Dairy and reproductive traits of German fawn goats in Mediterranean breeding conditions

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine some dairy and reproductive traits of German fawn goats kept on Dugi otok, in a semi intensive production conditions. The survey included 63 purebred, dairy goats during three consecutive lactations (from 2008 to 2010). All milking animals belonged to the same flock and were kept under identical experimental conditions. During the milking period (from weaning of kids at the age of 45±5 days till the drying off) regular monthly milk yield recordings were conducted (AT method). During mean lactation length of 249.5 days German fawn goats produced 646.7 kg of milk containing on average 3.41 % of milk fat and 3.10 % of protein. Significant differences were found in the mean daily and lactation milk yield, and in milk fat content between different years of research, with the lowest milk yield determined in the year with the lowest total quantity of precipitation (2009). Also a progressive increase (P<0.001) of the mean lactation milk yield from the first (375.71 kg) to the fourth lactation (786.55 kg) was observed, and a similar trend was found for the produced quantity of milk fat and protein during the milking period. The mean litter size of German fawn goats was 1.85 kids, while the goats with the two or more kids in the litter produced more milk, milk fat and protein than those with one kid (P>0.05). The mean birth weight of German fawn kids (3.77 kg) was positively correlated (P<0.01) with the total quantity of milk produced and the quantity of fat and proteins produced and, as expected, negative¬ly correlated with the number of kids in the litter (P<0.001).