VARIANCE-COMPONENTS OF EARLY GROWTH TRAITS IN THE BOER GOAT

Variance components and resulting heritabilities of birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), preweaning average daily gain (ADG), 6 months we ight (6 mW), 9 months weight (9 mW), yearling weight (YW) and the prew eaning Kleiber ratio (KR) were estimated in either or in both of two B eer goat herds at two different locations (A and O), using the derivat ive-free restricted maximum likelihood (DFREML) procedure. Direct heri tabilities (h(a)(2) of Model 1) were estimated as 0.33 and 0.36 (BW), 0.27 and 0.60 (WW) for herds A and O, respectively. For ADG and the KR heritabilities of, respectively, 0.26 and 0.21, were found for herd A . Heritabilities for 6 mW, 9 mW and YW in herd O, were 0.60, 0.40 and 0.36, respectively. When using Model 5, direct heritabilities (h(a)(2) ) were 0.16, 0.18, 0.17 and 0.11 in herd A for BW, WW, ADG and KR, res pectively. The genetic correlations between direct and maternal influe nces (r(gam)) were negative for BW and WW(-0.31 and -0.15), but zero f or ADG and positive for KR (0.50). It was concluded that the maternal component should be taken into account in the selection of Beer goat f emales. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.