Indicadores produtivos e reprodutivos de um rebanho de cabras leiteira no estado da Paraíba

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the productive and reproductive indicators of a herd of dairy goats in the state of Paraíba over the course of four production cycles. The data was collected from the two production units of the Caprinoculture Laboratory at the Agrarian Sciences Center of the Federal University of Paraíba, Campus II. Animal performance data was obtained over a four-year period (2019 to 2022), from September to December of each year. The productive and reproductive data of 174 mixed-breed Saanen females was analyzed. The indicators evaluated were Productive (weight, milk production and composition) and Reproductive (fertility, fecundity, prolificacy, twinning, birth and mortality). There was a significant decrease in the average body weight at delivery of the goats over the years, while the average weight of the kids showed no significant difference, indicators which are directly related to the percentage of the delivery order category, of which the years (2 and 3) had the highest values. Milk production was higher in Year 3, with an average of 2.51 kg compared to the other years, while composition tended to decrease over the years, showing a dilution effect. The efficiency of the reproductive system is represented with 88.51% for the pregnancy rate, where the prolificacy values indicate that the herd is productive with an average of 1.63% offspring per female, while the twinning rate shows a very encouraging index with values of 60.4%, so for the birth and mortality rates, the values obtained were quite satisfactory compared to other goat production systems. In this way, we can conclude that the results found indicate improvements in the productive and reproductive management of the techniques implemented in the goat herd. The importance of collecting data throughout the production cycle makes it possible to plan and optimize the production system.