STUDIES ON ANIMAL TRACTION IN NORTH-WESTERN NIGERIA: II. EVALUATION OF THE EFFICIENCY OF DIFFERENT BREEDSISPECIES FOR DRAUGHT POWER

Abstract

The study was carried out with the aim of evaluating the draught efficiency of animals used for draught in north-western Nigeria. Thus 24 draught bulls (six each of Gudali, Rahaji, Bunaji and Buzu breeds) and six draught camels (consisting of three Red and three White strains) were used in the experiment. The bulls were yoked in pairs while the camels were worked singly making four treatments for bulls, with three pairs of animals in each treatment, and two treatments for camels, with thee animals per treatment. The animals were made to plough an area of 1,600 m2 of uncultivated flat land. During the ploughing exercise, draught force and elapsed working time (EWT) were recorded. Rectal temperature (bulls only) and respiration rate were recorded belorc dnd after work. Liveweights of animals were estimated from body measurements. Results showed that the camels weighed significantly (P <: 0.05) more than the bulls. There were no significant differences in draught force, EWT and speed between either the strains of cdmels or breed5 of bulls. However, inter-species comparison revealed that though the draught force exerted by the paired bulls tended to be higher than that exerted by the single camels, the differences were only signiticant (P < 0.05) between the Bunaji bulls and the White camels. Similar observations were recorded for speed and EWT, where the differences were significant (P < 0.05) only between Buzu bulls and Red camels. Changes in reqpiratory rate after work were higher in bulls (35.5 breaths/min) compared to the camels (11.5 breaths/min), thus indicating a more pronounced state of fatigue for the bulls. Mean increase in rectal temperature recorded for the bulls after work was 1.1 ⁰C. It was concluded that the numerical superiority of the bulls, which are nornially yoked in pairs, does not translate into higher draught efficiency over camels that are nornraily worked singly.