Abstract
Simple SummaryStrategies aiming to improve milk yield and quality are essential to maximizing profitability and dairy goat chain efficiency, which in turn optimizes the commercialization of the products derived. A total of 137,927 official controls were traced and recorded from 22,932 Murciano-Granadina primiparous goats between 1996 and 2016. In this regard, the effects of conditioning factors related to kidding (such as type, year and season) and farm were evaluated to detect the phenotypic sources of variation of milk yield, fat content, protein content and curve shape parameters in Murciano-Granadina primiparous goats to provide useful information for dairy goat early selection.A total of 137,927 controls of 22,932 Murciano-Granadina first lactation goats (measured between 1996–2016) were evaluated to determine the influence of the number of kids, season, year and farm on total milk yield, daily milk yield, lactation length, total production of fat and protein and percentages of fat and protein. All factors analyzed had a significant effect on the variables studied, except for the influence of the number of kids on the percentages of fat and protein, where the variation was very small. Goats with two offspring produced nearly 15% more milk, fat and protein per lactation compared to goats with simple kids. Kiddings occurring in summer–autumn resulted in average milk, fat and protein yields nearly 14, 19 and 23% higher when compared to winter–spring kiddings. Lactation curves were evaluated to determine the effects of the number of kids and season, using the linearized version of the model of Wood in random regression analyses. Peak Yield increased by about 0.3 kg per additional offspring at kidding, but persistence was higher in goats with single offspring. The kidding season significantly influenced the lactation curve shape. Hence summer-kidding goats were more productive, and peak occurred earlier, while a higher persistence was observed in goats kidding during autumn.
Highlights
The Murciano-Granadina Goat is the most important Spanish dairy goat, both in the number of individuals and production levels
There are more than 500,000 animals, of which 104,010 registered to the official herd book. They are spread across Spain, especially in Andalusia, Murcia and Castilla la Mancha, but an increasing number of animals are reared abroad, mainly in other European countries, North Africa, Latin America and the United States [1]
The effect of the different factors may become accentuated in animals, which present a marked seasonality, for which temperature, photoperiod, humidity may have a greater impact
Summary
The Murciano-Granadina Goat is the most important Spanish dairy goat, both in the number of individuals and production levels. There are more than 500,000 animals, of which 104,010 registered to the official herd book. They are spread across Spain, especially in Andalusia, Murcia and Castilla la Mancha, but an increasing number of animals are reared abroad, mainly in other European countries, North Africa, Latin America and the United States [1]. Murciano-Granadina dairy biotype [2] is eumetric and characterizes by a subrectilinear or rectilinear profile. The coat is uniformly black or mahogany (stains of any color are unacceptable), with black or pink mucous membranes, respectively. Males’ average height and weight are 77 cm and
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