Survivability of N’dama Crossbred Calves in Sub Sahara Region of Africa

Abstract

The survivability of N’Dama crossbred calves for a period below one year after birth and at one year old for F1 calves was 32.82 and 18.55% respectively out of 201 calves studied. In F2 crosses, the survivability was 27.91 and 17.55% out of 506 calves, while in the F3, it was 29.09 and 17.84% out of 329 calves.  Among the F1 crosses, the highest value of 72.22% from 50% Angus - 50% N’Dama and 25.00% from 50% Charloais - 50% N’Dama was recorded for survivability below one year after birth and at one year old respectively. The lowest value of i6.67% from 50% Santa Getrudis-50% N’Dama calves and 9.68% from 50% Muturu- 50% N’Dama calves was recorded for the two different period of evaluation respectively.  Among the F2 crosses, the highest value of 42.42% from 75% Keteku-25% and German Brown-75% N’Dama calves was recorded for the two different period of evaluation respectively, while the lowest value of 0.00% from 25% Hereford - 75% N’Dama calves was recorded for the two different period.  Lastly, among the F3 crosses only the value of 24.92% was recorded for the period of evaluation respectively from 12.5% Brahman - 87.5% N’Dama calves.