Prediction of Live Weight and Carcass Characteristics from Linear Body Measurements of Yearling Male Local Sheep

Measurements of the body structure in sheep are worthy of judging the quantitative features of meat and useful in developing appropriate selection requirements. The current study was aimed to predict live weight and hot carcass weight from linear body measurements of yearling male local sheep. 84 days feeding period fortnightly taken data on 24 local sheep for body weight, body length, heart girth, wither height, sub-sternal height, tail length, tail width, scrotal circumference, and scrotal length were analyzed to study the relationship between linear body measurements and body weight. At the end of the trial all sheep were slaughtered to measure the relationship between body measurements, and hot carcass weight. Microsoft Excel 2010 was used for data analysis. The relationships between the various body measurements were calculated using pearson's correlation coefficient. The backward stepwise multiple regression procedure was used for the determination of the most suitable model for the prediction of the live weight and hot carcass weight. Hot carcass weight was highly correlated (P