Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:27:02.040Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Breed and environmental effects on lamb production in Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

V. Buvanendran ,
I. F. Adu  and
B. A. Oyejola
V. Buvanendran
Affiliation:
National Animal Production Research Institute, Ahmadu Bello University, P.M.B. 1096, Shika – Zaria, Nigeria
I. F. Adu
Affiliation:
National Animal Production Research Institute, Ahmadu Bello University, P.M.B. 1096, Shika – Zaria, Nigeria
B. A. Oyejola
Affiliation:
Institute for Agricultural Research, P.M.B. 1044, Zaria, Nigeria
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Two indigenous breeds of sheep in Nigeria, the Yankasa and Uda and crosses of these with exotic breeds, were evaluated for lamb weights at birth, 3 months and 6 months of age and for adult ewe weight. The cross-bred lambs were significantly (P < 0·05) heavier than the indigenous breeds at all ages. Differences among the indigenous breeds were not significant. Mature ewe weight was 40·8 kg in the cross-bred and 36·0 and 31·1 kg in the Uda and Yankasa respectively, differences between all breeds being significant (P <0·05). Lamb productivity (lamb weight per kg of ewe metabolic body weight) estimates demonstrated that the differences between breeds were small.

Least-squares estimates of effects of environmental factors on lamb performance showed that type of birth and age of dam were important for lamb weights at the three ages. Season and sex also had significant effects on birth and 6-month weights respectively. Correction factors for lamb weights were derived from least-squares estimates.

The correlation coefficient between birth and 3-month weight was significant in all breeds and ranged from 0·39 to 0·55. Three-month and 6-month weights were highly correlated with estimates of correlation coefficients ranging from 0·71 to 0·74. Repeatability estimates of birth, 3·month, 6·month and ewe weights, all as traits of the ewe in the Yankasa, were 0·25, 0·21, 0·09 and 0·48, respectively.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 96 , Issue 1 , February 1981 , pp. 9 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adu, I. F., Brinckman, W. L. & Kuteyi, I. S. (1978). Reproductive performance of the indigenous sheep and their crosses. Nigerian Journal of Animal Production (In the Press).Google Scholar
Adu, I. F. & Ngere, L. O. (1980). The indigenous sheep of Nigeria. World Review of Animal Production (In the Press).Google Scholar
Bichard, M. & McG. Cooper, M. (1966). Analysis of production records from a lowland sheep flock. 1. Lamb mortality and growth to 16 weeks. Animal Production 8, 401–410.Google Scholar
Bradford, G. E. (1974). Breeding plans for improvement of meat production and carcass merit in the meat breeds of sheep. Proceedings of 1st World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, pp. 725–738. Madrid, Spain.Google Scholar
Bradford, G. E. & Spurlock, G. M. (1972). Selection for meat production in sheep – results of a progeny test. Journal of Animal Science 34, 737–745.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, D. C. (1962). Characters of economic importance in Welsh Mountain sheep. Animal Production 4, 64–79.Google Scholar
Fahmy, M. H., Salah, E., Galal, E., Ghanem, Y. S. & Khishin, S. S. (1969). Genetic parameters of Barki sheep raised under semi-arid conditions. Animal Production 11, 361–367.Google Scholar
Farid, A. & Makarechian, M. (1978). The relationships between pre- and post-weaning growth traits in lambs of Iranian fat tailed sheep-and their crosses with Corriedale and Targhee rams. Animal Production 26, 185–192.Google Scholar
Gjedram, T. (1967). Phenotypic and genetic parameters of lambs at five ages. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica 17, 199–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, W. B. (1960). Least-square analysis of data with unequal sub-class numbers. United States Department of Agriculture, ARS·20·8 (Mimeograph).Google Scholar
Pattie, W. A. & Williams, A. J. (1966). Growth and efficiency of post-weaning gain in lambs from Merino flocks selected for high and low weaning weight. Proceedings of Australian Society of Animal Production 6, 305–307.Google Scholar
Swiger, L. A., Harvey, W. R., Everson, D. O. & Gregory, K. E. (1964). The variance of intraclass correlation involving groups with only one observation. Biometrics 20, 818–826.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trail, J. C. M. & Sacker, G. D. (1966). Factors affecting production records of lambs from a flock of East African Blackheaded sheep. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 66, 87–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, H. N. (1978). Sheep and the smallholder, World Animal Review 28, 4–8.Google Scholar
Yalcin, B. C. & Bichard, M. (1964). Crossbred sheep production. II. The repeatability of performance and the scope for culling. Animal Production 6, 85–90.Google Scholar