Twenty-four unit breeding herd of two indigenous goat breeds (West African Dwarf and White Bornu) were raised in a humid environment of Nigeria to evaluate the effect of breed and sex on the body weight and linear measurement at sexual maturity of progenies from within and between crosses of both breeds. Results from the study revealed that breed and sex had significant influence on parameters assessed with higher values been observed in the crossbred and the White Bomu purebred. Body weight values ranged from 22. 76 ± 2.17 to 34.43 ± 1. 77 cm with higher value observed in crossbred. This trend was also revealed in traits such as Height at wither (HA W), Heart girth (HG), Body length (BL), Upper fore limb (UFL), Lower fore limb (LFL), and Upper hind limb (UHL). However, lower hind limb (LHL) -was higher in White Bornu purebred with value of 18.47+0.60 and the crossbred recording 17.64 ± 0.74 cm which implies that improvement was made on traits of the West African Dwarf goat due to crossbreeding with White Bornu.
Keywords: Crossbreeding, Improvement, Indigenous goat, Sexual maturity, body weight.
