Time of parturition in Nubian goats

Data from 265 kiddings were collected from a commercial farm during three c onsecutive years to determine the influence of various factors on time of p arturition in Nubian goats. Factors examined were kidding season (winter/sp ring versus summer), parous category, number of kids and bucks. Does were s upervised at hourly intervals during each day. Births showed an unimodal di stribution, with maximum kidding at midday and minimum kidding at midnight. 78% of parturition occurred during daylight hours and 65.7% from 0900 to 1 700 hours (p < 0.01). No effect of season of kidding, bucks, parous categor y and number of kids was found in the distribution of kidding (p > 0.05). T hese observations suggest that kidding is concentrated during daylight hour s in Nubian goats. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.