Pure and reciprocal crossing of Nigerian goats: Effects and correlation of the leather properties of resultant progenies

Exploration of value-added possibilities is important to ensuring sustainable livestock industry. The present study compares the properties of vegetable-tanned leathers of four goat genotypes using a total of ninety-six skins obtained from yearling bucks produced by pure and reciprocal crossing of Red Sokoto (RS) and West African Dwarf (WAD) breeds, and labelled as WADxWAD, RSxRS, WADxRS and RSxWAD. Leather properties considered are percentage elongation (PE), thickness (TN), load at crack (LC), load at tear (LT), distention at crack (DC) and distention at tear (DT). Data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance and Pearson's correlation using MINITAB statistical package. The result revealed significant (P < 0.05) difference among the genotypes in all the examined parameters. Leather of RSxRS was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in PE(87.9%) than that of WADxWAD (61.8%) and WADxRS cross (60.4%). RSxWAD genotype was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in TN(1.16 mm), DC(7.52 mm) and DT(7.46 mm) than other genotypes. LC exhibited by the leather of WADxWAD and the reciprocal crosses were significantly (P < 0.05) heavier than that of RSxRS. Negative correlations were mostly observed between some of the leather properties of WADxWAD and RSxRS. Highly significant (P < 0.01) and positive correlations were observed between LT and all other grain properties for WADxRS (LC: ρ = 0.670; DC: ρ = 0.755; DT: ρ = 0.765) and for RSxWAD (DC: ρ = 0.605; DT: ρ = 0.608). The results therefore suggest that RSxWAD and WADxRS crosses had relatively better leather properties than RSxRS and WADxWAD genotypes. It is therefore concluded that crossbreeding yielded improvement in the grain properties of WAD and RS leathers.