A.M. KHALAFFALLA, AND S.A. ELSHAI-‘El, Kuku Livestock Research Station – Khartoum Nartft,

INTRODUCTION

The Nubian and Sudan Desert are the major distinct breeds of Northern Sudan ( Mason and Maule. 1960). The Desert Goats are raised mainly under extensive harsh environmental conditions as dual purpose animals. The Nubian goat is the mozt popular breed which is kept mainly for milk production . The goat – keepers feed their milking goats mainly on green forage; and whatever they can collect from garbage. Very rarely goats are offered concentrates ( sorghum grains and/ or cotton seed cake ). The suckling kids are usually weaned at two to three months of age and the surplus weaned males are slaughtered or sold between four to nine months of age. Research on improvement ofthe local goats for milk and meat production is scarse. In 1976 three exotic pure breeds of goats ( Saannen; Toggenburg and Anglo-Nubian ) were introduced in the Sudan through the aid of the Ministry of Overseas Development of the United Kingdom for improving goat milk and meat production through crossbreeding with local goats and multiplication of the exotic pure breed. Comparative performance studies between the local goats and the exotic ones were reported by Sulieman and ElShafei, (I984) . ln this paper the growth performance and slaughter data of the exotic pure kinds and of their local crosses are reported.

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