Effects of milk restricted milk intake on performance of dairy goat kids raised artificial rearing conditions

This study aims to determine the effects of milk restriction on growth, solid feed intake, and feeding efficiency in artificial growing kids. In the study, totally 45 Turkish Saanen kids that consisted of 30 female and 15 male. The kids were selected by their sex, type of birth and birth weight (3.6 ± 0.08 kg). After birth the kids stayed with their mothers at least for 24 hours so that the kids consumed sufficient amount of milk from their mothers. The following day they were individually included starting from the morning meal. All groups were fed ad libitum up to two weeks of age. The groups of the study were created by the average milk consumption of the last three days on the day 15. The first group was determined as Ad libitum, the second group as 20% milk restricted (1200 ml/day/head) and the third group as 40% milk restricted (800 ml / day/head). The kids had free access to ?lamb starter feed? (2.8 Mcal ME/kg feed, 180g CP/kg feed), from the age of one week. Roughage wasn?t fed to kids throughout the study. The milk and the feed consumption were monitored by daily and weight gain was monitored by weekly. Difference in the increase in the body weight between the groups of the study was found significant important. Changes in the daily live weight gain of the ad libitum group was higher compared to the other groups. Solid fed consumption of the groups was also found significant. The restriction of the milk consumption increased the solid feed intake. The dry matter, crude protein and energy consumption of the ad libitum group were significantly different from the other groups and all these characteristics were at the highest in the ad libitum group. In order to determine the differences among the groups, economics of the feed costs were calculated. The cost of 1 kg goat milk was calculated as 0.63 TL. Daily feeding costs of ad libitum, 20% and 40% restricted groups were found 1.22 TL, 0.81 and 0.67 TL/day*head, respectively.Consequently, after the evaluation of all the data obtained from the study, the suckling milk might be restricted in the enterprises where the kidding rate and milk prices are high, if they have the possibility.