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Goats are kept primarily for meat in Nigeria, their body weight and body dimensions are important carcass trait of interest. Several approaches have been adopted to utilize body weight and linear body measurement in predicting carcass composition in goats. However this information on prediction of carcass composition from body weight and linear body measurements is limited for goats raised in the southern region of Nigeria. A study was conducted to determine the relationship between live body weight, linear body measurements and carcass characteristics of West African dwarf (WAD) goats and Red Sokoto (RS) goats. Live body weight (LBW), Heart girth (HG), Body depth (BD), Rump height (RH), Height at wither (HW) and Body length (BL) were the linear body measurements. Neck, hind limbs, head, slaughtered weight; empty carcass, fore limb and warm carcass were measured for carcass traits. Internal offals weighed were spleen, liver, lung, heart, kidney and empty gut. Twenty West African Dwarf goats ( 10 males and 10 females weighed 15.00 ± 0.10kg and 14.25 ± 0.50kg respectively) and twenty Red Sokoto ( 10 males and 10 females weighed 21.80 ± 0.67kg and 20.50 ± 0.12kg respectively)between the ages of 2-3 years were used for this study. Data obtained were analyzed using t-test, correlation analysis and multiple regressions. Results showed that the mean live body weight of WAD goats and RS goats were 14.63±0.46 and 21.13±0.36, respectively. Average linear body measurements of WAD and RS goats showed significant (p |
