Genetic analysis of lifetime productivity traits in goats

As part of the development of a breeding programme for dairy goats to support sustainable production in organic farming, the overall aim of the present study was to identify traits that can be used as selection criteria for lifetime productivity. The breeding goal is high lifetime productivity with a good milk composition and a good level of robustness in the animals, especially within grazing systems. The lifetime productivity traits analysed in this study were the length of the animal's productive life (LPL), the lifetime efficiency (LEF), and the animal's milk yield efficiency with respect the total number of lactating days (EDM); the average fat and protein content over the animal's lifetime, the fat-to-protein ratio (FPR), and the urea content (UC) were also included as indirect health traits and potential indicators of robustness in dairy goats. The traits' influencing factors, phenotypic and genetic correlations, and heritability were examined. Furthermore, factors influencing milk yield in the first 120 d of lactation during the animal's first lactation were analysed. The aim of investigating milk yield during the first lactation was to consider a connection between early performance recoding in the life of an animal and LPL, LEF, and EDM. In total, lactation and pedigree data from 9192 dairy goats of the common German Fawn (GF) and German White (GW) dairy breeds were used. Prerequisites were that the investigated birth cohorts had to have definitively completed their lifetime production, and a high proportion of goats had to have completed extended lactation. The data analysis showed that breed did not influence milk yield. The age at first kidding, the average number of kids born during the animal's lifetime, and the lactation length did influence the milk yield. This applies to the milk yield during the first 120 d of the first lactation as well as over the lifetime of an animal. Considering the influencing factors, the results showed that LPL was genetically and positively correlated with LEF and EDM ( $$ and $$ respectively). The heritability of LPL, LEF, and EDM was $$ , $$ , and $$ respectively. Regarding the lifetime milk composition, the heritability of protein and fat content, FPR, and UC was $$ , $$ , $$ , and $$ respectively. The heritability regarding the milk yield during the first 120 d of the first lactation was $$ . We found that the milk yield during the first 120 d of the first lactation showed a genetic correlation with LPL, LEF, and EDM of $$ , $$ , and $$ respectively. In summary, LPL, LEF, and EDM are suitable traits to indicate lifetime productivity in dairy goats. An additional indicator for lifetime productivity could be the milk yield during the first 120 d of the first lactation. Moreover, FPR and UC appear to be promising indicator traits for the health and robustness of dairy goats. The present study showed the importance of considering extended lactation in selective breeding programmes as well as the importance of modelling extended lactation in the breeding value estimation.