Reproductive performance of White Fulani, N'dama and their crossbred in a hot humid environment

The reproduction records of a herd of White Fulani (WF), N'dama (ND) and their crossbreds (WFxND), raised semi-intensively at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Teaching and Research Farm, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria were evaluated within a 9 year period (1997-2005) of study. Parameters considered were age at first calving, calving interval, calving rate, birth weight and weaning weight. Results showed that all parameters investigated differed significantly (p<0.05) among genotype groups. Age at first calving (months) was similar (p>0.05) for White Fulani (48.88 +/- 0.16) and the crossbred WFxND (48.77 +/- 0.21) but differed significantly (p<0.05) with the value obtained for N'dama (38.22 +/- 0.26). Calving Interval (CI) (days) was comparatively higher (p<0.05) for N'dama than for either White Fulani (446.88 +/- 0.16) or the crossbred WFxND (488.77 +/- 0.12), however, the difference between the CI values obtained for White Fulani and the WFxND was not significant (p>0.05). Birth and weaning weights (kg) were 19.66, 79.88; 13.93, 63.66 and 17.33, 70.88 for White Fulani, N'dama and WFxND, respectively. These values differed significantly (p<0.05 among treatments. The White Fulani performed comparatively better than either the N'dama or the crossbred (WFxND). It would appear in this study that the crossbreds performed relatively better than the N'dama in most of the reproductive parameters measured.