Growth performance of Pantja goats under field conditions in their home tract

The present research was conducted to study the growth performance of 906 Pantja kids of 514 goats sired by 26 bucks maintained by registered farmers under All India Co-ordinated Research Project on goats (Pantja field Unit) running in College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) during 2015–16. The overall least-square means for body weight at birth, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of age were found to be 1.89±0.02, 9.49±0.20, 13.09±0.18, 16.38±0.19 and 18.84±0.22 kg, respectively. The random effect of sire was highly significant (P<0.01) on body weight at birth, 3, 6 and 9 months of age whereas, this effect was found to be significant (P<0.05) on 12 months body weight. The cluster had a highly significant (P< 0.01) effect on birth, 3, 6 and 12 months body weights. Type of birth and sex of kid was found to be highly significant on birth, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months body weights. The heritability estimates were 0.25±0.09, 0.38±0.12, 0.30±0.11, 0.29±0.08 and 0.43±0.13 for body weight at birth, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of age, respectively. The genetic and phenotypic correlations of body weight to body weight at subsequent ages were observed to be high and positive.