5th and 6th measurements, there were significant differences (P<0.05) observed in the body weight and linear body traits precisely the heart girth. NDxND manifested significantly higher body weight than NDGUD which had 216.5kg while the NDxWF had 195.98kg. The HG followed the same the same trend in the three genotypes as the BW changes. This implies that HG alone can be used as an accurate determinant ofBW. Other linear body traits such as BL, HW, SC, HC and HL which may seem less effective still remain important for total variation ofbody conformation.