BACKGROUND Longevity is the amount of time breeding females stay active in a herd by avoiding death or culling because of illness or reproductive failure. This is a trait of economic relevance in commercial small ruminant breeding herds as it affects lifetime reproductive output. The purpose of this study was to determine if breed of meat goat influences breeding doe survival rates and cumulati...

The effect of level of dietary energy and protein intake on reproductive performance was studied in 110 Finn-cross ewe lambs and in 404 Finn-cross yearling ewes during late gestation. Nitrogen metabolism was studied in 26 ewe lambs and 23 yearling ewes. Increasing digestible energy and crude protein intake for ewe lambs and yearling ewes during late gestation increased (P<.05) ewe average daily...

Weight of male and female Israeli Holstein calves and yearling gain were analyzed on 285 800 records from 105 935 animals from 458 herds recorded between 1994 and 2007. The difference between the sexes increased until around 400 days, at which point the difference between males and females was 110 kg. Yearling gain, defined as 365 × (weight - 35)/age + 35, was greatest for males at approximatel...

2. FACTORS AFFECTING MILK PRODUCTION IN GOATS 2.1 Genetic Factors 12 2.1.1 Breed Differences and Selection 2.1.2 Inbreeding 2.1.3 Crossbreeding 2.1.4 New Genetic Technology 2.2 Physiological Factors 15 2.2.1 Age 2.2.2 Seasonal Influence 2.2.3 Multiple Births 2.2.4 Length of Lactation and Dry Period 2.3 Milking Management 17 2.3.1 The Use of a Milking Machine 2.3.2 Milking Frequency and Milking ...

Boer, Kiko, and Spanish meat goats were semi-intensively managed in a complete 3-breed diallel mating scheme to evaluate genetic effects on preweaning kid performance. Over a 6-yr period, 1,547 kids were born in March and May with 1,173 kids raised by their dams to weaning at 3 mo of age. March-born kids were lighter (P < 0.01) at birth, but had greater (P < 0.01) preweaning ADG and survival ra...