Learn about Goat Herd Improvement Program on Thursday

By Kraig Stemme, DVM

Dr. Ken Andries, PhD, an Animal Science Specialist at Kentucky State University, is leading a webinar on Thursday, May 8 at 8 p.m. Eastern time entitled “How the Goat Industry Can Benefit from the National Sheep Improvement Program (NSIP).” 

In case you are scratching your head wondering, “Why should goat producers be involved with the NSIP?” let me explain that Dr. Andries leads the Goat Herd Improvement Program.  This program at Kentucky State University is an on-farm performance testing program that is available to any goat producer as long as the producer is willing to allow Dr. Andries to use their data for his research. 

If you wish to participate in the webinar or want more information, please contact Susan Schoenian at sschoen@umd.edu or call 301-432-2767. Anyone with a connection to the Internet may participate. High-speed access is recommended. The webinars use Adobe Connect software. Smart phones and tablet computes require mobile versions of the software. To register, send an e-mail message to pthomas@umd.edu. Registrants will receive log-in information via e-mail.

One of the things that the GHIP data allows is the calculation of averages that help producers determine where they stand and what is average or expected production from their herds. This data analysis requires large data sets, which are not generally available for meat goats. The information presented below is from the complete combined data set as of October, 2013.

For example, the adjusted weaning weight is adjusted for age at weaning, type of birth and rearing, age of dam, and sex of the kid. This helps standardize the data for better comparison. In the Dam summary the birth and weaning weights are the total weight born or weaned for each dam

As of October 2013, the data set has 8,652 kids, 4,502 dams and 436 sires represented. The data was provided by a total of 63 herds, some with up to eight years of data provided. The program has continued to grow and there are herds requesting information all the time. While not all producers provide all the requested data, it is important to remember that any data is better than no data. However the more data (and more compete the data), the better the analysis.

If you are not a participant in the GHIP program and are interested, please contact Dr. Andries at Kenneth.andries@kysu.edu or by phone at 502-597-5094. Take a look at the charts below, and analyze your herd information with these below:

Kid Data Summary as of October, 2013:

Variable	Observations	Mean	Std Deviation
Birth Weight	7791	7.55	1.73
Weaning Age	7041	89.31	20.13
Weaning Weight	7022	37.47	11.68
Average Daily Gain	6910	0.42	0.11
Weight per day of age	7022	0.52	0.12
90 day Weight	7023	38.23	10.55
Adjusted Weaning Weight	6986	43.41	12.65

Doe Data Summary:

Variable	Observations	Mean	Std Deviation
Age of Dam	3865	3.2	1.9
Number Born	4501	1.84	0.65
Total Birth Weight	4167	13.64	5.12
Number Weaned	4376	1.59	0.69
Total Weaning Weight	4056	62.22	27.08
Total 90 Day Weight	4054	62.93	25.57
Adjusted Weaning Weight	4056	7143	33.45
Doe Weight at weaning	2566	101.3	25.4
Efficiency Ratio	2494	61.28	24.09