Econometric Analysis of the Characteristics Cattle Purchased at Mubi – South (tike) Market, Adamawa State

The study was conducted at the Mubi – South Local Government Area cattle market (Tike) in June, 2021. The specific objectives of the study were to; describe the socio-economic characteristics of the cattle buyers, identify and assess physical characteristics that are predominant in the cattle sold in the market, determine the physical quality characteristics of cattle that influence buyers preferences and price of cattle in the market and identify the general problem associated with cattle marketing in the study area. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select 200 respondents in the market, while structured questionnaire was used to elicit the data. The data generated was subjected to analysis using descriptive statistics (frequency counts and percentages) and inferential statistics (hendonic regression analysis). The result reveals that all the buyers are males, about 37% aged between 41 -50 years, majority (80%) were married, majority (70%) had secondary education and purchased medium sized cattle’s, 40% purchased cattle that are above 300kg and of medium height (2.6-3.0 meters). Also, 30% had between 16 – 20 years of marketing experience and 25% has more than N300, 000 as weekly operating capital. The result further reveals that, physical characteristics of cattle such as size and weight were significant at 1% alpha level of significance, while length is significant at 5% and height is significant at 10%. The sex and breed were not significant. The study therefore, concludes that, cattle producers should pay attention to size, weight, length and height of cattle since buyers attached premium to them. The study recommended that, facilities for measuring weight, height and length should be installed in all the cattle market to facilitate effective and efficient measurement to achieve standardization and pricing policy, cattle farmers should be sensitized by extension agents and non – governmental organization (NGOs) etc. on basic physical characteristics of cattle which buyers prefer and attach premium. Cattle farmers should also be encouraged to form co-operative societies to pull their strength together to generate economic and political power to minimize some of their challenges.