Feed intake and growth of Saanen kids weaned at 42 and 70 days of age

 

 

A.V. Ferreira^#; J.D. Thornton

Department of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural & Forestry Sciences, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa

 

 

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ABSTRACT

The effect of weaning age (42 vs. 70 days) on the feed intake and growth performance from seven to 140 days of age was investigated, using 58 male Saanen kids. Final body weight, average daily gain and feed conversion efficiency did not differ significantly between weaning ages during the creep (days 7-80), growth diet (days 81-140) or the total (days 7-140) experimental periods. Only feed intake, cumulative feed intake, dry matter (DM) intake and cumulative DM intake differed significantly in the creep (days 7-80) period. The creep intake (days 7-80) of the 42 day weaning treatment was 48%, which was significantly higher than the 70 day treatment due to creep feed replacing milk intake. Corresponding with a feed intake of 240 g/day and a total metabolisable energy intake of 295 ± 1.4 MJ/kid over the 7 to 42 day period, the kids underwent no post-weaning shock in terms of their growth performance and had the same final weight (29.9 ± 2.0 kg) as the 70 day weaning treatment at 140 days of age.

Keywords: Saanen, kids, weaning age, intake

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Introduction

Goats are found all over the world, whether it is mountainous, flat, hot, cold, wet or dry. They not only survive but also manage to generate products in the form of meat, fibre and milk (Haenlein, 1996). Goat milk is an important source for cheese and icecream. Feeding milk to kids would be an expensive practice when there is a great demand for milk. Thus, the weaning of the kids as early as possible would be beneficial provided that the growth performance and feed intake of kids are not affected in a negative way. Knowledge of the effect of weaning age on the performance of dairy goat kids is scarce when compared with dairy calves. Mowlem (1992) suggested that kids weaned at an early age will not undergo a post-weaning growth shock, provided their DM intake is sufficient. This study was conducted to determine the effect of weaning age (42 vs. 70 days) of age of Saanen kids on their feed intake and growth performance from 7 to 140 days.

 

Materials and Methods

A pelleted creep and growth diet (Table 1) was formulated according to the NRC (1985). At 7 days of age 58 male Saanen kids were randomly assigned to a 42 or 70 day weaning age treatment. Kids received 1200 mL of Saanen ewe milk per day (increased by 100 mL/day from 600 mL/day at 7 days) for either 42 or 70 days. The ewes' stage of lactation correlated with the age of the kids. Until 7 days of age the kids were grouped to prevent losses due to the cold. At 7 days of age the kids were individually penned, and feed and water were available ad libitum. Kids received creep pellets ad libitum from day 7 to day 80 and growth pellets ad libitum from day 81 to day 140. Kids were fed twice daily and orts were collected daily, and the pooled weight determined weekly. Kids were also weighed weekly. Feed intake (creep and growth diet), DM intake (milk plus creep and/or growth diet), average daily gain and feed conversion efficiency (kg feed/kg weight gain) were calculated for each kid. The mathematical model for the analyses of feed intake, DM intake, daily gain and feed conversion included fixed effects due to weaning age (42 vs. 70 days) and residual error (SAS, 1990).

 

Results

The effect of weaning age on the performance of Saanen kids receiving a creep and growth diet is presented in Table 2. Final body weight, average daily gain and feed conversion efficiency did not differ significantly between weaning age in the creep diet (7-80 days), growth diet (81-140 days) or the total (7-140 days) experimental period. Only the feed intake, cumulative feed intake, DM intake and cumulative DM intake differ significantly in the creep (7-80 days) period. The creep intake (7-80 days) of the 42 day weaning treatment was 48% higher (P < 0.05) than the 70 day treatment. In the 42 day weaning treatment the kids were consuming 240 g creep diet per day at weaning. The total ME intake of this group over the 7 to 42 day period was calculated as 295 ± 1.4 MJ/kid (26.1 ± 0.2 L milk/kid with 4% butter fat content and 3.2 ± 0.034 kg creep/kid on a DM basis).

Morand-Fehr (1976) reported that there was no detrimental influence due to weaning when Alpine kids were consuming 30-50 g dry feed per day. As seen from Table 2, the Saanen kids had, due to their normal growth pattern, a faster growth rate between 81 and 140 days on the growth diet, than between 7 and 80 days on the creep diet. In addition, the results of the present study associated with live weight values are consistent with those reported in the literature (Morand-Fehr et al., 1982).

 

Conclusions

In this trial weaning at 42 days of age has proven to be effective. Kids underwent no post-weaning shock and had the same final weight as the 70 day weaning treatment at 140 days of age. There were no problems associated with health and mortality in reared kids.

 

References

Haenlein, G.F.W., 1996. Status and prospects of the Dairy Goat Industry in the United States. J. Anim. Sci. 74, 1173-1181.         [ Links ]

Morand-Fehr, P., 1976. Growth. In: Goat Production. "Growth", Academic Press Inc. pp. 253-283.         [ Links ]

Morand-Fehr, P., Hervieu, J., Bas, P. & Sauant, D., 1982. Feeding of young goats. Proc. Third Int. Conf. Goat Production and Disease. Tucson, Arizona, USA. pp. 90-104.         [ Links ]

Mowlem, A., 1992. Goat farming (2nd ed.). Kid rearing. Farming Press. pp. 81-95.         [ Links ]

NRC, 1985. Nutrient requirements of domestic animals. Nutrient requirements of sheep. (6th rev. ed.). National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., USA. p. 47.         [ Links ]

SAS, 1990. Statistical Analysis Systems user's guide (Version 6, 4th ed.). SAS Institute Inc., Cary, North Carolina, USA. pp. 891.         [ Links ]

 

 

# Corresponding author. E-mail address: avf@sun.ac.za