Estimation of Live Body Weight from the Linear Body Measurements of Begait Goats in Western Tigray, Ethiopia

The present study was conducted in Western Zone of Tigray, Ethiopia on-farm measurements. Data was collected on 615 (78 males and 537 females) Begait goats of different age group. The mean average body weight of female Begait goat in four age group (1-2, 2-3, 3-4 and above years old) were revealed 23.47± 0.62, 29.95± 0.54, 34.54± 0.44 and 37.80± 0.40 kg respectively while that of male Begait goat in the same group age revealed 28.00 ± 1.17, 37.05 ± 1.19, 46.03 ± 1.03 and 53.46 ± 1.38 kg respectively and the average body weight of Begait goat is 34.05±0.32 kg. The heart girth of female Begait goat was recorded as 65.67± 0.49, 70.56 ± 0.42 , 74.35 ± 0.35 and 77.46 ± 0.31cm, while that of male Begait goat 69.05± 0.92, 76.15 ± 0.93, 82.04 ± 0.81 and 87.46 ± 1.09cm respectively. The mean height at withers in female Beagait goat is showed as 62.64 ± 0.52, 67.53 ± 0.45, 70.19 ± 0.37 and 72.15 ± 0.33    66.36 ±0.99, 70.52 ±1.0 0, 77.08 ±0.87, 81.19 ± 1.17 respectively. The mean body length in female Begait goat is measured as 55.63 ± 0.52, 61.41 ± 0.45, 64.56 ± 0.37 and 66.60 ± 0.33cm while the mean body length of male Begait goat measured as 59.56 ± 0.98, 66.40 ± 0.99, and 70.82± 0.86 and 74.40 ±1.15 cm respectively.  Bodyweight of female Begait goat was correlated with heart girth, body length and height at wither (0.89, 0.85 and 0.83) and bodyweight of male Begait goats respectively. These breeds are easily adaptable to different agro ecological condition but now a day they are dominated in low land agro-ecological environment. Sex and age of the Begait goats had significant effect in all body measurements. Correlation coefficient was consistently highest between body weight and heart girth in male 0.96 and in female 0.89 among the Begait goat population. Generally male Begait goats have higher body measurements than female Begait goats in all linear body measurements. Keywords: Estimation, Heart Girth, Body Length, Height at Wither, Linear Body measurement