THE EFFECTS OF QUANTITY AND DURATION OF MILK FEEDING ON THE INTAKE OFCONCENTRATES AND GROWTH OF CASTRATED MALE SAANEN KIDS TO SLAUGHTER

To examine the possibility of reducing milk substitute costs in artifi cial rearing of goat kids, 36 castrated male Saanen kids at 2 days of age were randomly allocated across six treatments in a 2 X 3 factorial design experiment. Milk substitute was provided for the kids over a p eriod of 28 or 39 days, and daily levels of milk substitute dry matter (DM) intake were 0.140, 0.176 or 0.272 kg. Increasing the level of mi lk substitute offered had no significant effect on intake of concentra te up to weaning, but did significantly reduce the total intake of con centrate through to slaughter. Weaning after 39 days, as opposed to 28 days, also significantly reduced the total intake of concentrates. Ho wever, there was no difference when the same total quantity of milk su bstitute was consumed over different periods. Increasing the daily int ake of milk substitute significantly increased daily live-weight gain to weaning, but tended to increase the time taken by kids to regain th eir weaning weight following cessation of milk substitute intake. Howe ver, milk substitute level and weaning age did not significantly affec t overall daily live-weight gain or the length of time taken to reach 28 kg. Eight additional kids were slaughtered at 2 days of age to deve lop regression equations relating initial body composition to live wei ght. These relationships were similar to others published for 2-day-ol d Saanen kids. Treatments had no significant effect on overall rates o f fat, crude protein, water, ash and energy gain or on final body comp osition, carcass weight or carcass composition when kids were slaughte red at a live weight of 28 kg. These data suggest that savings in milk substitute may be achieved by reducing the weaning age and/or the dai ly intake level.