Dataset on growth curves of Boer goats fitted by ten non-linear functions

Abstract

Data on the description of growth of female Boer goats from the Mexican national breeding flock are presented. Goat meat is highly appreciated for the preparation of traditional dishes of Mexican cuisine, and its demand is on the rise. Boer goats are of relatively recent arrival in Mexico and the size of the performance-recorded flock has been increasing steadily in the last ten years. Repeated measures of body weight at different ages from birth to adulthood of Boer goats are scarce. When available, such data can be used to describe the growth pattern and the meat production potential of goat meat breeds such as the Boer. This paper presents data on estimators of growth curve parameters, plots of average predicted growth curves, plots of residuals on age, and data on goodness of fit statistics of ten non-linear functions fitted to describe the growth curve of Boer goats. Keywords: Growth curve models, Boer goats, Goodness of fit