Few data are available on the growth and carcase characteristics of the indigenous Malawi goat, despite the fact that goats provide 20% of the meat consumed in Malawi. Better husbandry and breeding programmes can only be developed and implemented when adequate data on the performance and potential of populations have been collected. This trial was undertaken to provide base line data, in order to allow comparisons to be drawn when alternative management strategies are adopted.

Does were housed in a blue-gum-pole khola, roofed with galvanised iron, in pens measuring 4m2. Each pen held 10-14 does. Feeding was based upon the grazing of indigenous pastures but the goats also had access to maize stover during the dry season. Kids were weighed at birth and fortnightly thereafter. Castrate kids, in groups of S, were slaughtered at birth and at intervals of 5kg between Skg and 25kg. Following slaughter, carcases were split down the backbone, weighed, packed into individual polythene bass and stored at -20°C to await dissection. In March 1990 right hand sides were thawed, weighed and cut into six primal joints. To reduce any errors caused by abattoir procedures the axis vertebra was removed from all carcases and discarded. Each joint was then subjected to a full dissection, using butchers’ knives, into lean, bone and fat components and the weight of each component recorded. The data generated from these dissections were used to develop aliometric growth curves for each joint and for each tissue, using multiple regression analysis.