The Relationship among Dams Milk Parameters, Weight, Udder Parameters and Linear Body Measurements in West African Dwarf Sheep at First Lambing

Idowu ST, Adewumi OO and Tona

Abstract

Dam’s linear body measurements in relation to milk yield, milk composition and lambs linear body measurements were studied for a period of three months. Milk was collected daily during the period, linear body measurements of the dams and the lambs were taken weekly. Body measurements taken were height at withers, body length, heart girth, neck length, neck circumference, udder circumference, udder width, teat length, distance between teat, teat circumference, distance of teat from the ground, weight of dam, dam growth rate, weight of lambs, lambs growth rate, lamb wither height, lamb body length, lamb heart girth, lamb neck length and lamb neck circumference. Data were subjected to statistical analysis using correlation and regression procedure. The correlation analysis indicated that milk off take had a significant correlation with dam’s body length (p<0.05), udder width (p<0.05), teat length (p<0.05), distance between teats (p<0.05) and teat circumference (p<0.001). Weight of dams had significant correlations with all the variables entered except total solid, fat and teat circumference. Weight of lambs had significant correlations with all of kid’s linear body measurement as well as with fat content of the milk (p<0.05), udder circumference (p<0.001), teat circumference (p<0.01) and distance of the teat from the ground (p<0.01). The result of the multiple regression analysis indicates that the addition of other variables to milk off take would result in significant improvement in accuracy of prediction. Lamb’s wither height appeared to be the best predictor of lamb’s weight accounting for 48% individual contribution. The best equation based on this study for predicting the weight of lambs is WL=6.07+0.61LNC+0.23WD–0.13DWH–0.30DTG+0.11LBL–0.11LHG. It resulted in the highest R2 value of 80% prediction of lamb’s weight. The study concluded that teat circumference and lamb’s wither height are the most related variables to milk off take and lamb’s weight respectively.