Morphometric characteristics of Pulikulam Cattle breed in a nucleus herd

Abstract

Morphometric study of Pulikulam cattle breed was undertaken from the nucleus herd of 50 Pulikulam animals of different age groups maintained at Pulikulam Cattle Research Station, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS), India. A total of 4 different age groups were considered for this study. The morphological features of Pulikulam cattle showed that these animals have distinct appearance. Different Morphometric characteristic like wither height, body length, hip width, thurl width and rump width were studied. Pulikulam cattle are relatively smaller in size, the mean wither height for Pulikulam animal at 24-30 months, 36-42 months, 48-54 months and adult bull were 111.67±1.44 cm, 111.07±1.38 cm 112.40±0.74 cm and 121.26±0.84 cm respectively. It is concluded that the variation in the morphometric characteristics in different cattle breeds are due to environmental factors, feeding pattern and other management practices which affects genetic makeup of growth traits of cattle.