Meat Production and Quality - Goat Science and Production - page 259

Table 13.2 Some examples of different kid goat growth rates from different meat goat breeds.

Initial growth phase Final growth phase

ADG,
pounds (g)
per day

E f fi ciency,
weight gain per
weight of feed

ADG,
pounds (g)
per day

E f fi ciency,
weight gain per
weight of feed

Conditions Breed

Wether kid goats, Tennessee Meat Goat 0.29 (132) 0.13

4 to 5 - 1/2 months Boer × Spanish 0.46 (209) 0.19

old, fed 16% CP
pelleted feed for
4 months

Boer Nubian/

Tennessee Meat
Goat

× 0.34 (154) 0.12

(Pinkerton et al., 2001 ) Boer × Nubian 0.32 (145) 0.11

Boer × Nubian/Alpine 0.35 (159) 0.13

Boer 0.37 (168) 0.13

Wether kid goats, Alpine 0.15 (68) 0.10 0.13 (59) 0.08

4 months old, fed Angora 0.16 (72) 0.15 0.11 (50) 0.10

75% concentrate Boer 0.20 (91) 0.13 0.14 (64) 0.08

for fi rst and Spanish 0.14 (62) 0.11 0.05 (22) 0.04

second 12 - week

periods (Urge et al., 2004)

Male and female kid goats,
fed 18% CP and 65%

Tennessee
stiff - legged

0.18 (83) 0.17 0.08 (38) 0.10

ME diets from weaning to 6
months of age and 9-13 months
of age (Dzakuma et al., 2004)

Spanish 0.13 (58) 0.12 0.07 (34) 0.09

diets. ADG was higher (0.1 pound, 45.3 g) with supple-
mentation at 2.5% of body weight for Boer cross kid goats
on fescue pastures compared with no supplementation
(0.03 pound, 13.6 g) (Andries et al., 2007).
Supplementation of Sudan grass for crossbred
Boer

31% increase in ADG compared with nonsupplemented
animals (Muir and Weiss, 2006 ). Endophyte - infected tall
fescue hay lowered growth rates by 33% over 8 weeks
compared with an orchard grass hay diet (Browning et al.,
2007 ).
The ADG and gain effi ciency were greater with 75%
concentrate (0.16 pound [73 g] and 0.11 pound of gain per
pound of feed) compared with 50% concentrate (0.12
pound [55 g] and 0.09 pound of gain per pound of feed) in
the fi rst 12 weeks, but they were higher for 50% concen-
trate (0.14 pound [65 g] and 0.10 pound of gain per pound
of feed) than for 75% concentrate (0.11 pound [49 g] per
day and 0.08 pound of gain per pound of feed) in the
second 12 weeks (Urge et al., 2004).
Table 13.3 shows some relative comparisons of the
growth and effi ciency of weight gain on different forage
and on forage when supplemented with grain.

Spanish wethers with leucaena tropical legume
gave slightly higher ADG than alfalfa, lablab, or desman-
thus legume diets (Kanani et al., 2006). The ADG of
7-month-old Spanish does and bucks was higher with
alfalfa hay and 16% CP supplement (0.14 pound, 62 g)
than grass hay and the 16% CP supplement (0.08 pound,
37 g) in a 102-day trial. A repeat of this study with
10-month-old Boer and Boer-cross wether goats in an
84-day trial gave similar results, with ADG of 0.35
pound (158 g) for alfalfa hay with 16% CP supplement
and 0.26 pound (119 g) for grass hay with 16% CP
supplement (Wildeus et al., 2007). Spanish

×

Boer kid
wether goats supplemented with 0.5% body weight of
corn on native rangeland had 61% higher ADG than
unsupplemented goats, and goats on improved legume
and Amaranthus retrofl exus pastures required 1%
body weight supplementation with corn before showing a

×

G ROWTH WITH I NTAKE R ESTRICTION
Some studies have indicated that while restricting intake
to less than 90% of the National Research Council recom-
mended values will decrease live weight gain and feed