Milk production traits of Balkan goats in semiextensive production systems

Abstract

Research on milk production traits of Balkan goats was carried out on 445 lactation records from 118 does of different ages. Goats were raised on 9 farms in southeast Serbia. Average length of lactation was 256 days (SD=22.41 day; CV=8.74%). Average milk production was 378 kg (SD=93.78 kg; CV=24.78%), while average percent of milk fat was 3.71% (SD=0.25%; CV=6.63%). The most significant influence on variability of length of lactation had farm and year of lactation, while no effect had year of birth and order of lactation. Variability of milk production was under influence of all analyzed fixed factors and covariate. The most significant influence had farm, year of lactation and length of lactation, while effects of year of birth and order of lactation were significant. On the other hand, variability of milk fat percent was under significant effect of farm, year of lactation and order of lactation, while year of birth and length of lactation had no effect. It might be concluded that variability of analyzed traits were more under effects of husbandry systems than biological characteristics of goat breed.