Liveweight and chest girth correlation in commercial sheep and goat herds in Southwestern Nigeria/Correlacion entre peso vivo y contorno del pecho en rebanos ovino y caprino comerciales en el Suroeste de Nigeria

The correlation between chest girth and weight of sheep and goats have been studied as a predictive guide in homestead farms where equipment to definitively quantify the weight of animals are unavailable and inaccessible. The livestock markets in the South Western part of Nigeria are still very underdeveloped and consist of peasant farmers taking their few animals to more developed areas to offer them for better prices to the consumer or middle men who are in the trade to attain the best profit. Twenty each of sheep and goats were randomly selected in herds from three different commercial locations and evaluated using weight and chest girth measurements as indices. Mean weight for the 3 groups of sheep was between 19.8 and 31.15kg, while for the 3 groups of goats was between 19.6 and 16.35kg. There was correlation (0.39-0.80) between sheep chest girth and weight which does not differ from those already established in literature and a predictive index of W = (18.9 ± 0.36) CG where in more than 80% of the population are accounted for and in goats, correlation of 0.40-0.76 and a predictive index of W= (18.51 ± 0.31) CG where more than 76% of the population falls in. It was therefore concluded that chest girth is a useful tool in predicting weight of commercial sheep and goat.