Hasseeb Adam Elbukhary1*, Ahmed Osman Idris2 and Salih Ahmed Babiker3
1 West Kordufan University, Faculty of Animal Production, Sudan.
2 Alsalam University, Animal Production and Range, Sudan.
3 University of Khartoum, Faculty of Animal Production, Sudan.
(*Corresponding author: Hasseeb Adam Elbukhary, Email: elbukhary11@yahoo.com, 00201558006607)
Received: 13/ 1/ 2026 Accepted: 30/ 6/ 2026
Abstract:
This experiment was conducted at the Faculty of Animal Production – Elkhawie, West Kordufan University, Sudan in March 2023. This work was aimed to study the effect of sex on carcass characteristics and composition of Desert goat kids raised under grazing natural range-land. Eighteen kids (9 males and 9 females) of about 8 months of age (based on the investigation of the milk teeth) with an average body weight of (17.83) kg for males and (18.50) kg for females were randomly selected from Elkhawie livestock market. The purchased kids were slaughtered after an overnight fast except for water. The results found that empty body weight was higher in female kids but not significant. The carcass data revealed that warm dressing out percentage on slaughter weight was higher for male than female kids, while on empty body weight dressing out percentage was higher in female kids (52.32 versus 51.31) % but the difference was not significant. The data also indicated that female kids had higher total edible portion compared to male kids but the difference was not significant. Wholesale cuts were not significantly affected by sex, yet male kids had higher neck and leg proportions while the best end of neck, loin, breast and single short forequarter cuts were higher in female kids. Non carcass components proportions were not affected by kid sex except for head percentage, which was significantly higher (P<0.05) in male kids. The kid sex did not significantly affect the carcass composition although total carcass fat proportion (12.05 versus 8.56) % and muscle to bone ratio were higher in female kids. On the other hand, total carcass muscle and bone portions were higher in males compared to females. It could be concluded that, Desert goat kids of both sexes slaughtered directly from pasture could be an alternative source of meat for local consumption while lamb and mutton produced for export.
Keywords: Carcass characteristics, edible meat, kids.
Full paper in Arabic: PDF