RELATIONSHIP OF PARITY AND SOME BREEDING CHARACTERISTICS IN RED SOKOTO GOATS

Data on some breeding characteristics; litter size (LS) kidding interval (KI), dam mating weight (Mwt), Kidding weight(Kwt) and 60 day post kidding weight(60dPKwt) as well as body size characteristics(HW,BL and HG) collected from 1000 Red Sokoto does of small holder farmers in Kano State, Nigeria, were analysed to estimate the relationships amongst these characteristics themselves and between them with parity of dam. The mean LS, KI, Mwt, Kwt and 60dPKwt were 1.45, 6.90 months 20.4kg, 24.7kg, and 23.0kg, respectively. The mean height-at-withers (HW), body length (BL) and chest girth (CG) were 54.4cm, 59.0 and 65.8cm, respectively. The correlations amongst all the measured characteristics were positive and significant (P<0.01 – 0.05; r = 0. 32- 0.93). The correlation between Mwt and Kwt was the strongest (r = 0.93). The relationships between parity and all the characteristics measured was positive and highly significant (P<0.01; r = 0.49-0.87) The correlation of parity with mating weight (Mwt) was the strongest ( r = 0.87). The prediction equations of body weight at different stages of growth using combinations of linear body measurements were significant (P