KIDDING PATTERN OF ASSAM HILL GOAT

Abstract

Data pertaining to 418 parturitions of Assam Hill Goat maintained at the adopted
villages of AICRP on Goat Improvement, Goat Research Station, Burnihat were analysed
to study the kidding pattern. The kidding was found to be distributed throughout the
year with the highest kidding in the post-monsoon season (31.34%). Month-wise kidding
records reveals that the highest and the lowest number of kidding was in the month of
September (20.09%) and November (0.95%) respectively. The diurnal variation of
spontaneous live births showed uni-model distribution with maximum kidding between
0600 to 1200 hours (56.46%) whereas the lowest incidence of kidding was recorded
between 0.00 to 0600 hours. The percentage of single, twin and triplets were 60.76,
34.93 and 4.31 respectively. In the present study the percentage of male kid born was
50.50 per cent. The average birth weight of the male kids (1282.37gm) was higher than
that of the female kids (1231.78 gm) at all types of birth (single, twins and triplets). The
difference in birth weight between the sexes was non-significant.
In rural Assam, goat plays an important role in the farming system as evidenced by the
higher annual growth rate (9.66 %) during the census year 2003-20078 in comparison to
all India Annual Growth Rate per cent of 3.10.
Key words : Assam Hill Goat, kidding pattern, diurnal variation.