A NOTE ON THE EFFECT OF NUMBER AND GENOTYPE OF KIDS ON MILK-YIELD AND COMPOSITION OF INDIGENOUS GREEK GOATS (CAPRA-PRISCA)

Four groups of 10 indigenous goats, suckling indigenous or crossbred, single or twin kids, were used to study the effect of sucking stimulus on milk yield and composition during a 12-week suckling period and over the first 20 weeks of the subsequent milking period. During the suckling period, goats with twins produced more milk (P < 0.001) than those with singles. There was no effect of kid genotype in goats rearing twins but single crossbreds took 1.11 times more milk than indigenous. Goats with single kids had higher concentrations of fat (P < 0.001), protein (P < 0.05) and lactose (P < 0.05) in milk than did those with twins. Growth rate of kids was related to differences in milk intake, with singles higher than twins (P < 0.001) and crossbred singles higher than indigenous singles (P < 0.05). It is concluded that the indigenous breed can respond to the increased sucking demand of twins but not sufficiently to meet their needs. During the milking period the mean yield was reduced to about one-third and was not dependent on the corresponding yield in the suckling period. There were minor differences of milk composition associated with number or genotype of kids suckled.