Physical and morphometric characterization of young red kandhari cattle in their breeding tract

Abstract

A study was conducted in the breeding tract of Red Kandhari cattle in Marathwada region comprising Latur, Parbhani and Nanded district to document the morphometric characteristic to know the present status of the breed. Total 535 young Red Kandhari cattle were selected morphometric measurements were recorded by using measuring tape while physical characteristic were recorded visually.The overall LSQ means at 0-3 months of Red Kandhari for chest girth, abdominal girth, body length, height at wither, height at elbow, height at hip bone, height at pin bone, length of ear, width of ear, length of face, width of fore head, length of neck, width between hook bone, width between pin bone, tail length and body weight were 70.56 ± 0.66, 72.27 ± 0.78, 64.06 ± 0.69, 69.00 ± 0.63, 42.93 ± 0.37, 69.44 ± 0.66, 65.13 ± 0.63, 13.66 ± 0.21, 7.54 ± 0.07, 23.21 ± 0.32, 11.25 ± 0.18, 25.02 ± 0.26, 15.71 ± 0.16, 9.08 ± 0.15, 41.66 ± 0.44 cm and 30.06 ± 0.83 kg and at 4-12 months of age were 116.21 ± 0.73, 122.86 ± 0.77, 99.89 ± 0.51, 102.32 ± 0.43, 60.49 ± 0.59, 103.71 ± 0.44, 97.51 ± 0.38, 18.38 ± 0.16, 10.28 ± 0.24, 35.55 ± 0.24, 18.11 ± 0.08, 38.50 ± 0.13, 26.43 ± 0.22, 14.83 ± 0.18, 60.90 ± 0.39 cm and 127.93 ± 2.42 kg, respectively. Majority of the Red Kandhari cattle have Brick Red coat color followed by Dark Red. The sex showed highly significant (P<0.01) to significant (P<0.05) effect on most of the traits for both the age group whereas district doesn’t play any major role on these traits.The significant to highly significant effect of sex on some of body measurements and non-significant effect of district in all traits may lead to the concrete conclusion that these factors play a major role in exhibiting the specific body measurements only in Red Kandhari cattle at 4-12 and 0-3 months of age.