Age, Hair Colour, Live Weight and Fertility of Two Samples of Australian Feral Goat, Capra Hircus.

Abstract

Feral goats are slaughtered commercially in Australia, and are used in Angora backcrossing programmes. 327 goats from Queensland and 182 from New South Wales were slaughtered at the same abattoir in Mar. and Nov. 1973 resp. For the 2 groups resp., live weight of females averaged 17.93 plus or minus 4.48 to 31.08 plus or minus 5.56 and 24.65 plus or minus 5.77 to 39.20 plus or minus 5.95 kg according to age, live weight of males (excluding fully grown animals) 22.09 plus or minus 3.49 to 34.14 plus or minus 4.63 and 31.03 plus or minus 8.71 to 52.12 plus or minus 6.46 kg, carcass weight of females 9.22 plus or minus 2.54 to 14.95 plus or minus 2.52 and 11.12 plus or minus 2.45 to 17.25 plus or minus 2.49 kg, carcass weight of males 11.09 plus or minus 2.01 to 22.64 plus or minus 3.82 and 14.83 plus or minus 4.47 to 24.80 plus or minus 2.59 kg (excluding fully grown males in the 2nd group), dressing percentage of females 48.1-51.4 and 44.0-45.1, dressing percentage of males (excluding fully grown animals) 49.3-50.2 and 47.6-47.8, percentage of females with corpora lutea 81.8-100 and 50-65.2, number of corpora lutea per cycling female 1.17-2.08 and 1.45-2.00, percentage of females with embryos 18.2-38.5 and 5.9-33.3, and percentage of females with foetuses 7.7-13.6 and 16.7-66.7. Values for the last 4 traits were highest for females with 2, 4 or 6 teeth.