Morphological Characterization of Indigenous Woyto- Guji goat type in Loma district, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was conducted on 810 goats in three agro ecological zones (Highland, midland and lowland) of Loma district in southern Ethiopia were considered with sex and age groups factor to characterize morphologically Woyto Guji goat in their home tract and production system. The goat population in the study area was characterized by higher proportion of plain coat patterns with brown coat color, straight head profile, semi pendulous ear formation and long ear type. The horns were characterized by backward orientation with a straight shape. Body weight of the goats' changes at increasing rate at 0PPI to 3PPI and gradual increase was observed at older ages. Sex, age, agro ecological zones, sex by age and age by agro ecologies interaction had a significant (p<0.05/p<0.01) effect on body weight and many of the linear body measurements. The mean BWT, BC, BL, HG, HW, CW, PW, RH, RL, EL and HL of females are 26.53±2.91kg, 3..02±0.020cm and 13.22±0.47cm respectively. The result indicated that phenotypic characterization, body weight and linear body measurement description could help as an input for efficient utilization, conservation and designing improvement strategy for this genetic resource in the community.