THE reproductive performance of the indigenous Uda and Yankasa Sheep and their crosses with Suffolk were studied using data from 661 ewes bred, 791 lambs born and 614 lambs weaned. Single lambs survived better from birth to weaning than twin lambs. For the indigenous purebred mating, the Yankasa were fertile while the Udas were more prolific. Fertility, livability and overall production efficiency were generally higher in the crossbreds than for the indigenous breeds. Single lambs and ram lambs were heavier at birth and at Weaning than twin lambs and ewe lambs respectively. On the whole, crossbreeding seems to have improved the performance of the indigenous breed in terms of the indices of production reported in this study.

A study was conducted to investigate the meat producing potential of the Red Sokoto goat of Nigeria. The twelve Red Sokoto male goats used were slaughtered at an average age of 3 years and liveweight of 27.63kg. The dressing out percentage was 49.3%. The bone to meat ratio of the leg and loin cuts was 0.28. The longissimus dorsi muscle was 10.53 cm2. It is concluded that the Red Sokoto goat has a good potential for meat production. More detailed studies are, howeverneeded in order to exploit the fattening ability of the breed under range and feedlot conditions.

Total sheep population in Nigeria is probably around 8 million (anonymous, 1975). The majority of these sheep live in the northern part of the country. The three most important breeds in the north are the Uda, the Balami and the Yankasa. The former two are examples of the typical longlegged, long-tailed, hairy sheep, living along the southern border of the Sahara. The Yankasa occupies the middle and most of the northern part of the country. It probably developed as a cross between the West African Dwarf (or Forest) Sheep from the south and the Uda from the north. It possesses the heavy neck ruff that is typical of the West African Dwarf but is taller and heavier.

In a feeding trial, five different roughages were compared viz: Chloris gayana, Andropogon gayanus, Stylosanthes guyanensis, S. humilis and Arachis hypogaea. The sheep were supplemented with half a kg of a high-energy and high-protein concentrate daily. Gains were rather poor, especially on the grass hays. Intake and gain on A. hypogaea were highest. The prices of the concentrates were too high for economical fattening. Local sheep compared well with crossbreds under these conditions