Effects of suckling schedule on growth characteristics of Saanen kids

ABSTRACTEFFECTS OF SUCKLING SCHEDULE ON GROWTH CHARACTERISTICSOF SAANEN KIDSThis study was carried out with single-born Saanen kids raised at Uvecik Research andTraining Centre of Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University. In the study, the kids were raisedaccording to two suckling programme. In the first programme, the kids suckled full-udder oftheir mothers for 30 min at 8.00 and 19.00. In the second programme, the right lob of theudder of the kid?s dams was milked by hand, and then the kids were allowed to suckle theirdams for 30 min at 8.00 and 19.00. The kids in both the groups were weaned at 5 weeks of thestudy.The live weights of the kids of the first and second programme were 10963.0±274.4 and10384.9±285.1 g (P= 0.17) at 5 weeks of the study and 17932.9±676.3 and 17482.7±702.8 g(P= 0.65) at 12 weeks of the study, respectively. The heights at withers and heart girth of thekids of the first and second programme were 51.7±0.9 and 51.1±0.9 cm (P= 0.69), and61.1±0.8 and 58.5±0.8 cm (P= 0.05) at 12 weeks of the study, respectively. The live weightincrease between 1-5 and 1-12 weeks of the kids of the first and second programme weredetermined as 192.0±9.5 and 178.6±9.9 kg (P= 0.35), and 160.2±8.4 and 157.0±8.7 kg (P=0.79), respectively. No significant difference was found between the programmes in terms ofroughage intake (P= 0.88), concentrate intake (P= 0.12), water intake (P= 0.51), rumination(P= 0.40) behaviors.In conclusion, the growth performance and behaviors of kids which were raisedaccording to two suckling programme were found similar.Key words: Goat kid, growth, behaviour, milk intakev