BODY WEIGHT ESTIMATION USING BODY MEASUREMENTS IN GOATS (Capra hircus) UNDER FIELD CONDITION

Body weight information of livestock animals is significant for trade,  routine animal health monitoring and dosage calculations for treatment of  diseases. Under field conditions, a convenient body weight estimation formula  in goats ( Capra hircus ) using body measurements was developed and evaluated.  A total of 300 adult goats in Barili, Cebu were used for the development of the  formula, and 66 goats from the VSU Goat Project, Baybay City, Leyte and Ubay  Stock Farm, Bohol were used for its field reliability testing. Animals were selected  by convenience sampling regardless of sex and breed. In the univariate level of  analyses, all body measurement parameters (rump height [RH], body length [BL],  heart girth [HG], and wither height [WH]) showed significant correlation (P 2 =0.81, P<0.05). Body weight estimatior from other authors were compared with  the current formula developed. Results revealed that the technique utilizing this  formula demonstrated high reliability in goats in the study areas, implying good  potential for generalized applicability. Key words: body measurements, body weight, goats

[1]  B. Birhanu,et al.  Morphological Characterization of Indigenous Woyto- Guji goat type in Loma district, Southern Ethiopia , 2015 .

[2]  Kenneth J. Stalder,et al.  Prediction of live body weight using various body measurements in Ugandan village pigs , 2014 .

[3]  M. Olfaz,et al.  Possibilities of using morphometrics characteristics as a tool for body weight prediction in Turkish Hair Goats (Kilkeci). , 2010 .

[4]  C. A. Valdez,et al.  Live Weight Estimation of Locally Raised Adult Purebred Brahman Cattle Using External Body Measurements , 2009 .

[5]  E. Torres,et al.  Body Weight Estimation of Local Born Thoroughbred Horses (Equus caballus) Using External Body Measurements , 2009 .

[6]  A. Salako,et al.  Body measurement characteristics of the West African Dwarf (WAD) Goat in deciduous forest zone of Southwestern Nigeria , 2008 .

[7]  M. Yardımcı,et al.  Estimating the live weight using some body measurements in Saanen goats. , 2008 .

[8]  M. Abdullah,et al.  EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT FORMULAS FOR WEIGHT ESTIMATION IN BEETAL, TEDDI AND CROSSBRED (BEETAL X TEDDI) GOATS , 2006 .

[9]  M. Zubair,et al.  RELATIONSHIP OF BODY WEIGHT WITH LINEAR BODY MEASUREMENTS IN GOATS , 2006 .

[10]  A. Aganga,et al.  Body weight, body condition score and heart girth in indigenous Tswana goats during the dry and wet seasons in southeast Botswana , 2003 .

[11]  C. A. Valdez,et al.  Weight Determination of Philippine Native Horses Using External Body Measurements , 2011 .

[12]  S. C. Slippers,et al.  PREDICTION OF THE BODY WEIGHT OF NGUNI GOATS , 2000 .

[13]  J. D. Amin,et al.  Estimating body weight from morphometric measurements of Sahel (Borno White) goats , 1997 .