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Dairy Goat Lactation Records and Potential for Buck Evaluation
Dairy Goat Lactation Records and Potential for Buck Evaluation M. G ROSSMAN 1
Department of Dairy Science University of Illinois Urbana 61801 G. R. WIGGANS
Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory Agricultural Research Science and Education Administration US Department of Agriculture 6eltsville, MD 20705
A BST R ACT
ters of other bucks, 52% appeared in only one herd-year.
A study of edited dairy goat records initiated from 1968 through 1978 included lactations of 12,712 Alpine, 3,094 LaMancha, 14,005 Nubian, 5,718 Saanen, 7,534 Toggenburg, 780 experimental, 7,401 unknown breed, and 287 mixed breed does. California accounted for 39% of the records. A b o u t 80% of the kiddings were from February through May; March accounted for 27% of all kiddings. Nubians tended to kid earlier. First lactations accounted for 40% of the records and second lactations for 26%. Almost 80% of the records were from the most recent 5 yr. A b o u t 69% (35,322) of the records had a dry date or 305 days in milk. Of these, 20,131 were lactations of 275 or more days. For these records, milk and milk fat were greatest in lactation 4. Production of milk and fat essentially has not changed over the most recent 5 yr; average production was 878 kg of milk and 33 kg of fat. Number of herds on test has increased over years with the addition of many small herds. A b o u t 20% of the herd-years had only one buck represented. More than 55% of the 10,102 bucks had only one daughter record. Among 9,812 bucks with daughters in herd-years with daugh-
INTRODUCTION
National and international symposia at the 1978 and 1979 annual meetings of the American Dairy Science Association emphasize increased interest in dairy goats in the United States (1, 2). There is a substantial amount of research on dairy goats in many countries (5); however, there is little research on United States production records. Iloeje and Van Vleck (4) reviewed the world's literature on dairy goat genetics and concluded that more work is needed before a successful national dairy goat program o f genetic improvement can be implemented. As a first step, it is important to know the distribution of lactations, measures of production, and potential for buck evaluation. A preliminary survey was published in abstract (3). MATERIALS AND METHODS
Received January 28, 1980. l Supported by funds from the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station and US Department of Agriculture Northeastern Region Small Farms Research Project. 1980 J Dairy Sci 63:1925--t937
From 107,345 lactation records reported to the United States Department of Agriculture Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory as of June, 1979, records on 51,531 lactations met the following requirements: each record a) started at kidding and had test intervals of 75 or fewer days, b) was between 5 and 305 days in length and not in progress, c) was initiated from 1968 through 1978, d) had an age at kidding of 9 mo or more, e) had a reported body weight not greater than 250 kg if milk production was more than 1,750 kg (to eliminate possible cows), and f) had a lactation percentage of milk fat from 1.5 to 8. Alpine, LaMancha, Nubian, Saanen, Toggenburg, experimental, unknown, and mixed "breeds" were represented.
1925
~o b~
e~
Ox
o ~a
W
TABLE 1. Goat lactations by breed and top 10 states.
Breed
CA
OR
WI
WA
AZ
NY
PA
IA
NJ
ME
Top 10 states
All states
All states
< O Ox ~o
(%)a 41.7 26.6
8.4 25.2
7.6 26.0
5.3 24.8
2.0 13.3
3.6 27.4
2,5 22.5
2.6 23.2
3.1 29.8
2.7 28.5
79.4 25.6
100.0 24.7
12,712
LaMancha
55.0 8.6
5.2 3.8
10.6 8.8
4.6 5.3
3.2 5.3
.7 1.3
5.2 11.2
1.5 3.3
.2 .5
.1 .3
86.2 6.8
100.0 6.0
3,094
Nubian
40.2 28.3
8.3 27.4
4,8 18.0
3.4 17.5
3.8 28.7
2.7 22.5
1.4 14.0
1.9 19.0
1.9 20.0
2.3 26.4
70,7 25.1
100.0 27.2
14,005
Saanen
46.2 13.3
4.4 5.9
6.4 9.8
4.4 9.4
3.9 11.8
3.0 10.4
1.6 6,2
7.6 31.0
2.7 11.9
2.7 12.9
83,0 12.0
100.0 11.1
5,718
Toggenburg
30.4 11.5
5.1 8.9
11.9 24.1
3.5 9.7
3.4 13.7
5.3 23.9
5.0 26.5
2.7 14.7
3.3 18.8
2.9 18.2
73.5 14.0
100.0 14.6
7,534
Experimental
33.7 1.3
2.7 .5
9.2 1.9
1.2 .3
2.6 1.1
1.7 .8
11.4 6.2
2.3 1.3
3.2 1.9
1.4 .9
69.4 1.4
100.0 1.5
7g0
Unknown
27.2 10.1
15.6 27.1
5.5 11.0
11.6 31.7
6.5 25.6
3~0 13.4
2.4 12.5
1.4 7.3
2.9 16.2
2.0 11.9
78.0 14.6
100.0 14.4
7,401
Mixed
12.9 .2
18.5 1.2
3.8 .3
11.8 1.3
3.1 .5
2.4 .4
4.2 .8
1.0 .2
3.5 .8
4.2 1.0
65.5 .5
100.0 .6
287
Overall
38.6 100.0
8.3 100.0
7.2 100.0
5.2 100.0
3.6 100.0
3.2 100.0
2.8 100.0
2.7 100.0
2.6 100.0
2.4 100.0
76.6 100.0
100.0 100.0
51,531
Overall
19,875
4,262
3,716
2,695
1,866
1,677
1,425
1,401
1,321
1,212
39,450
51,531
O
o0
(No.)
Alpine
(No.)
aUpper n u m b e r is percentage of breed total; lower number is percentage of state total.
© f.o
Z
DAIRY GOAT LACTATIONS
1927
TABLE 2. Goat lactations by breed and lactation number. Lactation no. Breed
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
>10
2.6 1.4 2.6 2.3 3,2 2.7 2.5 1.4 2.6
1.5 .9 1.2 1.3 1,8 1.2 1.1 1.0 1.4
.7 .3 .6 .7 .8 .6 .7 .0 .6
.4 .3 .3 .2 .3 .3 .4 .0 .3
.2 .1 .1 .1 .2 ,3 .2 .4 .2
"(.1 <.1 ,1 .1 .1 .0 .1 .0 .1
1,332
701
336
169
76
41
(%)a Alpine LaMancha Nubian Saanen Toggenburg Experimental Unknown Mixed Overall
38.9 42.3 39.6 39.8 37.3 46,7 40.4 49.1 39.6
25.4 27.7 26.1 25.9 25,1 24,4 25.9 27.5 25.8
15.9 15.1 15,6 15.8 15.9 13.0 15.4 13.6 15.6
9.3 8.0 9.0 9.1 9.8 7.0 8.4 5.2 9.0
5.1 3.8 4.8 4.7 5,5 4.0 5.0 1.7 4.9
20,389
13,291
8,048
4,625
2,523
(No.) Overall
........
apercentage of breed total (see Table 1).
T h r e e h u n d r e d t w e n t y - s e v e n records were f r o m goats m i l k e d t h r e e t i m e s daily. T w o - w a y f r e q u e n c y tables were c o n s t r u c t e d f o r b r e e d b y state, l a c t a t i o n n u m b e r , y e a r of kidding, m o n t h o f kidding, a n d r e a s o n for t e r m i n a t i o n o f t h e record. F o u r regions were d e f i n e d : N o r t h e a s t , Maine t h r o u g h P e n n s y l v a n i a ; S o u t h , M a r y l a n d t h r o u g h Florida a n d Texas ;Midwest, O h i o t h r o u g h t h e D a k o t a s a n d Kansas; a n d West, C o l o r a d o to t h e West Coast. Milk a n d f a t yield were s u m m a r i z e d b y b r e e d a n d days in m i l k for all records e n d i n g w i t h a dry date or 305 days in m i l k ( n o r m a l l y ter-
m i n a t e d ) . S u m m a r i e s of m i l k a n d f a t yield also were c o m p u t e d for each b r e e d b y l a c t a t i o n number, kidding month, and kidding year for l a c t a t i o n s with at least 275 days in milk. Distributions of number of lactations and n u m b e r o f h e r d s b y y e a r o f kidding, n u m b e r o f herd-years and number of bucks by breed, number of herd-years by number of bucks per herd-year, n u m b e r o f b u c k s b y n u m b e r o f d a u g h t e r records, a n d n u m b e r o f b u c k s b y n u m b e r of h e r d - y e a r s p e r b u c k a n d n u m b e r o f h e r d s p e r b u c k were e x a m i n e d to d e t e r m i n e p o t e n t i a l f o r g e n e t i c e v a l u a t i o n o f dairy goats.
TABLE 3, Goat lactations by breed and year of kidding. Breed
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
25.0 8.1 27.9 11.0 14.9 1.4 11.0 .6 7.9
26.6 6.9 28.3 12.0 14.0 1.6 10.0 .6 11.6
26.8 6.4 28.6 11.2 14.7 1.8 10.1 .4 17.8
25.5 6.2 28.6 11.3 13.4 1.6 12.9 .4 22.4
22.9 4.4 25.5 9.1 12.1 1.2 23.8 1.0 19.7
4,095
5,979
9,172
(%)a Alpine LaMancha Nubian Saanen Toggenburg Experimental Unknown Mixed Overall
18.7 1.5 21.3 12.9 21.9 2.0 21.3 .4 1.5
19.2 1.7 21.7 13.1 21.3 2.1 20.6 .3 2.0
23.3 4.7 20.0 16.5 22.7 2.1 10.4 .4 2.2
18.5 5.0 20.6 13.4 19.1 1.3 21.9 .2 3.2
23.6 6.6 29.1 11.6 17.5 1.5 9.9 .2 5.2
Overall
790
1,017
1,108
1,666
2,666
24.7 7.8 27.8 10.2 16.0 1.1 12.0 •4 6.5 (No.) 3,365
11,531 10,142
apercentage of year total. Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 63, No. 11, 1980
1928
GROSSMAN AND WIGGANS
TABLE 4. Goat lactations by breed and m o n t h of kidding. Breed
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Alpine LaMancha Nubian Saanen Toggenburg Experimental Unknown Mixed Overall
4.4 7.8 10.5 5.6 5.5 5.3 6.5 8.4 6.9
19.5 21.7 20.0 20.0 20.1 21.0 19.6 14.6 19.9
30.0 24.8 22.3 26.9 28.9 24.9 28.0 23.7 26.7
22.0 21.8 19.4 22.4 22.2 21.9 20.2 24.0 21.1
13.4 11.6 12.6 13.1 11.4 11.9 12.5 12.2 12.6
5.9 5.6 6.2 6.3 5.5 7.2 6.4 9.8 6.0
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
2.1 1.4 2.6 2.3 2.7 3.3 2.4 2.8 2.4
.5 .4 .6 .4 .8 .9 .7 .4 .6
.2 .3 .4 .3 .3 .9 .2 .0 .3
.4 1.1 .8 .5 .5 .6 .4 .4 .6
.6 1.1 1.4 .6 .7 1.4 1.0 2.1 .9
1.1 2.3 3.2 1.6 1.6 .6 2.1 1.7 2.0
325
159
298
478
1,038
(%)a
(No.) Overall
3,545
10,260 13,739
10,876
6,485
3,114 1,214
apercentage of breed total (see Table 1).
TABLE 5. Goat lactation records by breed and reason for termination.
Breed
Normal
Test interval > 75 days
Sold for dairy
Died or culled
Aborted
(%)a Alpine
71.6 25.8
.8 32.6
17.5 21.2
10.1 23.7
<.1 26.1
LaMancba
72.5 6.4
.4 4.4
18.0 5.3
9.I 5.2
<.1 4.4
Nubian
68.5 27.2
.4 19.5
21.1 28.2
9.9 25.6
<.1 26.1
Saanen
71.5 11.6
.3 5.0
17.6 9.6
10.6 11.2
<.1 4.4
Toggenburg
72.9 15.5
.4 11.4
17.9 12.9
8.7 12.1
.i 21.7
Experimental
67.6 1.5
1.0 2.7
22.7 1.7
8.6 1.2
.1 4.4
Unknown
55,6 11,6
.9 23,2
28.8 20.4
14.6 20.0
<.1 13.0
Mixed
55.8 .4
1.4 1.3
26.1 .7
16.7 .9
.0 .0
Overall
68.6 100.0
.6 100.0
20.3 100.0
10.5 100.0
<.1 100.0
Overall
35,322
5,415
23
(No.) 298
10,473
aUpper percent is percentage of breed total (see Table 1); lower percent is percentage of reason for termination total.
Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 63, No. 11, 1980
DAIRY GOAT LACTATIONS RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Frequency Distributions
The percentage of goat lactations by breed and state (Table 1) showed that Nubians accounted for 27% of the lactations, followed closely by Alpines. Toggenburgs, Saanens, and LaManchas were less numerous. Other breed groups accounted for 16% of the lactations. The top 10 states accounted for 77% of the records from 1968 through 1978. California, with 39% of the lactations recorded, had slightly more than the total of the next 9 states. Because of the preponderance of lactations recorded in California, the West had 60% of the records, followed by the Midwest (18%), Northeast (15%), and South (7%). Almost two-thirds of the records were first or second lactations (Table 2). Number of records increased 15-fold from 790 in 1968 to 11,531 in 1977 (Table 3). The number decreased in 1978 because not all does kidding that year were reported in time to be included in the
1929
study. All breeds increased in number over years; the proportions of Alpines, LaManchas, and Nubians increased, but the proportions of Saanens and Toggenburgs decreased. Distinct seasonality in goats is apparent in the frequency of kiddings by month (Table 4). February through May accounted for 80% of the kiddings, with a peak of 27% in March. January and June accounted for an additional 13%, and December and July an additional 4%. For each breed except mixed, most goats kidded in March. Across herds, breeds differed significantly (Xz P<.0001) in kidding distribution by month. These differences may be due to differences in management. About 85% of Alpine does kidded from February through May, but only about 74% of Nubians kidded during that period. Nubians tended to kid earlier; an additional 10% kidded in January. Normally terminated lactations accounted for 69% (35,3 22) of the records (Table 5). Records with termination code 9 (not useful for evaluation of sires or does because of not starting at kidding or of a long test interval) already had
TABLE 6. Number, production averages, and standard deviations of goat lactations by breed and days in milk. ~<305 Days in milk Breed
No.
Milk
Fat
No.
3,453 (37.9) b 875 (39.0) 2,485 (25.9) 1,687 (41.2) 2,425 (44.2) 197 (37.4) 1,280 (31.1) 44 (27.5) 12,446 (35.2)
Alpine
9,105
~(kg)a 795.3 333.6
LaMancha
2,242
660.1
12.0
27.7 11.8 25.2 11.3
Nubian
9,598
Saanen
4,089
Toggenburg
5,489
615.7 286.5 786.0 348.8 789.2 311.2 721.2 296.8 669.1 339.1 674.4 297.4 719.5 327.5
27.8 13.4 27.5 12.4 26.0 10.6 26.5 10.9 25.0 12.5 25.4 11.3 26.9 12.2
Experimental Unknown Mixed Overall
527 4,112 160 35,322
305 Days in milk Milk ~ (kg)a 952.3 304.8 816.6
Fat
262.9
33.2 11.0 31.3 9.4
805.7 254.4 962.2 312.8 921.1 280.2 853.0 283.2 874.7 288.4 844.8 254.3 898.8 293.0
36.9 12.4 33.8 11.0 30.4 9.4 31.2 10.t 32.5 10.8 31.7 9.7 33.2 11.0
aUpper is mean; lower is standard deviation. bNumbers in parentheses show the percentage of records 305 days in length. Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 63, No. 11, 1980
1930
GROSSMAN AND WIGGANS
TABLE 7. Number, production averages, and standard deviations of goat lactations for days in milk groups, all breeds. Days
Lactations
Yield
in milk
Milk (No.)
Fat
(%)
(kg) a
5--34
91
.2
49.5 22.4
2.2 1.3
35--64
314
.9
97.7 63.3
4.1 2.8
65--94
530
1.5
159.8 89.5
6.5 3.7
95--124
715
2.0
231.6 109.2
9.2 4.6
125--154
1,018
2.9
300.1 128.6
11.8 5.4
155--184
1,544
4.4
382.6 163.3
14.8 6.5
185--214
2,337
6.6
471.7 187.5
18.0 7.4
215--244
3,431
9.7
578.2 217.8
22.0 8.7
245--274
5,211
14.8
694.7 238.0
26.1 9.2
275--304
7,685
21.8
825.0 268.3
31.0 10.3
12,446
35.2
898.8 293.0
33.2 11.0
305
aupper is mean; lower is standard deviation.
t e r m i n a t e d b e c a u s e t h e d o e d i e d or w a s culled. Normally terminated records comprised the d a t a f o r t h e s t u d y o f p r o d u c t i o n averages.
b e e n d e l e t e d . A b o u t 20% o f t h e r e c o r d s were o f l a c t a t i o n s t e r m i n a t e d b e c a u s e t h e d o e w a s sold f o r dairy use, a n d 10% w e r e o f l a c t a t i o n s
TABLE 8. Number of goat lactations 275 or more days in milk by breed and lactation number. Lactation no. Breed
1
2
3
Alpine LaMancha Nubian Saanen Toggenburg Experimental Unknown Mixed Overall
2,018 527 1,734 996 1,287 120 845 32 7,559
1,578 386 1,284 727 954 81 543 34 5,587
952 214 744 431 638 55 357 5 3,396
4
5
All
529 104 416 224 352 24 191 4 1,844
277 45 187 104 208 11 94 2 928
5,599 1,311 4,533 2,567 3,645 297 2,101 78 20,131
(No.)
Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 63, No. 11, 1980
TABLE 9. Production averages and standard deviations of goat lactations 275 or more days in milk by breed and lactation number. Milk yield
Fat yield
Lactation no.
Lactation no. 1
2
3
4
5
All
924.4 296.2
27.7 8,9
33.8 10.3
35.1 10.5
36.5 11.1
35.3 12.0
32.2 10.6
856.6 248.6
800.7 254.2
26.9 8.1
32.8 8.7
33.6 9.5
33.9 9.8
32.9 8.5
30.7 10.5
879.4 279.4
849.6 261.9
778,4 246.9
30.8 9.4
37.3 11.6
39.9 12.8
40.0 13.4
38.6 11.7
35.5 11.9
1058.5 316.6
1034.7 328.6
995,6 325.3
931.5 305.2
27.7 8.4
35.1 10.3
37.0 11.4
36,8 12.1
35.0 10.4
32.7 10.9
942.1 273.7
990,6 297.5
986.2 289.5
937,9 312.7
897.5 277.3
26.1 7.6
31.0 9.3
32.5 10.0
32.4 9.4
31.2 10.4
29.6 9.4
728.3 209.9
887.9 295.8
905,2 232.2
1004.5 331.4
860.4 246.9
835.2 270.2
27,6 8.6
32.3 9.5
33.1 10.0
35.3 12.1
31,0 7.2
30.8 9.6
Unknown
738.9 233.3
892.2 294.4
971.4 295.8
990.6 274.4
955.8 294.1
855.7 289.6
27.2 8.3
32.8 10.3
36.3 11.6
36.6 11.0
36.6 13.0
36,7 10.8
Mixed
767.3 198.6
869.6 303.5
1089.3 281.6
844.7 126.2
798.2 282.2
835.5 261.5
28.3 7.4
32.6 11.3
44.8 9.8
29.1 3.1
30.4 12.8
31.3 10.1
Overall
751.9 230.9
918.8 281.1
969.0 294.8
979.8 301.7
946.8 309.5
870.7 286.1
28.0 8.8
34.1 10.6
35.9 11.4
36.4 11.7
35.0 11.6
32.4 10,8
Breed
1
2
3
4
5
All
Alpine
796.3 244.0
971.1 290.2
1010.9 296.1
1048.6 305.8
1017.0 327,4
LaMancha
695.4 220.5
858.7 233.9
889.4 262.8
870.8 258.5
Nubian
674.8 196.3
821.8 237.0
870.4 256.3
Saanen
791.4 236.0
1004,0 294.5
Toggenburg
790.5 221.7
Experimental
(kg) a
t~
< O Ox
Z
O
00
aUpper is mean; lower is standard deviation.
©
Z
TABLE 10. Number of goat lactations 275 or more days in milk by breed and m o n t h of kidding.
~7
< Ox
Z
Breed
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Alpine LaMancha Nubian Saanen Toggenburg E xp erim en tal Unknown Mixed Overall
314 126 604 180 245 12 153 10 1,644
1,255 321 1,110 609 841 76 492 10 4,714
1,842 352 1,092 771 1,116 71 596 22 5,862
1,173 269 775 537 760 72 385 13 3,984
600 126 426 244 345 32 188 8 1,969
216 36 171 113 122 18 111 9 796
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
64 12 64 31 62 4 51 0 288
11 2 16 6 17 1 9 0 62
14 1 12 2 10 2 5 0 46
19 18 29 13 18 3 10 1 111
29 16 62 13 32 2 39 3 196
62 32 172 48 77 4 62 2 459
(No.)
O
00
©
TABLE 11. Milk production averages and standard deviations of goat lactations 275 or more days in milk by breed and m o n t h of kidding. Breed
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Alpine
975.6 354.9
956.6 297.6
932.3 296.1
912.2 288.1
898.4 279.2
844.2 239.1
819.9 262.7
800.7 227.1
796.9 250.6
728.0 292.9
790.7 270.5
821.4 341.4
LaMancha
849.6 266.1
829.2 259.0
810.0 259.3
782.6 245.8
748.6 217.7
755.4 268.8
791.0 286.0
820.9 506.7
743.8 .....
605.7 221.9
774.7 242.5
755.0 205.1
Nubian
811.2 262.6
Saanen
929.4 306.7
803.6 250.4 978.6 317.9
785.8 249.4 954.2 308.6
763.9 232.8 922.5 306.2
744.6 226.6 876.4 273.4
677.4 228.2 825.9 250.2
718.9 219.1 766.3 206.3
688.5 140.2 818.6 118.4
766.8 219.4 569.2 137.9
660.2 187.4 730.5 268.8
693.4 219.2 768.2 254.1
786.2 247.5 837.6 263.0
Toggenburg
928.1 287.5
947.5 282.4
923.4 278.7
872.5 264.2
834.0 252.4
805.8 260.7
779.8 218.1
809.4 274.4
883.9 457.0
734.7 316.1
647.0 208.6
812.3 227.1
Experimental
783.4 282.2
857,8 280.6
840.0 249.9
873.2 277.0
748.2 233.8
865.4 338.7
737.0 145.3
480.7 .....
764.2 311.1
663.6 340.4
646.2 336.7
799.3 239.2
Unknown
819.6 311.6 681.2 227.6
911.6 297.8 845.8 272,2
882.1 289.1 903.3 261.7
857.0 272.1 811.8 182.9
793.3 285.6 881.0 311.2
746.0 207.1 905.0 333.0
854.9 282.3 ND . . . . . .
739.7 699.3 243.9 264.3 ND ND . . . . . . . . . . . .
732.4 231.4 517.0 . .
726.1 267.7 654.6 230.5
756.9 298.8 898.0 77.0
875.7 303.1
906.6 292.0
892.5 289.6
862.0 277.7
829.0 266.8
783.3 250.9
786.9 244.4
762.5 224.3
688.6 250.6
717.2 242.0
795.2 264.4
(kg) a
Mixed Overall
aUpper is mean; lower is standard deviation; . . . . . .
standard deviation could not be computed; ND, no data.
784.9 292.7
Z t~
TABLE 12. Fat p r o d u c t i o n averages and standard deviations of goat lactations 275 or more days in m i l k by breed and m o n t h of kidding. Breed
Jan
Feb
Mar
A pr
May
J un
Jul
A ug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Alpine
33.6 12.0
33.3 10.8
32.4 10.6
31.8 10.1
31.2 10.0
30.1 8.9
29.2 10.5
30.8 7.5
30.2 15.1
23.8 8.8
27.9 10.6
29.1 14.7
LaMancha
32.0 9.0
32.0 9.5
30.8 9.5
29.8 8.9
28.6 8.0
28.6 9.4
29.3 9.7
41.3 26.9
34.0 ....
25.0 9.8
31.6 I0.0
31.7 8.2
Nubian
37,1 12.4
36.2 11.7
35.5 12.3
35.1 11.3
34.4 11.2
32.0 12.0
33.9 11.0
34.0 8.3
34,2 9.0
32.0 9.3
32.7 10.2
36.1 11.6
Saanen
32.6 10.5
34.1 11.3
33.5 11.1
32.2 11.0
30.6 9.9
29.5 9.0
28.7 7.8
29.7 4.6
23.6 6.4
26.5 9.6
27.7 8.3
29.9 8.8
Toggenburg
31.0 10.2
31.3 9.8
30.3 9.3
28.8 8.7
27.4 8.6
27.1 8.4
27.0 7.6
27.7 9.5
30.1 13,9
25.7 10.4
22.5 8.5
26.4 7.8
Experimental
28.0 11.0
31.2 10.1
31.1 9.7
31.6 9.1
29.4 9.9
31.5 12.0
24.6 5.0
20.9 ....
35.6 12,5
29.2 12.2
24.9 10.3
30.4 9.0
Un known
31.8 13.2
33.6 11.2
32.1 10.4
31.2 9.8
29.8 11.4
29.3 8.4
31.9 10.0
28.5 6.9
27,5 7.1
29.5 9.1
27.7 10.6
29.9 11.8
Mixed
26.8 7.8
30.5 9.5
34.0 11.6
30.1 6.9
34.1 12.3
32.2 12.2
ND ND ND 21.8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
29.6 11.5
28.8 .3
Overall
34.0 11.9
33.6 11.0
32.6 10.8
31.7 10.3
30.8 10,3
29.8 9,7
30.1 9,8
28.8 10,4
31.6 11.6
(kg) a
o
¢~
< O Ox ~o
z oo
30.5 9.0
a u p p e r is mean; lower is standard deviation; . . . . , standard deviation could not be c o m p u t e d ; ND, no data.
30,9 11,9
27.4 9,8
>_ ,< C3 O
Z
o~
1934
GROSSMAN AND WIGGANS
TABLE 13. Number of goat lactations 275 or more days in milk by breed and year of kidding for recent years. Breed
1974
1975
1976
Alpine LaMancha Nubian Saanen Toggenburg Experimental Unknown Mixed Overall
496 144 370 217 309 27 177 10 1,750
718 195 590 320 428 40 227 14 2,532
994 232 831 468 608 55 313 9 3,510
1977
1978
1,103 240 968 477 637 59 531 10 4,025
1,052 192 777 399 547 37 278 23 3,305
1974--78
(No.)
Summary Statistics
Production averages and standard deviations for milk and fat for all normally terminated records for each breed are in Table 6. Records with 305 clays in milk accounted for 35% of normally terminated lactations. Toggenburgs had the highest percentage of records with 305 days in milk (44%); Nubians had the lowest (26%). Over breed, average yield of those 12,446 305-day lactations was 899 kg of milk and 33 kg of fat; overall average percentage of fat was 3.7. Saanens produced the most milk (962 kg), followed closely by Alpines. Maximum milk production was 2,698 kg by an Alpine. Nubians produced the most fat (3 7 kg) followed by Saanens and Alpines. Maximum fat production was 122 kg by a different Alpine. Almost 5% of lactations terminated before 125 days in milk (Table 7). These short records may result from reporting errors and probably should be excluded from genetic evaluation. An additional 38% terminated before 275 days, and 57% terminated at 275 or more days. For this 57% (20,131 lactations), average milk and fat yield were greatest in lactation 4, 980 kg of milk and 36 kg of fat (Tables 8 and 9). Trends for milk and fat were similar in most breeds. Average milk production was 871 kg; average fat production was 32 kg. Study of milk and fat production by month of kidding (Tables 10, 11, and 12) revealed breed differences by month of kidding and month of maximum production. The few kiddings during summer and fall provide little information on the effect of those seasons on production. Review of trends during the most recent 5 yr (Tables 13 and 14) showed essentially no Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 63, No. 11, 1980
4,363 1,003 536 1,881 2,529 218 1,526 66 15,122
change in either milk or fat production since 1974. There were differences in trends for milk and fat yield by breeds; Nubians, Saanens, and Toggenburgs increased in milk, and Nubians and Toggenburgs increased in fat.
Potential for Buck Evaluation
Further research in genetic evaluation of dairy goats is essential for improving milk and fat production in dairy goats. To understand the potential for and problems in dairy goat evaluation, we examined frequencies of normally terminated records for number of lactations and number of herds by year (Table 15), number of herd-years and number of bucks by breed (Table 16), number of herd-years by number of bucks per herd-year (Table 17), number of bucks by number of daughter records (Table 18), and number of bucks by number of herd-years per buck and number of herds per buck (Table 19). Number of herds greatly increased in recent years of kidding, with a 3-fold increase from 1974 through 1978 (Table 15). Number of lactations per herd-year dropped considerably; the number in 1978 was 33% that in 1968. This drop was probably a result of small herds coming on test in recent years. The increase in number of small herds may have contributed to the lack on increase in milk and fat. Overall number of lactations was 35,322 and number of herd-years was 4,853; average number of lactations per herd-year was 7.3. Alpines had 12.7, LaManchas 8.6, Nubians 6.5, Saanens 7.0, Toggenburgs 6.7, experimentals 5.8, unknowns 4.8, and mixed 4.2 lactations per
TABLE 14. Production averages and standard deviations of goat lactations 275 or more days in milk by breed and year of kidding for recent years. Milk yield
Fat yield
Breed
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1974--78
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1974-78
Alpine
964.0 321.5
940.9 299.3
944.0 289.8
901.4 299.2
917.9 312.1
928.7 303.5
33,2 11,0
33.0 10.4
32,8 10.3
31.6 10.8
32,0 11.4
32.4 lO,8
LaMancha
817.7 265.2
816.8 243.7
805.5 243,9
807.2 252.4
758.9 240.5
800.8 248.8
31.4 9.7
31.5 9.4
31.1 9.4
30.8 9.4
28.5 8.9
30.6 9.4
Nubian
749.8 234.6
759.4 255.3
806.3 259.9
809.2 249.4
797.8 255.6
791.5 253.6
34.3 11.3
35,0 12.3
37.1 12.1
37.2 12.0
36.4 12.6
36.3 12.2
Saanen
918.0 313.6
936.3 307.6
948.0 314.2
945.4 326,4
938.8 318.4
940.0 316,8
32.8 11.6
33.3 11.3
33.2 10.8
33.0 11.5
31.8 10,2
32.8 11.1
Toggenburg
878.3 252.7
899,7 283.4
915.1 291.8
917.4 295.6
925.2 285.6
910.8 285.6
29.1 8.9
29.6 9.6
30.1 9.6
30,1 9.9
30.1 9.5
29,9 9.6
Experimental
789.6 267.0
763.5 186.8
791.6 257.2
899.1 297.8
916,8 292.7
836.5 270.4
29.9 9.9
26.9 7.2
29.1 9.6
32.1 9.8
34.9 10.0
39.6 9.7
Unknown
911.4 286.5
875.1 280.4
867.9 285.8
848.3 295.5
812.3 269.0
857.1 286.6
33.7 11.0
32.5 10.6
32.6 10.6
31.5 11.3
29.4 9.8
31.8 10.8
Mixed
805.0 201.7
908.0 208.5
928.7 286.4
897.5 261.5
832.5 313.1
867.3 262.9
30.2 8.5
33.8 9.3
35.0 11.1
33.1 10.6
31.8 11,2
32.6 10.1
Overall
876.9 293.0
872.6 289.4
888.6 289.3
874,3 291.7
874.7 295.0
877.7 291.7
32.5 10.8
32.7 10.9
33.2 11.0
32.8 11.3
32.3 11.3
32.7 11.1
(kg) a
O t"
Z
<
o
aUpper is mean; lower is standard deviation. ~4
Z O
7~ o0 C~
7~ ~4
1936
G ROSSMAN AND WIGGANS
TABLE 15. Distribution of lactations, herds, and lactations per herd by year of kidding, Year of kidding
Lactations
Lactat_ions/herd
Herds
TABLE 17. Distribution of herd-years by bucks per herd-year. Bucks/ herd-year
Herd-years (No.)
(No.) 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978
654 807 863 1,271 1,922 2,259 2,858 4,275 6,166 7,516 6,731
36 49 54 97 172 248 389 576 949 1,171 1,112
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >10 Total
18.2 16.5 16.0 13.1 11.2 9.1 7.3 7.4 6.5 6.4 6.0
(%)
942 901 712 555 373 335 252 171 116 101 395 4,853
19.4 18.6 14.7 11.4 7.7 6.9 5.2 3.5 2.4 2.1 8.1 100.0
in o n l y o n e h e r d - y e a r a n d 69% h a d d a u g h t e r s in o n l y o n e h e r d (Table 19). herd-year. A b o u t 31% o f h e r d - y e a r s i n c l u d e d N u b i a n records, a l m o s t twice as m a n y as t h e n e x t m o s t f r e q u e n t b r e e d (Table 16). N u b i a n a n d A l p i n e b u c k s t o g e t h e r r e p r e s e n t e d 49% o f sires used b e t w e e n 1968 a n d 1 9 7 8 (Table 16). A l m o s t 20% o f t h e h e r d - y e a r s h a d o n l y o n e b u c k r e p r e s e n t e d per h e r d - y e a r (Table 17). A b o u t 53% o f herd-years h a d f e w e r t h a n f o u r b u c k s r e p r e s e n t e d . More t h a n 55% o f t h e 1 0 , 1 0 2 b u c k s h a d o n l y o n e d a u g h t e r r e c o r d (Table 18); 9 , 8 1 2 h a d d a u g h t e r s in h e r d - y e a r s w i t h daughters o f o t h e r b u c k s , a n d t h u s were c o n s i d e r e d tied. A m o n g t h e s e bucks, 52% h a d d a u g h t e r s
CONCLUSION T h e lack of increase in p r o d u c t i o n o f milk a n d f a t suggests a n e e d f o r a n a t i o n a l p r o g r a m o f sire e v a l u a t i o n o f dairy goats. Despite t h e high p e r c e n t a g e o f i d e n t i f i e d b u c k s , t h e r e is a relatively p o o r d i s t r i b u t i o n o f b u c k s a n d l o w n u m b e r o f tied bucks. T h e s e are i m p o r t a n t p r o b l e m s t h a t m u s t b e o v e r c o m e if e s t i m a t e s o f genetic t r a n s m i t t i n g ability in dairy goats are t o be a c c u r a t e .
TABLE 18. Distribution of bucks by daughter records. TABLE 16. Distribution of herd-years and bucks by breed. Breed
Alpine LaMancha Nubian Saanen Toggenburg Experimental Unknown Mixed Total
Herd-years
Daughter records
Bucks
(No.)
(%)
(No.)
717 260 1,488 587 818 91 854 38 4,853
14.8 5.3 30.7 12.1 16.8 1.9 17.6 .8 100.0
2,125 746 2,843 1,109 1,225 172 1,806 76 10,102
Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 63, No. 11, 1980
(%) 21.0 7.4 28.1 11.0 12.1 1.7 17.9 .8 100.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >10 Total
Bucks (No.) 5,608 1,800 934 534 323 237 160 116 74 56 260 10,102
(%) 55.5 17.8 9.2 5.3 3.2 2.3 1.6 1.1 .7 .6 2.7 100.0
DAIRY GOAT LACTATIONS
1937
TABLE 19. Distribution of bucks with ties by herd-years per buck and herds per buck. a Herd-years/ buck
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >10 Total
Herds/ buck
Bucks (No.)
(%)
5,068 2,009 1,020 559 357 244 147 92 84 51 181 9,812
51.7 20.5 10.4 5.7 3.6 2.5 1.5 .9 .9 .5 1.8 100.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >10 Total
Bucks (No.)
(%)
6,735 1,694 653 311 177 94 41 35 24 13 35 9,812
68.6 17.3 6.7 3.2 1.8 1.0 .4 .4 .2 .1 .3 100.0
aTies occur when a buck has daughters in herd-years or herds with daughters of other bucks.
REFERENCES
3
1 American Dairy Science Association. 1978. Symposium: Dairy goats. J. Dairy Sci. 61:988. 2 American Dairy Science Association. 1979. International s y m p o s i u m on dairy goats. J. Dairy Sci. 62(Suppl. 1):15.
4 5
Dickinson, F. N., and G. J. King. 1977. Phenotypic parameters of dairy goat lactation records. J. Dairy Sci. 60(Suppl. 1): 140. (Abstr.) Iloeje, M. U., and L. D. Van Vleck. 1978. Genetics o f dairy goats: A review. J. Dairy Sci. 61:1521. Sands, M., and R. E. McDowell. 1979. A world bibliography on goats. Int. Agric. Mimeo, No. 70. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 63, No. 11, 1980
Department of Dairy Science University of Illinois Urbana 61801 G. R. WIGGANS
Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory Agricultural Research Science and Education Administration US Department of Agriculture 6eltsville, MD 20705
A BST R ACT
ters of other bucks, 52% appeared in only one herd-year.
A study of edited dairy goat records initiated from 1968 through 1978 included lactations of 12,712 Alpine, 3,094 LaMancha, 14,005 Nubian, 5,718 Saanen, 7,534 Toggenburg, 780 experimental, 7,401 unknown breed, and 287 mixed breed does. California accounted for 39% of the records. A b o u t 80% of the kiddings were from February through May; March accounted for 27% of all kiddings. Nubians tended to kid earlier. First lactations accounted for 40% of the records and second lactations for 26%. Almost 80% of the records were from the most recent 5 yr. A b o u t 69% (35,322) of the records had a dry date or 305 days in milk. Of these, 20,131 were lactations of 275 or more days. For these records, milk and milk fat were greatest in lactation 4. Production of milk and fat essentially has not changed over the most recent 5 yr; average production was 878 kg of milk and 33 kg of fat. Number of herds on test has increased over years with the addition of many small herds. A b o u t 20% of the herd-years had only one buck represented. More than 55% of the 10,102 bucks had only one daughter record. Among 9,812 bucks with daughters in herd-years with daugh-
INTRODUCTION
National and international symposia at the 1978 and 1979 annual meetings of the American Dairy Science Association emphasize increased interest in dairy goats in the United States (1, 2). There is a substantial amount of research on dairy goats in many countries (5); however, there is little research on United States production records. Iloeje and Van Vleck (4) reviewed the world's literature on dairy goat genetics and concluded that more work is needed before a successful national dairy goat program o f genetic improvement can be implemented. As a first step, it is important to know the distribution of lactations, measures of production, and potential for buck evaluation. A preliminary survey was published in abstract (3). MATERIALS AND METHODS
Received January 28, 1980. l Supported by funds from the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station and US Department of Agriculture Northeastern Region Small Farms Research Project. 1980 J Dairy Sci 63:1925--t937
From 107,345 lactation records reported to the United States Department of Agriculture Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory as of June, 1979, records on 51,531 lactations met the following requirements: each record a) started at kidding and had test intervals of 75 or fewer days, b) was between 5 and 305 days in length and not in progress, c) was initiated from 1968 through 1978, d) had an age at kidding of 9 mo or more, e) had a reported body weight not greater than 250 kg if milk production was more than 1,750 kg (to eliminate possible cows), and f) had a lactation percentage of milk fat from 1.5 to 8. Alpine, LaMancha, Nubian, Saanen, Toggenburg, experimental, unknown, and mixed "breeds" were represented.
1925
~o b~
e~
Ox
o ~a
W
TABLE 1. Goat lactations by breed and top 10 states.
Breed
CA
OR
WI
WA
AZ
NY
PA
IA
NJ
ME
Top 10 states
All states
All states
< O Ox ~o
(%)a 41.7 26.6
8.4 25.2
7.6 26.0
5.3 24.8
2.0 13.3
3.6 27.4
2,5 22.5
2.6 23.2
3.1 29.8
2.7 28.5
79.4 25.6
100.0 24.7
12,712
LaMancha
55.0 8.6
5.2 3.8
10.6 8.8
4.6 5.3
3.2 5.3
.7 1.3
5.2 11.2
1.5 3.3
.2 .5
.1 .3
86.2 6.8
100.0 6.0
3,094
Nubian
40.2 28.3
8.3 27.4
4,8 18.0
3.4 17.5
3.8 28.7
2.7 22.5
1.4 14.0
1.9 19.0
1.9 20.0
2.3 26.4
70,7 25.1
100.0 27.2
14,005
Saanen
46.2 13.3
4.4 5.9
6.4 9.8
4.4 9.4
3.9 11.8
3.0 10.4
1.6 6,2
7.6 31.0
2.7 11.9
2.7 12.9
83,0 12.0
100.0 11.1
5,718
Toggenburg
30.4 11.5
5.1 8.9
11.9 24.1
3.5 9.7
3.4 13.7
5.3 23.9
5.0 26.5
2.7 14.7
3.3 18.8
2.9 18.2
73.5 14.0
100.0 14.6
7,534
Experimental
33.7 1.3
2.7 .5
9.2 1.9
1.2 .3
2.6 1.1
1.7 .8
11.4 6.2
2.3 1.3
3.2 1.9
1.4 .9
69.4 1.4
100.0 1.5
7g0
Unknown
27.2 10.1
15.6 27.1
5.5 11.0
11.6 31.7
6.5 25.6
3~0 13.4
2.4 12.5
1.4 7.3
2.9 16.2
2.0 11.9
78.0 14.6
100.0 14.4
7,401
Mixed
12.9 .2
18.5 1.2
3.8 .3
11.8 1.3
3.1 .5
2.4 .4
4.2 .8
1.0 .2
3.5 .8
4.2 1.0
65.5 .5
100.0 .6
287
Overall
38.6 100.0
8.3 100.0
7.2 100.0
5.2 100.0
3.6 100.0
3.2 100.0
2.8 100.0
2.7 100.0
2.6 100.0
2.4 100.0
76.6 100.0
100.0 100.0
51,531
Overall
19,875
4,262
3,716
2,695
1,866
1,677
1,425
1,401
1,321
1,212
39,450
51,531
O
o0
(No.)
Alpine
(No.)
aUpper n u m b e r is percentage of breed total; lower number is percentage of state total.
© f.o
Z
DAIRY GOAT LACTATIONS
1927
TABLE 2. Goat lactations by breed and lactation number. Lactation no. Breed
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
>10
2.6 1.4 2.6 2.3 3,2 2.7 2.5 1.4 2.6
1.5 .9 1.2 1.3 1,8 1.2 1.1 1.0 1.4
.7 .3 .6 .7 .8 .6 .7 .0 .6
.4 .3 .3 .2 .3 .3 .4 .0 .3
.2 .1 .1 .1 .2 ,3 .2 .4 .2
"(.1 <.1 ,1 .1 .1 .0 .1 .0 .1
1,332
701
336
169
76
41
(%)a Alpine LaMancha Nubian Saanen Toggenburg Experimental Unknown Mixed Overall
38.9 42.3 39.6 39.8 37.3 46,7 40.4 49.1 39.6
25.4 27.7 26.1 25.9 25,1 24,4 25.9 27.5 25.8
15.9 15.1 15,6 15.8 15.9 13.0 15.4 13.6 15.6
9.3 8.0 9.0 9.1 9.8 7.0 8.4 5.2 9.0
5.1 3.8 4.8 4.7 5,5 4.0 5.0 1.7 4.9
20,389
13,291
8,048
4,625
2,523
(No.) Overall
........
apercentage of breed total (see Table 1).
T h r e e h u n d r e d t w e n t y - s e v e n records were f r o m goats m i l k e d t h r e e t i m e s daily. T w o - w a y f r e q u e n c y tables were c o n s t r u c t e d f o r b r e e d b y state, l a c t a t i o n n u m b e r , y e a r of kidding, m o n t h o f kidding, a n d r e a s o n for t e r m i n a t i o n o f t h e record. F o u r regions were d e f i n e d : N o r t h e a s t , Maine t h r o u g h P e n n s y l v a n i a ; S o u t h , M a r y l a n d t h r o u g h Florida a n d Texas ;Midwest, O h i o t h r o u g h t h e D a k o t a s a n d Kansas; a n d West, C o l o r a d o to t h e West Coast. Milk a n d f a t yield were s u m m a r i z e d b y b r e e d a n d days in m i l k for all records e n d i n g w i t h a dry date or 305 days in m i l k ( n o r m a l l y ter-
m i n a t e d ) . S u m m a r i e s of m i l k a n d f a t yield also were c o m p u t e d for each b r e e d b y l a c t a t i o n number, kidding month, and kidding year for l a c t a t i o n s with at least 275 days in milk. Distributions of number of lactations and n u m b e r o f h e r d s b y y e a r o f kidding, n u m b e r o f herd-years and number of bucks by breed, number of herd-years by number of bucks per herd-year, n u m b e r o f b u c k s b y n u m b e r o f d a u g h t e r records, a n d n u m b e r o f b u c k s b y n u m b e r of h e r d - y e a r s p e r b u c k a n d n u m b e r o f h e r d s p e r b u c k were e x a m i n e d to d e t e r m i n e p o t e n t i a l f o r g e n e t i c e v a l u a t i o n o f dairy goats.
TABLE 3, Goat lactations by breed and year of kidding. Breed
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
25.0 8.1 27.9 11.0 14.9 1.4 11.0 .6 7.9
26.6 6.9 28.3 12.0 14.0 1.6 10.0 .6 11.6
26.8 6.4 28.6 11.2 14.7 1.8 10.1 .4 17.8
25.5 6.2 28.6 11.3 13.4 1.6 12.9 .4 22.4
22.9 4.4 25.5 9.1 12.1 1.2 23.8 1.0 19.7
4,095
5,979
9,172
(%)a Alpine LaMancha Nubian Saanen Toggenburg Experimental Unknown Mixed Overall
18.7 1.5 21.3 12.9 21.9 2.0 21.3 .4 1.5
19.2 1.7 21.7 13.1 21.3 2.1 20.6 .3 2.0
23.3 4.7 20.0 16.5 22.7 2.1 10.4 .4 2.2
18.5 5.0 20.6 13.4 19.1 1.3 21.9 .2 3.2
23.6 6.6 29.1 11.6 17.5 1.5 9.9 .2 5.2
Overall
790
1,017
1,108
1,666
2,666
24.7 7.8 27.8 10.2 16.0 1.1 12.0 •4 6.5 (No.) 3,365
11,531 10,142
apercentage of year total. Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 63, No. 11, 1980
1928
GROSSMAN AND WIGGANS
TABLE 4. Goat lactations by breed and m o n t h of kidding. Breed
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Alpine LaMancha Nubian Saanen Toggenburg Experimental Unknown Mixed Overall
4.4 7.8 10.5 5.6 5.5 5.3 6.5 8.4 6.9
19.5 21.7 20.0 20.0 20.1 21.0 19.6 14.6 19.9
30.0 24.8 22.3 26.9 28.9 24.9 28.0 23.7 26.7
22.0 21.8 19.4 22.4 22.2 21.9 20.2 24.0 21.1
13.4 11.6 12.6 13.1 11.4 11.9 12.5 12.2 12.6
5.9 5.6 6.2 6.3 5.5 7.2 6.4 9.8 6.0
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
2.1 1.4 2.6 2.3 2.7 3.3 2.4 2.8 2.4
.5 .4 .6 .4 .8 .9 .7 .4 .6
.2 .3 .4 .3 .3 .9 .2 .0 .3
.4 1.1 .8 .5 .5 .6 .4 .4 .6
.6 1.1 1.4 .6 .7 1.4 1.0 2.1 .9
1.1 2.3 3.2 1.6 1.6 .6 2.1 1.7 2.0
325
159
298
478
1,038
(%)a
(No.) Overall
3,545
10,260 13,739
10,876
6,485
3,114 1,214
apercentage of breed total (see Table 1).
TABLE 5. Goat lactation records by breed and reason for termination.
Breed
Normal
Test interval > 75 days
Sold for dairy
Died or culled
Aborted
(%)a Alpine
71.6 25.8
.8 32.6
17.5 21.2
10.1 23.7
<.1 26.1
LaMancba
72.5 6.4
.4 4.4
18.0 5.3
9.I 5.2
<.1 4.4
Nubian
68.5 27.2
.4 19.5
21.1 28.2
9.9 25.6
<.1 26.1
Saanen
71.5 11.6
.3 5.0
17.6 9.6
10.6 11.2
<.1 4.4
Toggenburg
72.9 15.5
.4 11.4
17.9 12.9
8.7 12.1
.i 21.7
Experimental
67.6 1.5
1.0 2.7
22.7 1.7
8.6 1.2
.1 4.4
Unknown
55,6 11,6
.9 23,2
28.8 20.4
14.6 20.0
<.1 13.0
Mixed
55.8 .4
1.4 1.3
26.1 .7
16.7 .9
.0 .0
Overall
68.6 100.0
.6 100.0
20.3 100.0
10.5 100.0
<.1 100.0
Overall
35,322
5,415
23
(No.) 298
10,473
aUpper percent is percentage of breed total (see Table 1); lower percent is percentage of reason for termination total.
Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 63, No. 11, 1980
DAIRY GOAT LACTATIONS RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Frequency Distributions
The percentage of goat lactations by breed and state (Table 1) showed that Nubians accounted for 27% of the lactations, followed closely by Alpines. Toggenburgs, Saanens, and LaManchas were less numerous. Other breed groups accounted for 16% of the lactations. The top 10 states accounted for 77% of the records from 1968 through 1978. California, with 39% of the lactations recorded, had slightly more than the total of the next 9 states. Because of the preponderance of lactations recorded in California, the West had 60% of the records, followed by the Midwest (18%), Northeast (15%), and South (7%). Almost two-thirds of the records were first or second lactations (Table 2). Number of records increased 15-fold from 790 in 1968 to 11,531 in 1977 (Table 3). The number decreased in 1978 because not all does kidding that year were reported in time to be included in the
1929
study. All breeds increased in number over years; the proportions of Alpines, LaManchas, and Nubians increased, but the proportions of Saanens and Toggenburgs decreased. Distinct seasonality in goats is apparent in the frequency of kiddings by month (Table 4). February through May accounted for 80% of the kiddings, with a peak of 27% in March. January and June accounted for an additional 13%, and December and July an additional 4%. For each breed except mixed, most goats kidded in March. Across herds, breeds differed significantly (Xz P<.0001) in kidding distribution by month. These differences may be due to differences in management. About 85% of Alpine does kidded from February through May, but only about 74% of Nubians kidded during that period. Nubians tended to kid earlier; an additional 10% kidded in January. Normally terminated lactations accounted for 69% (35,3 22) of the records (Table 5). Records with termination code 9 (not useful for evaluation of sires or does because of not starting at kidding or of a long test interval) already had
TABLE 6. Number, production averages, and standard deviations of goat lactations by breed and days in milk. ~<305 Days in milk Breed
No.
Milk
Fat
No.
3,453 (37.9) b 875 (39.0) 2,485 (25.9) 1,687 (41.2) 2,425 (44.2) 197 (37.4) 1,280 (31.1) 44 (27.5) 12,446 (35.2)
Alpine
9,105
~(kg)a 795.3 333.6
LaMancha
2,242
660.1
12.0
27.7 11.8 25.2 11.3
Nubian
9,598
Saanen
4,089
Toggenburg
5,489
615.7 286.5 786.0 348.8 789.2 311.2 721.2 296.8 669.1 339.1 674.4 297.4 719.5 327.5
27.8 13.4 27.5 12.4 26.0 10.6 26.5 10.9 25.0 12.5 25.4 11.3 26.9 12.2
Experimental Unknown Mixed Overall
527 4,112 160 35,322
305 Days in milk Milk ~ (kg)a 952.3 304.8 816.6
Fat
262.9
33.2 11.0 31.3 9.4
805.7 254.4 962.2 312.8 921.1 280.2 853.0 283.2 874.7 288.4 844.8 254.3 898.8 293.0
36.9 12.4 33.8 11.0 30.4 9.4 31.2 10.t 32.5 10.8 31.7 9.7 33.2 11.0
aUpper is mean; lower is standard deviation. bNumbers in parentheses show the percentage of records 305 days in length. Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 63, No. 11, 1980
1930
GROSSMAN AND WIGGANS
TABLE 7. Number, production averages, and standard deviations of goat lactations for days in milk groups, all breeds. Days
Lactations
Yield
in milk
Milk (No.)
Fat
(%)
(kg) a
5--34
91
.2
49.5 22.4
2.2 1.3
35--64
314
.9
97.7 63.3
4.1 2.8
65--94
530
1.5
159.8 89.5
6.5 3.7
95--124
715
2.0
231.6 109.2
9.2 4.6
125--154
1,018
2.9
300.1 128.6
11.8 5.4
155--184
1,544
4.4
382.6 163.3
14.8 6.5
185--214
2,337
6.6
471.7 187.5
18.0 7.4
215--244
3,431
9.7
578.2 217.8
22.0 8.7
245--274
5,211
14.8
694.7 238.0
26.1 9.2
275--304
7,685
21.8
825.0 268.3
31.0 10.3
12,446
35.2
898.8 293.0
33.2 11.0
305
aupper is mean; lower is standard deviation.
t e r m i n a t e d b e c a u s e t h e d o e d i e d or w a s culled. Normally terminated records comprised the d a t a f o r t h e s t u d y o f p r o d u c t i o n averages.
b e e n d e l e t e d . A b o u t 20% o f t h e r e c o r d s were o f l a c t a t i o n s t e r m i n a t e d b e c a u s e t h e d o e w a s sold f o r dairy use, a n d 10% w e r e o f l a c t a t i o n s
TABLE 8. Number of goat lactations 275 or more days in milk by breed and lactation number. Lactation no. Breed
1
2
3
Alpine LaMancha Nubian Saanen Toggenburg Experimental Unknown Mixed Overall
2,018 527 1,734 996 1,287 120 845 32 7,559
1,578 386 1,284 727 954 81 543 34 5,587
952 214 744 431 638 55 357 5 3,396
4
5
All
529 104 416 224 352 24 191 4 1,844
277 45 187 104 208 11 94 2 928
5,599 1,311 4,533 2,567 3,645 297 2,101 78 20,131
(No.)
Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 63, No. 11, 1980
TABLE 9. Production averages and standard deviations of goat lactations 275 or more days in milk by breed and lactation number. Milk yield
Fat yield
Lactation no.
Lactation no. 1
2
3
4
5
All
924.4 296.2
27.7 8,9
33.8 10.3
35.1 10.5
36.5 11.1
35.3 12.0
32.2 10.6
856.6 248.6
800.7 254.2
26.9 8.1
32.8 8.7
33.6 9.5
33.9 9.8
32.9 8.5
30.7 10.5
879.4 279.4
849.6 261.9
778,4 246.9
30.8 9.4
37.3 11.6
39.9 12.8
40.0 13.4
38.6 11.7
35.5 11.9
1058.5 316.6
1034.7 328.6
995,6 325.3
931.5 305.2
27.7 8.4
35.1 10.3
37.0 11.4
36,8 12.1
35.0 10.4
32.7 10.9
942.1 273.7
990,6 297.5
986.2 289.5
937,9 312.7
897.5 277.3
26.1 7.6
31.0 9.3
32.5 10.0
32.4 9.4
31.2 10.4
29.6 9.4
728.3 209.9
887.9 295.8
905,2 232.2
1004.5 331.4
860.4 246.9
835.2 270.2
27,6 8.6
32.3 9.5
33.1 10.0
35.3 12.1
31,0 7.2
30.8 9.6
Unknown
738.9 233.3
892.2 294.4
971.4 295.8
990.6 274.4
955.8 294.1
855.7 289.6
27.2 8.3
32.8 10.3
36.3 11.6
36.6 11.0
36.6 13.0
36,7 10.8
Mixed
767.3 198.6
869.6 303.5
1089.3 281.6
844.7 126.2
798.2 282.2
835.5 261.5
28.3 7.4
32.6 11.3
44.8 9.8
29.1 3.1
30.4 12.8
31.3 10.1
Overall
751.9 230.9
918.8 281.1
969.0 294.8
979.8 301.7
946.8 309.5
870.7 286.1
28.0 8.8
34.1 10.6
35.9 11.4
36.4 11.7
35.0 11.6
32.4 10,8
Breed
1
2
3
4
5
All
Alpine
796.3 244.0
971.1 290.2
1010.9 296.1
1048.6 305.8
1017.0 327,4
LaMancha
695.4 220.5
858.7 233.9
889.4 262.8
870.8 258.5
Nubian
674.8 196.3
821.8 237.0
870.4 256.3
Saanen
791.4 236.0
1004,0 294.5
Toggenburg
790.5 221.7
Experimental
(kg) a
t~
< O Ox
Z
O
00
aUpper is mean; lower is standard deviation.
©
Z
TABLE 10. Number of goat lactations 275 or more days in milk by breed and m o n t h of kidding.
~7
< Ox
Z
Breed
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Alpine LaMancha Nubian Saanen Toggenburg E xp erim en tal Unknown Mixed Overall
314 126 604 180 245 12 153 10 1,644
1,255 321 1,110 609 841 76 492 10 4,714
1,842 352 1,092 771 1,116 71 596 22 5,862
1,173 269 775 537 760 72 385 13 3,984
600 126 426 244 345 32 188 8 1,969
216 36 171 113 122 18 111 9 796
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
64 12 64 31 62 4 51 0 288
11 2 16 6 17 1 9 0 62
14 1 12 2 10 2 5 0 46
19 18 29 13 18 3 10 1 111
29 16 62 13 32 2 39 3 196
62 32 172 48 77 4 62 2 459
(No.)
O
00
©
TABLE 11. Milk production averages and standard deviations of goat lactations 275 or more days in milk by breed and m o n t h of kidding. Breed
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Alpine
975.6 354.9
956.6 297.6
932.3 296.1
912.2 288.1
898.4 279.2
844.2 239.1
819.9 262.7
800.7 227.1
796.9 250.6
728.0 292.9
790.7 270.5
821.4 341.4
LaMancha
849.6 266.1
829.2 259.0
810.0 259.3
782.6 245.8
748.6 217.7
755.4 268.8
791.0 286.0
820.9 506.7
743.8 .....
605.7 221.9
774.7 242.5
755.0 205.1
Nubian
811.2 262.6
Saanen
929.4 306.7
803.6 250.4 978.6 317.9
785.8 249.4 954.2 308.6
763.9 232.8 922.5 306.2
744.6 226.6 876.4 273.4
677.4 228.2 825.9 250.2
718.9 219.1 766.3 206.3
688.5 140.2 818.6 118.4
766.8 219.4 569.2 137.9
660.2 187.4 730.5 268.8
693.4 219.2 768.2 254.1
786.2 247.5 837.6 263.0
Toggenburg
928.1 287.5
947.5 282.4
923.4 278.7
872.5 264.2
834.0 252.4
805.8 260.7
779.8 218.1
809.4 274.4
883.9 457.0
734.7 316.1
647.0 208.6
812.3 227.1
Experimental
783.4 282.2
857,8 280.6
840.0 249.9
873.2 277.0
748.2 233.8
865.4 338.7
737.0 145.3
480.7 .....
764.2 311.1
663.6 340.4
646.2 336.7
799.3 239.2
Unknown
819.6 311.6 681.2 227.6
911.6 297.8 845.8 272,2
882.1 289.1 903.3 261.7
857.0 272.1 811.8 182.9
793.3 285.6 881.0 311.2
746.0 207.1 905.0 333.0
854.9 282.3 ND . . . . . .
739.7 699.3 243.9 264.3 ND ND . . . . . . . . . . . .
732.4 231.4 517.0 . .
726.1 267.7 654.6 230.5
756.9 298.8 898.0 77.0
875.7 303.1
906.6 292.0
892.5 289.6
862.0 277.7
829.0 266.8
783.3 250.9
786.9 244.4
762.5 224.3
688.6 250.6
717.2 242.0
795.2 264.4
(kg) a
Mixed Overall
aUpper is mean; lower is standard deviation; . . . . . .
standard deviation could not be computed; ND, no data.
784.9 292.7
Z t~
TABLE 12. Fat p r o d u c t i o n averages and standard deviations of goat lactations 275 or more days in m i l k by breed and m o n t h of kidding. Breed
Jan
Feb
Mar
A pr
May
J un
Jul
A ug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Alpine
33.6 12.0
33.3 10.8
32.4 10.6
31.8 10.1
31.2 10.0
30.1 8.9
29.2 10.5
30.8 7.5
30.2 15.1
23.8 8.8
27.9 10.6
29.1 14.7
LaMancha
32.0 9.0
32.0 9.5
30.8 9.5
29.8 8.9
28.6 8.0
28.6 9.4
29.3 9.7
41.3 26.9
34.0 ....
25.0 9.8
31.6 I0.0
31.7 8.2
Nubian
37,1 12.4
36.2 11.7
35.5 12.3
35.1 11.3
34.4 11.2
32.0 12.0
33.9 11.0
34.0 8.3
34,2 9.0
32.0 9.3
32.7 10.2
36.1 11.6
Saanen
32.6 10.5
34.1 11.3
33.5 11.1
32.2 11.0
30.6 9.9
29.5 9.0
28.7 7.8
29.7 4.6
23.6 6.4
26.5 9.6
27.7 8.3
29.9 8.8
Toggenburg
31.0 10.2
31.3 9.8
30.3 9.3
28.8 8.7
27.4 8.6
27.1 8.4
27.0 7.6
27.7 9.5
30.1 13,9
25.7 10.4
22.5 8.5
26.4 7.8
Experimental
28.0 11.0
31.2 10.1
31.1 9.7
31.6 9.1
29.4 9.9
31.5 12.0
24.6 5.0
20.9 ....
35.6 12,5
29.2 12.2
24.9 10.3
30.4 9.0
Un known
31.8 13.2
33.6 11.2
32.1 10.4
31.2 9.8
29.8 11.4
29.3 8.4
31.9 10.0
28.5 6.9
27,5 7.1
29.5 9.1
27.7 10.6
29.9 11.8
Mixed
26.8 7.8
30.5 9.5
34.0 11.6
30.1 6.9
34.1 12.3
32.2 12.2
ND ND ND 21.8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
29.6 11.5
28.8 .3
Overall
34.0 11.9
33.6 11.0
32.6 10.8
31.7 10.3
30.8 10,3
29.8 9,7
30.1 9,8
28.8 10,4
31.6 11.6
(kg) a
o
¢~
< O Ox ~o
z oo
30.5 9.0
a u p p e r is mean; lower is standard deviation; . . . . , standard deviation could not be c o m p u t e d ; ND, no data.
30,9 11,9
27.4 9,8
>_ ,< C3 O
Z
o~
1934
GROSSMAN AND WIGGANS
TABLE 13. Number of goat lactations 275 or more days in milk by breed and year of kidding for recent years. Breed
1974
1975
1976
Alpine LaMancha Nubian Saanen Toggenburg Experimental Unknown Mixed Overall
496 144 370 217 309 27 177 10 1,750
718 195 590 320 428 40 227 14 2,532
994 232 831 468 608 55 313 9 3,510
1977
1978
1,103 240 968 477 637 59 531 10 4,025
1,052 192 777 399 547 37 278 23 3,305
1974--78
(No.)
Summary Statistics
Production averages and standard deviations for milk and fat for all normally terminated records for each breed are in Table 6. Records with 305 clays in milk accounted for 35% of normally terminated lactations. Toggenburgs had the highest percentage of records with 305 days in milk (44%); Nubians had the lowest (26%). Over breed, average yield of those 12,446 305-day lactations was 899 kg of milk and 33 kg of fat; overall average percentage of fat was 3.7. Saanens produced the most milk (962 kg), followed closely by Alpines. Maximum milk production was 2,698 kg by an Alpine. Nubians produced the most fat (3 7 kg) followed by Saanens and Alpines. Maximum fat production was 122 kg by a different Alpine. Almost 5% of lactations terminated before 125 days in milk (Table 7). These short records may result from reporting errors and probably should be excluded from genetic evaluation. An additional 38% terminated before 275 days, and 57% terminated at 275 or more days. For this 57% (20,131 lactations), average milk and fat yield were greatest in lactation 4, 980 kg of milk and 36 kg of fat (Tables 8 and 9). Trends for milk and fat were similar in most breeds. Average milk production was 871 kg; average fat production was 32 kg. Study of milk and fat production by month of kidding (Tables 10, 11, and 12) revealed breed differences by month of kidding and month of maximum production. The few kiddings during summer and fall provide little information on the effect of those seasons on production. Review of trends during the most recent 5 yr (Tables 13 and 14) showed essentially no Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 63, No. 11, 1980
4,363 1,003 536 1,881 2,529 218 1,526 66 15,122
change in either milk or fat production since 1974. There were differences in trends for milk and fat yield by breeds; Nubians, Saanens, and Toggenburgs increased in milk, and Nubians and Toggenburgs increased in fat.
Potential for Buck Evaluation
Further research in genetic evaluation of dairy goats is essential for improving milk and fat production in dairy goats. To understand the potential for and problems in dairy goat evaluation, we examined frequencies of normally terminated records for number of lactations and number of herds by year (Table 15), number of herd-years and number of bucks by breed (Table 16), number of herd-years by number of bucks per herd-year (Table 17), number of bucks by number of daughter records (Table 18), and number of bucks by number of herd-years per buck and number of herds per buck (Table 19). Number of herds greatly increased in recent years of kidding, with a 3-fold increase from 1974 through 1978 (Table 15). Number of lactations per herd-year dropped considerably; the number in 1978 was 33% that in 1968. This drop was probably a result of small herds coming on test in recent years. The increase in number of small herds may have contributed to the lack on increase in milk and fat. Overall number of lactations was 35,322 and number of herd-years was 4,853; average number of lactations per herd-year was 7.3. Alpines had 12.7, LaManchas 8.6, Nubians 6.5, Saanens 7.0, Toggenburgs 6.7, experimentals 5.8, unknowns 4.8, and mixed 4.2 lactations per
TABLE 14. Production averages and standard deviations of goat lactations 275 or more days in milk by breed and year of kidding for recent years. Milk yield
Fat yield
Breed
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1974--78
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1974-78
Alpine
964.0 321.5
940.9 299.3
944.0 289.8
901.4 299.2
917.9 312.1
928.7 303.5
33,2 11,0
33.0 10.4
32,8 10.3
31.6 10.8
32,0 11.4
32.4 lO,8
LaMancha
817.7 265.2
816.8 243.7
805.5 243,9
807.2 252.4
758.9 240.5
800.8 248.8
31.4 9.7
31.5 9.4
31.1 9.4
30.8 9.4
28.5 8.9
30.6 9.4
Nubian
749.8 234.6
759.4 255.3
806.3 259.9
809.2 249.4
797.8 255.6
791.5 253.6
34.3 11.3
35,0 12.3
37.1 12.1
37.2 12.0
36.4 12.6
36.3 12.2
Saanen
918.0 313.6
936.3 307.6
948.0 314.2
945.4 326,4
938.8 318.4
940.0 316,8
32.8 11.6
33.3 11.3
33.2 10.8
33.0 11.5
31.8 10,2
32.8 11.1
Toggenburg
878.3 252.7
899,7 283.4
915.1 291.8
917.4 295.6
925.2 285.6
910.8 285.6
29.1 8.9
29.6 9.6
30.1 9.6
30,1 9.9
30.1 9.5
29,9 9.6
Experimental
789.6 267.0
763.5 186.8
791.6 257.2
899.1 297.8
916,8 292.7
836.5 270.4
29.9 9.9
26.9 7.2
29.1 9.6
32.1 9.8
34.9 10.0
39.6 9.7
Unknown
911.4 286.5
875.1 280.4
867.9 285.8
848.3 295.5
812.3 269.0
857.1 286.6
33.7 11.0
32.5 10.6
32.6 10.6
31.5 11.3
29.4 9.8
31.8 10.8
Mixed
805.0 201.7
908.0 208.5
928.7 286.4
897.5 261.5
832.5 313.1
867.3 262.9
30.2 8.5
33.8 9.3
35.0 11.1
33.1 10.6
31.8 11,2
32.6 10.1
Overall
876.9 293.0
872.6 289.4
888.6 289.3
874,3 291.7
874.7 295.0
877.7 291.7
32.5 10.8
32.7 10.9
33.2 11.0
32.8 11.3
32.3 11.3
32.7 11.1
(kg) a
O t"
Z
<
o
aUpper is mean; lower is standard deviation. ~4
Z O
7~ o0 C~
7~ ~4
1936
G ROSSMAN AND WIGGANS
TABLE 15. Distribution of lactations, herds, and lactations per herd by year of kidding, Year of kidding
Lactations
Lactat_ions/herd
Herds
TABLE 17. Distribution of herd-years by bucks per herd-year. Bucks/ herd-year
Herd-years (No.)
(No.) 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978
654 807 863 1,271 1,922 2,259 2,858 4,275 6,166 7,516 6,731
36 49 54 97 172 248 389 576 949 1,171 1,112
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >10 Total
18.2 16.5 16.0 13.1 11.2 9.1 7.3 7.4 6.5 6.4 6.0
(%)
942 901 712 555 373 335 252 171 116 101 395 4,853
19.4 18.6 14.7 11.4 7.7 6.9 5.2 3.5 2.4 2.1 8.1 100.0
in o n l y o n e h e r d - y e a r a n d 69% h a d d a u g h t e r s in o n l y o n e h e r d (Table 19). herd-year. A b o u t 31% o f h e r d - y e a r s i n c l u d e d N u b i a n records, a l m o s t twice as m a n y as t h e n e x t m o s t f r e q u e n t b r e e d (Table 16). N u b i a n a n d A l p i n e b u c k s t o g e t h e r r e p r e s e n t e d 49% o f sires used b e t w e e n 1968 a n d 1 9 7 8 (Table 16). A l m o s t 20% o f t h e h e r d - y e a r s h a d o n l y o n e b u c k r e p r e s e n t e d per h e r d - y e a r (Table 17). A b o u t 53% o f herd-years h a d f e w e r t h a n f o u r b u c k s r e p r e s e n t e d . More t h a n 55% o f t h e 1 0 , 1 0 2 b u c k s h a d o n l y o n e d a u g h t e r r e c o r d (Table 18); 9 , 8 1 2 h a d d a u g h t e r s in h e r d - y e a r s w i t h daughters o f o t h e r b u c k s , a n d t h u s were c o n s i d e r e d tied. A m o n g t h e s e bucks, 52% h a d d a u g h t e r s
CONCLUSION T h e lack of increase in p r o d u c t i o n o f milk a n d f a t suggests a n e e d f o r a n a t i o n a l p r o g r a m o f sire e v a l u a t i o n o f dairy goats. Despite t h e high p e r c e n t a g e o f i d e n t i f i e d b u c k s , t h e r e is a relatively p o o r d i s t r i b u t i o n o f b u c k s a n d l o w n u m b e r o f tied bucks. T h e s e are i m p o r t a n t p r o b l e m s t h a t m u s t b e o v e r c o m e if e s t i m a t e s o f genetic t r a n s m i t t i n g ability in dairy goats are t o be a c c u r a t e .
TABLE 18. Distribution of bucks by daughter records. TABLE 16. Distribution of herd-years and bucks by breed. Breed
Alpine LaMancha Nubian Saanen Toggenburg Experimental Unknown Mixed Total
Herd-years
Daughter records
Bucks
(No.)
(%)
(No.)
717 260 1,488 587 818 91 854 38 4,853
14.8 5.3 30.7 12.1 16.8 1.9 17.6 .8 100.0
2,125 746 2,843 1,109 1,225 172 1,806 76 10,102
Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 63, No. 11, 1980
(%) 21.0 7.4 28.1 11.0 12.1 1.7 17.9 .8 100.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >10 Total
Bucks (No.) 5,608 1,800 934 534 323 237 160 116 74 56 260 10,102
(%) 55.5 17.8 9.2 5.3 3.2 2.3 1.6 1.1 .7 .6 2.7 100.0
DAIRY GOAT LACTATIONS
1937
TABLE 19. Distribution of bucks with ties by herd-years per buck and herds per buck. a Herd-years/ buck
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >10 Total
Herds/ buck
Bucks (No.)
(%)
5,068 2,009 1,020 559 357 244 147 92 84 51 181 9,812
51.7 20.5 10.4 5.7 3.6 2.5 1.5 .9 .9 .5 1.8 100.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >10 Total
Bucks (No.)
(%)
6,735 1,694 653 311 177 94 41 35 24 13 35 9,812
68.6 17.3 6.7 3.2 1.8 1.0 .4 .4 .2 .1 .3 100.0
aTies occur when a buck has daughters in herd-years or herds with daughters of other bucks.
REFERENCES
3
1 American Dairy Science Association. 1978. Symposium: Dairy goats. J. Dairy Sci. 61:988. 2 American Dairy Science Association. 1979. International s y m p o s i u m on dairy goats. J. Dairy Sci. 62(Suppl. 1):15.
4 5
Dickinson, F. N., and G. J. King. 1977. Phenotypic parameters of dairy goat lactation records. J. Dairy Sci. 60(Suppl. 1): 140. (Abstr.) Iloeje, M. U., and L. D. Van Vleck. 1978. Genetics o f dairy goats: A review. J. Dairy Sci. 61:1521. Sands, M., and R. E. McDowell. 1979. A world bibliography on goats. Int. Agric. Mimeo, No. 70. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 63, No. 11, 1980