ABSTRACT Records of 3716 Nubian goats from the United States (US) were analyzed to estimate relationships between fourteen conformation traits (CT) with lactation average somatic cell score (ASCS). To analyze ASCS, a mixed model was implemented. Linear and quadratic effects of CT traits, days in milk (DIM), and kidding age in months (KA) were considered as fixed covariates, and herd-year (HY) of kidding as a random effect. Correlation coefficients between CT traits and ASCS adjusted for HY and linear and […]

ABSTRACT The objective with this study was to evaluate the effect of including dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) as a replacement for soybean meal on feed intake, digestibility, and total digestible nutrients (TDN), as well as plasmatic glucose and serum urea concentrations. Fifteen Saanen goats were distributed in a completely randomized design with three treatments and five replicates. Treatments were soybean meal (SBM), SBM+DDGS (12.28% of dry matter [DM]), and DDGS (23.16% of DM), as protein source in diets, […]

The objective of this study was to determine effects of the addition of calcium salts of fatty acids (CSFA) to the concentrate on the intake and digestibility of dry matter and nutrients and the grazing behavior of lactating Saanen goats. Five multiparous goats in their third lactation and four primiparous goats were used. The animals were distributed into two Latin square designs, which, for the multiparous goats was 5 × 5, with five treatments (0%, 1.5%, 3.0%, 4.5%, and 6.0% […]

The objective of this study was to evaluate the different contents of neutral detergent fiber from forage at advanced maturity on intake, digestibility of the dry matter and of nutrients, nitrogen balance, milk production, efficiency metabolizable energy use and the ingestive behavior of lactating goats. Five dairy goats were distributed in 5 × 5 Latin square by using increasing contents of neutral detergent fiber from forage as independent variable. Concentrations of neutral detergent fiber from forage used were 20, 28, […]

Twenty primiparous and multiparous Alpine breed goats at approximately 80 days of lactation were used in this experiment. The animals were housed individually in metal cages and distributed according to milk production in five 4 × 4 Latin squares. The experimental diets used in the experiment presented concentrate:forage ratio of 65:35. The treatments were characterized by increasing levels of 0, 33, 67 and 100% of high moisture corn silage (HMCS) replacing corn dry grain (CDG). Average intake of DM (1.62 […]

Random regression models were used to estimate genetic parameters for test-day milk yield (PLDC) of Alpine dairy goats, implemented by Bayesian methods with Gibbs Sampling. The estimates were compared with those obtained by random regression analysis, using REML. Heritability estimates obtained by Bayesian analysis ranged from 0.18 to 0.37, while those obtained by REML ranged from 0.09 to 0.32. Genetic correlations between yields of close test days approached the unit, but decreased gradually as the interval between test days increased. […]

Heat loss by cutaneous evaporation and hair coat characteristics (coat thickness, hair length, number of hairs per unit area, and hair diameter) were measured in 254 Saanen, Alpine, and crossbred (½ Boer ½ Saanen) goats. The hair coat thickness was measured just below the dorsal line of thorax followed by collection of hair samples using adapted pliers. Cutaneous evaporation was measured by a ventilated capsule technique in three regions (neck, thorax center, and hind leg) that were assumed to be […]

Production of low cost milk is the most relevant aspect in dairy goat systems. Therefore, studying the behavior of the lactation curve of dairy goats is important to implement animal breeding programs as well as for plan and introduce new management tools. The objective of this study was to select among mathematical models published in the literature the one that best describe the lactation curve of dairy goats. A dataset constituted of 23,502 observations of milk yield from 748 lactations […]

Data consisting of 26,389 individual test day milk yield from 825 lactations of 356 Parda Alpina goats, recorded from 1997 to 2004, were used to estimate genetic parameters and to predict breeding values for test day (PLDC) and accumulated (PAC) milk yields. The model for PLDC included the fixed effects of contemporary group (year-month of test), age of dam at kidding as covariate, and additive genetic, permanent environment and residual random effects. The model for PAC included the same random […]

The objectives of this work were to evaluate effects of replacing corn by cassava by-product meal, in diets of Saanen lactating goats, on potencial, effective and corrected effective degradability of diets with steers, and on ruminal pH and ruminal ammonia, plasma urea nitrogen (PUN) and milk urea nitrogen (MUN) concentrations in lactating goats. Two steers and four multiparous goats fitted with ruminal cannula and 100 days in milking were used. The design was a 4 x 4 Latin square and […]