Mesquite or Vilayati babul (Prosopis juliflora) is a drought resistant, evergreen, spiny tree with drooping branches and a deep laterally spreading root system. It grows in semi-arid and arid tracts of tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world and is spreading because the leaves are unpalatable and animals do not digest its seed. The mesquite has become a major nuisance; cutting or pruning its branches to form a canopy would provide shade for travelers, aid harvesting of pods, as well as make available wood for fuel. An average plant starts fruiting by 3-4 years of age and yields annually 10-50 kg pods/ tree, which can be collected from May-June and September-October. Availability of pods worldwide is estimated to be about 2-4 million metric tonnes. Ripe pods are highly palatable; on dry matter basis they contain 12% crude protein, 15% free sugar, a moderate level of digestible crude protein (7% DCP) with a high level of energy (75% TDN). The pods contain low tannin levels below those toxic to animals. Seeds contain 31-37% protein; pods should be finely ground before feeding to facilitate utilization of the seeds. Mesquite pods could replace costlier feed ingredients such as grain and bran contributing 10-50% of the diet. Phosphorus supplements need to be added when mesquite pod, exceeds 20% of animals' diet.

Aim:The aim was to estimate genetic and non-genetic factors affecting morphometric traits of Sirohi goats under field condition.Materials and Methods:The detailed information of all animals on body measurements at birth, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of age was collected from farmer’s flock under field condition born during 2007-2013 to analyze the effect of genetic and non-genetic factors. The least squares maximum likelihood program was used to estimate genetic and non-genetic parameters affecting morphometric traits.Results and Discussion:Effect of sire, cluster, year of birth, and sex was found to be highly significant (p<0.01) on all three morphometric traits, parity was highly significant (p<0.01) for body height (BH) and body girth (BG) at birth. The h2 estimates for morphometric traits ranged among 0.528±0.163 to 0.709±0.144 for BH, 0.408±0.159 to 0.605±0.192 for body length (BL), and 0.503±0.197 to 0.695±0.161 for BG.Conclusion:The effect of sire was highly significant (p<0.01) and also h² estimate of all morphometric traits were medium to high; therefore, it could be concluded on the basis of present findings that animals with higher body measurements at initial phases of growth will perform better with respect to even body weight traits at later stages of growth.

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The sire effect was highly significant (P≤0.01) on all growth traits.The sex effect of lamb was highly significant (P≤0.01) on all growth traits but non-significant on 12 months body weight, period effect was highly significant (P≤ 0.01) on all growth traits but non-significant on birth weight. The effect of dam’s age was highly significant (P≤0.01) on birth weight, 3 months weight, ADG3 and nonsignificant effect for 6, 9, 12 months body weights, ADG1 and ADG2. The effect of season of birth was highly significant (P≤ 0.01) on all growth traits but non-significant effect for 12 months body weights. The effect of dam’s weight as a covariate was highly significant (P≤0.01) on birth, 3, 6, 9 months body weights and ADG1 and significant (P≤0.05) on 12 months body weights and non-significant for ADG2 and ADG3. The heritability estimates from WOMBAT (animal model 1) method for body weights and average daily gains were low to medium. Estimates of genetic correlations between body weights with weights at subsequent ages were positive and ranged from 0.065 to 0.885, and average daily gains during different phase ranged from –0.088 to 0.322. Estimates for phenotypic correlations between body weights with weights at subsequent ages ranged from 0.255 to 0.818, and average daily gains during different phase ranged from –0.22 to 0.141.