Options to Improve Traditional Goat Breeding: Stock Upgrading

 

Stock Upgrading

The introduction of either a purebred or a graded buck into your herd will facilitate the upgrading of your herd

This can be done by selecting your best native doe and mating it with the highly improved buck or even a purebred buck

You can only use a big purebred buck if you have a big native doe that has previously given birth, as it can carry a relatively bigger offspring in its belly

If, on the other hand, your native doe is of the normal size (15-20 kg), you may use just an upgraded buck for breeding

To attain your production targets from this system, your buck should belong to any of the distinct and adaptable breeds, such as the Anglo Nubian and the Boer.

However, you should be careful not to allow mating among relatives to avoid inbreeding. To ensure this, proper animal identification and recording of animal pedigree is a must. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ways of Upgrading the Stock

1.1 Upgrading with purebred bucks

• For big native does that have previously kidded, upgrading using purebred bucks is recommended
• The figure shows that the breeding between an Anglo Nubian (AN) buck and a big native doe resulted to a 50% AN: 50% native F1.
• Mating this F1 doe to another AN buck produced a 75% AN: 25% native F2.
• Further mating of the F2 doe to another purebred AN buck resulted to an improvement in the genetics of its offspring to 87.5% AN bloodline.
  
  

1.2 Upgrading using graded bucks

• For native does weighing 15-20 kg, upgrading using graded bucks is recommended
• The mating of a pure native doe with a 75% AN buck produced a first generation offspring or F1 with 37.5% AN bloodline
• Crossing of this F1 doe to a purebred AN buck, then produced a 68.5% AN F2
• Further crossing of this F2 doe with another purebred AN buck bore an 84% AN offspring, which is genetically superior than the original breeding stocks

1.3 Producing triple-cross slaughter goats

• A triple cross goat is a slaughter or market goat produced through the mating of a 2-breed doe to a terminal third breed buck
• Producing triple-cross goats maximizes the performance potentials of three breeds
• They perform better than the single or two-breed crosses (see table below)
  
  

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• A good triple-cross goat is the PN-AN-Boer goat produced through the following scheme:
  
  

• Use of the native doe and the Anglo Nubian buck as the grand parental lines is recommended, for the following reasons:
1. Native does are adapted to Philippine conditions
2. They reach sexual maturity earlier, have higher fertility rates and are capable of multiple births
3. Their kidding interval is shorter and they have good mothering abilities
4. AN bucks are known for their meat and milk production traits
5. Their offspring would therefore have the capacity to produce more milk to support twins and triplets
6. Thus the AN-Native F1 does is expected to have these qualities of their parents.
7. Boer is used as the terminal buck, as it is a meat type breed, whose qualities (e.g. larger size and meatiness) are needed to produce the desired product, the chevon
• Triple-cross slaughter goats can have a blood line of
• 50% BO : 37.5% AN : 12.5% PN
• 75% BO : 18.75% AN : 6.25%PN
• 87.5% BO : 9.37% AN : 3.13% PN

Advantages

• By breeding using a purebred or improved buck, better genetics and performance of the offspring will be achieved
• Herd performance is improved and production of chevon is enhanced
• Better income is realized from upgraded goats (as the table shows)

Disadvantages/Limitations of use

• Need to maintain buck to be used in producing the upgraded Anglo-Nubian dam and another Boer buck to be used in the final cross to produce the TWN as the terminal stock.
• Records of the identification and breed of buck and doe used in the breeding must be monitored to keep track of the bloodline of the offspring produced and to prevent inbreeding.

Requirements for Adoption
If you decide to adopt this system you must have:

• For triple cross goats you must have:

• Purebred AN or 75%AN grades as GP buck
• Big Native doe as GP doe
• Purebred Boer as Parental buck

• To adopt this system you must have either a purebred or a graded buck with at least 87.5% exotic bloodline for use in upgrading the herd population. See the price list of breeder goats.