Morphometric characteristics of Etawa Grade goats in Deli Serdang Regency of North Sumatra

Abstract

The Etawa Grade Goat (PE) is a dual-purpose goat that is generally used as a meat and milk-producing goat. The study was purposed to investigate the morphometry performance of dairy goats belonged to the farmers at District of Deli Serdang, North Sumatra. The performance of an individual can be divided into quantitative and qualitative ones to investigate the ability of an individual’s productivity such as body weight, milk production and body size. The parameters measured were age, sex, physiological stage, morphometry characteristics such as height at withers, height at rump, body length, heart girth, body weight, teat characteristics and coat color pattern. The data were analyzed using the General Linear Model (GLM) procedure from SAS.10 (2002). The results showed that age significantly influenced (P<0.05) body weight and teat characteristics, whereas sex had a significant effect (P<0.05) on body length , height at withers, height at rump and heart girth. On the other hand, farmer, age and the physiological stage had significant influenced (P<0.05) on body length and heart girth. The results showed that the average height at withers, height at rump, body length, heart girth were 70.3±7.9 cm; 72.6±8.1 cm; 63.5±4.7 cm and 79.2±5.4 cm, respectively. Most of the goats (74.7%) were white, followed by black (13.3%) and brown (12.0%) dominant coat colors, respectively. In conclusion, the morphometry measurement of this breed reflects the average morphometry of the etawa grade.