The Growth Trend of Crossbreds from German Brown x N’dama Crossbreeding in Nigeria - III

Abstract

368 records of weights from birth to 12 months for pure German brown, N’dama and their crossbreds from the crossbreeding programme carried out at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria between 1970 – 1988 was analyzed using least square means of analysis of variance and regression.  Birth weight increased with reducing exotic blood as 75% N’dama blood (NDB1) had 18.25kg, 50% N’dama blood (GBND) had 21.68kg, 37.5% N’dama blood (GBB2) had 22.42kg and the 25% N’dama blood (GBB1) had 25.45kg. The purebred German brown (GBP) had significantly the highest birth weight of 28.70kg while the local N’dama and 75% N’dama-bred had significantly (P<0.05) the lowest birth weights. Birth weight was a good predictor of 12-month weight as the regression coefficients for NDL, NDB1, GBB2 GBB1 and GBP were all positive and significant (P<0.05) with values of 2.49, 2.69, 2.56, 2.31 and 2.30kg respectively. Growth to 12 months on daily average was significantly (P<0.05) better for 50% N’dama-bred (0.39kg) followed by 75% N’dama-bred at 0.32kg, then purebred German brown at 0.27kg, 0.26kg per day for 25% N’dama-bred, 0.24kg per day for 37.5% N’dama-bred and least been 0.21kg per day for purebred N’dama. The finding shows that GBND which had 50% local N’dama blood and NDB1 which had 75% N’dama blood had greater potential for growth even over the exotic German brown in the local humid tropics of Ibadan environment.