A study on the estimation of genetic parameters of german fawn X hair crossbred goats

In the present study, 268 records for each character (birth weight, weaning weight and live weight at 6 months of age) obtained from crossbred goats (75 percent German Fawn Goat, 25 percent Hair Goat), which were reared at the Dairy Goat Unit: at Cukurova University between 1992 and 1994, were used to estimate heritabilities, genetic and phenotypic correlations and breeding values with Derivative Free Restricted Maximum likelihood (DFREML). In the analysis, year of birth, type of birth, sex of kid and age of dam were assumed as fixed effects, and individual animal as a random effect under the animal model. Birth weight, weaning weight and live weight at 6 months of age averaged 3.89 +/-0.036 kg, 13.42 +/-0.138 kg and 23.57 +/-0.257 kg, respectively. Heritabilities for birth weight, weaning weight and live weight at 6 months of age were 0.48 +/-0.074. 0.69 +/-0.117 and 0.50 +/-0.089 respectively. Genetic correlations between birth weight and weaning weight, birth weight and live weight at 6 months of age, and weaning weight and live weight at 6 months of age were 0.74, 0.99 and 0.73 respectively. Phenotypic correlations between birth weight and weaning weight, birth weight and live weight at 6 months of age, and weaning weight and live weight at 6 months of age were 0.29, 0.20 and 0.36 respectively.