Study on effect of age on slaughter traits and carcass characteristic of black Bengal goats in different agro-climatic condition of West Bengal

The study was conducted on sixteen nos. of castrated male Black Bengal goats from four different agro climatic zones of west Bengal at the age group of 6-9 month, 9-12 month and above 12 month age were selected from registered farmer under “AICRP on goat improvement, Black Bengal field unit-Kolkata” to compare the slaughter traits and carcass characteristics of Black Bengal goats. In the present study, there is a highly significant (pl0.01) variation of body length (cm) of Black Bengal goats observed among the three age groups as well as the different clusters. It was found that the carcass weight (kg) of Black Bengal goats from different clusters namely Nadia, Murshidabad, Jhargram and Sundarban under four different agro-climatic zones at different age groups viz. 6-9 month, 9-12 month and above 12 month were 4.47±0.20, 6.14±0.20 a 8.39±0.20 in Nadia; 5.60±0.20, 7.82±0.20 a 8.85±0.20 in Murshidabad; 4.26±0.20, 6.30±0.20 a 7.40±0.20 in Jhargram and 4.37±0.20, 6.04±0.20 a 7.23±0.20 in Sundarban cluster respectively. At 6-9 months age, significantly higher body height (cm), heart girth (cm) and paunch girth (cm) were recorded in Jhargram cluster, followed by Murshidabad, Nadia and lastly Sundarban cluster. The carcass weight of Black Bengal goat in Murshidabad cluster at 6-9 month age group was significantly higher (pg0.01) than other three districts and lower (pl0.01) in Jhargram cluster. The optimum age for slaughtering of Black Bengal goats is 9-12 month because at this stage dressing % of slaughtering of Black Bengal goats as well qualitative parameters of chevon is better than other ages in all the clusters.