Determining the appropriate selection index for Rayeni Cashmere goat under pasture-based production system

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to identify the significance of Rayeni Cashmere goat’s socioeconomic traits so as to derive economic weights for the selection criteria that can be used easily by goat breeders. A deterministic bio-economic model was used to estimate economic value for adult bodyweight of doe (BWD), annual milk yield (MW), annual cashmere weight (CW), bodyweight of kids sold at 6.5 months (WK), and number of kids sold at 6.5 months per doe (NK). The relative importance of traits was determined on the basis of the estimated economic values, and, consequently, the most beneficial traits were applied to construct selection indices. Five selection indices with different herd sizes and buck ratios were proposed (I1–I5). The traits included in each index were as follows: BWD, MW, CW, WK and NK (I1); MW, CW, WK and NK (I2); BWD, MW, WK and NK (I3); BWD, MW and CW (I4); and BWD, CW, WK and NK (I5). Absolute economic values (US$) of BWD, MW, CW, WK and NK traits were $–0.870, $0.111, $5.660, $21.655 and $1.712 respectively. The results indicated that in all indices, the genetic and economic gains were elevated by an increased herd size and a decreased buck ratio. The maximum values of genetic and economic gains were obtained in herd size of 400 and buck ratio of 0.04. The highest genetic gain was obtained under Index 1, while the highest amount of economic gain was acquired under Index 2; however, the maximum accuracy of selection index was achieved under Index 1. The obtained results revealed that the most appropriate selection index for this breed is Index 1, which includes BWD, MW, CW, WK and NK. By applying Index 1, we could concurrently promote improvement of all traits, which highlights the potential of this index as a good promising strategy for developing selection criteria of Rayeni Cashmere goat under a pasture-based production system.