An evaluation of body size as related to weight of three West African breeds of cattle in Nigeria

Abstract

Body measurements and weights of animals of varying ages were recorded in White Fulani (Bunaji), Sokoto Gudali and N'dama breeds of cattle. Chest girth accounted for 86-96% of the variation in body weight in the three breeds. The linear regression coefficient of weight on chest girth in the N'dama differed significantly from the other two breeds. Within each breed, the regression coefficient of young animals was lower than those of older groups. The variables that contributed most to improving the prediction of weights when added to chest girth were rump length and body length. Animals with low body condition scores had lower regression coefficients of weight on chest girth than those with high scores.

Does Breed Matter to Cattle Farmers and Buyers? Evidence from West Africa

“…Since animals are not weighed at the Shaki market, a Bovine Weighing Tape (manufactured by WASCO, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, USA) was used to measure height at the withers, length and girth circumference following the procedure described by Buvanendran et al (1980). The tape gives an estimated weight of the animal corresponding to its girth circumference.…”

Simple and robust algorithms to estimate liveweight in African smallholder cattle

“…This variability may be due to phenotypic differences between populations, but is rarely explored (e.g. Buvanendran et al (1980)) and there has been apparently little interest in developing a more universally applicable algorithm for Zebu · cattle in SSA. Several studies have considered other allometric measurements (e.g.…”

“…Several studies have considered other allometric measurements (e.g. wither height, body length, body condition score), but such additional measurements have not greatly improved the relationship of LW to HG (Buvanendran et al 1980;Bozkurt 2006;Bagui and Valdez 2009). Thus HG has been repeatedly demonstrated to be the most useful and robust proxy for the use of scales in the LW estimation of cattle.…”

“…Studies that explored quadratic and exponential relationships between HG and LW (Buvanendran et al 1980;Nesamvuni et al 2000;Francis et al 2004), have not improved coefficients of regression by more than a few percentage points, while having added unneeded complexity to the model. Perhaps because the simplest relationship appears (based on R 2 ) to be as strong as the more complex equations, the relationship between HG and LW has generally been described by simple linear regression (Table 1).…”

The estimation of live weight from body measurements in Yankasa sheep

“…In the same species, objective body dimensions and measures of muscular development were shown to serve either to supplement body weight as a measure of productivity (Afolayan et al, 2002a,b) or as predictors of some less visible characteristics (Gilbert et al, 1993). In addition, body measurements could be used to predict live weight fairly well in the situation where weighbridges are not available (Berge, 1977;Buvanendran et al, 1980;Goonerwardene and Sahaayuraban, 1983). The objective of the present study was to estimate live weight based on a linear body measurement or a ABSTRACT: Live body measurements of weight, height, length, girth, stifle-and hip-width and a measure of muscularity (ratio of stifle to hip width) were monitored on 258 Yankasa sheep stratified into age categories of 1 to over 3 years determined mostly from records and partly by dentition.…”