Performance of Goat Kids Suckling Does Fed Supplement at Different Times

Demand for goat meat in the U.S. continues to exceed local supply. Consumer perception that goat meat is healthier than other meats (beef, pork and lamb) is driving this demand. Furthermore, year-round production of goat meat is inconsistent in the U.S. due to lack of organized markets and low productivity of existing local herds. Low animal productivity can be remedied through good feeding and health management. Well-fed does necessarily translates into faster growth in goat kids and their ability to overcome disease/parasite challenges. We hypothesized that timing of supplement feeding time (AM or PM) could be more important to doe/kid performance than quantity of supplement offered. Consequently, the objective of this study was to determine the performance of kids suckling does fed different levels of supplement at 0900 h or 1500 h. Variables measured included ADG (kids), BCS (does), grazing behavior (does), and fecal egg count (kids). Eighteen does (BW = 48.3±3.7 kg) of Savannah breeding aged 3 to 5 years and their twenty-seven kids (BW = 8.5±0.9 kg) were randomly assigned to 3 treatments, replicated 3 times. Treatments were: (i) high AM supplement (HAM = 0.91 kg DM goat^-1.d^-1) served as the control, (ii) low AM supplement (LAM = 0.68 kg DM goat^-1.d^-1), and (iii) low PM supplement (LPM = 0.68 kg DM goat^-1.d^-1). The control diet (goat pellets) was sourced from the local feed store; experimental diet was mixed on-farm. The study lasted for 28 days. Goats were weighed, scored for body condition (BCS) and sampled for feces to determine parasite eggs/gram of feces (EPG) on day 1 and 28. Data were subjected to ANOVA of SAS, and plot with two does and kids was the experimental unit. Kids suckling LPM does grew the fastest (P<0.05; 0.147 kg. d^-1) followed by HAM (0.124 kg. d^-1) and LAM kids (0.080 kg. d^-1). The LPM does tended (P = 0.10) to re-gain body condition faster (3.13) compared to HAM (3.08) and LAM (2.71). Conversely, kids suckling LAM does had the greatest parasite load (P<0.05); 6,686 EPG) followed by HAM (2,381 EPG) and LPM (1,419 EPG). Control (HAM) does tended (P = 0.10) to graze more intensely and most likely allocated more energy to support this activity, which may explain the poor kid performance in this group. Further work should establish if timing of supplementation should follow diurnal and seasonal changes in forage quality.