@conference {3672,
	title = {BRIEF COMMUNICATION: Variability in growth rates of goat kids on 16 New Zealand dairy goat farms},
	booktitle = {Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	volume = {76},
	year = {2016},
	month = {07/2016},
	pages = {137-138},
	address = {Adelaide},
	abstract = {Average daily weight gains (ADG) in early life are
associated with health, welfare and future production
potential of dairy animals. While this has yet to be
established for goats, research in cows demonstrates a
positive relationship between growth in early life and milk
production (Shamay et al. 2005, Soberon et al. 2012). Early
growth rates are largely determined by the management
practices from birth onwards. It is therefore unsurprising
that large differences in ADG under different management
systems have been reported. In lambs, Mahgoub et al.
(2000) reported a large range in ADG (84-154 g/day).
Similarly, in calves, Bartlett et al. (2006) reported ADGs
ranging from 251 g/day to 703 g/day. The ADGs reported
in goats have not been as variable (152-170 g/day: Galina
et al. 1995; 167-173 g/day: Goetsch et al. 2001); however,
these were small, controlled studies. To our knowledge,
no research has yet quantified variability in the ADG of
goat kids on a large, multi-farm scale. Therefore, the aim
of this study was to describe the variation in growth rates
on multiple dairy goat farms in the Waikato region of NZ,
providing a benchmark for dairy goat farmers.},
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Deeming LE and Beausoleil NJ and Stafford KJ and Webster JR and Zobel G}
}
