Morphometric characteristics of Red Chittagong Cattle in a nucleus herd

Abstract

The present study was undertaken measuring a total of 78 animals of Red Chittagong Cattle (RCC) of different ages and sexes maintained under a USDA funded RCC project at Bangladesh agricultural University (BAU) Dairy Farm, Mymensingh. The experiment was conducted to estimate different body measurements of RCC at different age groups. A total of 12 different age groups at 6 months interval were considered for estimation. The age groups were 1-6, 7-12, 13-18, 19-24, 25-30, 31-36, 37-42, 43-48, 49-54, 55-60, 61-66 and 66+ months. Different body measurements were wither height, hip height, body length, chest diameter, chest width, hip width, thurl width and rump length. As expected, it was found that all measurements significantly increased (P<0.01) with the advancement of age. All the estimates reached in maximum level at the highest age class (66+ months) in this study except chest width and rump length (61-66 and 43-48 months class, respectively). It also observed that all the estimates were gradually increased with age, but the rate of increment varied for different measurements for different age groups. The results also revealed to conclude no definite ages at which the estimates reached a maximum level due to lack of animals of more than 66 months of age to composite further age groups. Key words: Morphometric characteristics; RCC; Nucleus herd DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjas.v39i1-2.9675 Bang. J. Anim. Sci. 2010, 39(1&2): 44-51