Impact of the rhythm of weighing on the genetic evaluation of growth performance of kids in the local goat population.

Abstract

The most important operation in genetic improvement scheme is the growth performance, which should be simple, reliable and inexpensive. The study aims to simulate alternative methods of simplifying the weight at particular age recording system in order to calculate the average daily gain (ADG) for local kids and assess the impact of their use for a genetic perspective to establish the basis for future improvement. A total of 945 kids (531 males and 414 females), from 19 bucks and 285 goats, born between 1998 and 2014, were used in this study. The genetic parameters were estimated for five phenotypes: ADG (1 -30), ADG (30-60), ADG (60-90), ADG (90-120), ADG (120-150). Dam’s age at kidding, the year and month of birth and the sex of kids were included, as fixed factors, in the mixed model. The simplification to one and two weeks led to direct and maternal heritabilities for the different average daily gain, similar to those obtained by the standard growth recording. In conclusion, the results showed that a reduction in the number of controls to one and two weeks could be adopted.