The influence of number of lactation on milk yield parameters in German fawn goats

Goat breeding is one of the least developed agricultural sectors in Serbia. This is reflected in the fact that the total number of goats in Serbia is less than 200,000, as well as the fact that no goat milk production has been recorded by the statistics. Over the last decade, there has been great interest of breeders for intensive breeding of highly productive goats, which resulted in imports of breeding goats. In the same period, several herds of the Alpine breed and German fawn goats were formed, while their production results in the growing conditions in our country have not been fully studied yet. During the first three lactations in the period 2003-2009, the following parameters of milk yield were studied: length of lactation, milk yield in one lactation, percentage and the milk fat yield, and percentage and the total protein yield. The average lactation period was 247 days for the first, 260.6 days for the second and 266.8 days for the third lactation. The average of milk yielded was constantly increasing from the first (594.51 kg) towards the third lactation (761.96 kg), showing statistically highly significant differences (P<0,001). What was also observed is that the order of lactation has not significantly affected the percentage of proteins in milk, whereas the total protein yield in lactations was influenced by the order of lactation due to the differences in average milk yield in lactations.