Improvement of reproductive and growth characteristics of local hair goats raised in extensive system in Kahramanmaraş province

This study aims to ensure the profitability of the enterprise and the sustainability of production by increasing the number of populations with high breeding value in Hair goat farms producing under extensive conditions. For this purpose, the reproductive criteria for the goats were determined and data on growth performance and survival rate of the kids were recorded on an annual basis. The current study was started in 2018 with 5175 female goats and 257 male goats with the voluntary participation of 26 breeders of hair goats in Dulkadiroğlu district of Kahramanmaraş province and was conducted over five years. The morphological characteristics of the hair goat breed and the birth and weaning weights of the kids were taken into account when selecting the breeding stock to be included in the herd each year. Approximately 10% of the male kids and 50% of the female kids with the best growth and breeding characteristics were selected for breeding. At the end of the study, the birth rate was found to be between 49.77 and 63.75%, the twinning rate was between 18.33 and 25.98%, prolificacy was between 58.90 and 80.08% and the litter size was between 1.18 and 1.26. The birth weight of the kids was found to be between 2.97 kg and 3.11 kg, the weaning weight were between 11.30 kg and 14.96 kg, the daily body weight gain to weaning age were between 92.54 and 131.64 g and the survival rate was between 91.89% and 95.68%. Based on these results, it was found that the differences in the growth traits of the kids according to year were significant (P<0.001). It was also found that the growth performance of male and single-born kids were significantly higher than those of female and twin-born kids depending on sex and birth type (P<0.001). As a result, it was found that keeping records based on some performance values in production with local genetic resources grown in an extensive system and keeping offspring with high breeding value in the herd based on these records helps to increase production performance due to the improvement of genetic structure.