Milk Production - Goat Science and Production - page 282

protein fragments are formed from the precursor inactive
protein during gastrointestinal digestion and/or during
food processing (Korhonen and Pihlanto - Lepp ä l ä , 2003 ).
Goat milk contains lactoferrin, transferrin, and prolactin
at comparable levels to cow milk. Human milk contains
more than 2 mg lactoferrin/mL, which is 10- to 100-fold
higher than in goat milk. Goat milk has high levels of
folate-binding protein, which lowers the available level of
folic acid in its milk (Juàrez and Ramos, 1986).
Concentrations of enzymes such as lysozyme, ribonu-
clease, and xanthine oxidase in goat, cow, and human milk
are highly variable among and within species. Xanthine
oxidase activity of goat milk is less than 10% of that in
cow milk. Lipase and alkaline phosphatase levels are lower
in goat milk than in cow milk (Chandan et al., 1992).
Immunoglobulin (IgG) type content in goat and cow milk
is much higher than in human milk, whereas human milk
contains greater levels of IgA and IgM immunoglobulin
than goat or cow milk.

mercial conditions or in large herds or under grazing con-
ditions with minimum feed supplementation. Under special
care, astonishing offi cial record production levels of above
2,000 kg have been recorded for individual dairy goats.
The productivity of indigenous breeds in tropical coun-
tries may be enhanced by crossbreeding with European or
U.S. dairy breeds, but not all attempts have been successful
because of differences in nutrition level, health care,
and especially internal parasite control (Devendra, 1987)
(Table 14.1 ). Suffi cient amounts of supplementary feed
concentrates are a requirement for high-producing goats,
which means more cash expenses that are often diffi cult to
cover. The dietary supply of energy from rangeland may
not provide more than the energy expenditures of walking
to fi nd forage, whereby rangeland then is no more than an
environment to maintain the animals. Typical rangeland at
certain times of the year do not supply suffi cient levels of
some minerals, vitamins, and nutrients for milk produc-
tion. This necessitates supplementary feeding to cover
requirements, which have been published comprehen-
sively in NRC (2007) including the extensive French,
British, German, and other foreign literature.
Labor costs are a high burden in commercial goat milk
production. Therefore, prices for goat milk products must
be considerably higher than those for cow milk products,
if dairy goat operations are to compete with dairy cow
counterparts and survive (Kapture, 1991). Labor cost is not
as important in small-scale family operations, where the
biological value of goat milk compared to cow, sheep, or
buffalo milk is of major interest. The ratio of goat milk
production to digestible feed intake, under tropical condi-
tions, is signifi cantly better than for cows, indicating that
goats can be more effi cient under less favorite environ-
ments. The effi ciency of milk production was investigated
using native goats and Friesian and Swiss cows fed diets

EFFICIENCY OF MILK PRODUCTION
Effi ciency and level of milk production varies among and
within breeds of goats. Marked differences in milk produc-
tion levels exist between dairy and nondairy breeds in
temperate and in tropical regions (Sands and McDowell,
1978). Nondairy breeds are capable of milk production
above the needs of their kids, if they are fed suffi cient
feeds.
In European countries, the average annual milk yield of
dairy goat breeds is between 200 and 500 kg, while it has
exceeded 1,000 kg in some breeds in Switzerland and the
U.S. (Tables 14.2 and 14.6). Milk production is usually
high for registered individuals of the dairy breeds, indicat-
ing that goats fed and managed under controlled conditions
can produce much higher milk volumes than under com-

Table 14.6 U.S. offi cial dairy goat breed lactation averages for milk, fat, and protein production 1 .

Breed Milk (kg) FCM 2 (kg) Fat % (kg) Protein % (kg)

Alpine 1,083 958 3.3 (35) 2.9 (31)

LaMancha 973 944 3.9 (37) 3.1 (30)

Nigerian Dwarf 340 451 6.5 (21) 3.9 (13)

Nubian 830 917 4.7 (39) 3.7 (30)

Oberhasli 1,046 973 3.6 (37) 2.9 (30)

Saanen 1,185 1,044 3.2 (38) 2.9 (34)

Toggenburg 1,024 890 3.2 (32) 2.7 (30)

1 American Dairy Goat Association Dairy Herd Improvement Registry, Spindale, NC, USA (2008).
2 FCM = 4% Fat Corrected Milk.