Reproductive performance of Mexican dairy goats under various management systems

Abstract Reproductive data from five dairy goat farms in a semi-arid area of Mexico were studied from 1987 to 1993. The study accumulated the results from 1675 births. Three farms had continuous presence of the breeding buck (1005 kiddings) and two farms had seasonal introduction of a buck from May to December (670 observations). Goats gave birth for the first time at about 14 months (± 3 months), litter size of goats averaged 1.67 (± 0.2), and interval between kidding was 347 days (± 56 days). Quarterly seasonal distribution of births was 25% from January to March ( n = 419), 11% from April to June ( n = 184), 5% from July to September ( n = 84) and 59% from October to December ( n = 988). No statistical difference was observed among farms in reproductive performance. Seasonality of reproduction was demonstrated, with 1407 kiddings (84%) in the autumn. Rainfall showed a significant correlation with fertility and oestrus induction ( P P