Berari goats: Characterization, management, performance and population status

Abstract

Berari is recently recognized as 23rd goat breed of India with accession number INDIA_GOAT_1100_BERARI_0623. The Berari goat, a breed of central region of India (Vidarbha region of Maharashtra), is low yielding prolific meat breed thriving well in tropical wet and dry climate. The data were collected on 1,232 Berari goats from 353 farmers spread over 82 villages of 25 Talukas of 11 district of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra and also from college farms. The average daily milk yield of Berari goats is 533.28 g/day with a total lactation yield of 78 kg in 130 days of lactation, while age at first conception is 10 to 11 months. The breed is having a good prolificacy i.e. 57% twinning, 2% triplets/quadruplets. The coat colour of Berari goat ranges from dark tan to light tan. Horns were noticed in both the sexes and were straight, orientation of horn was mostly found as upward-backward. All the Berari goat had pendulous (drooping), flat and leafy ear and convex forehead. Majority of Berari goats (98%) did not have beard and wattle and does had bowl shaped udder (89%) with conical teat shape and pointed teat tip. The mean chest girth, body length, height at wither, paunch girth, horn length, ear length and tail length for adult animals (above 2 years of age) measured 73.3, 63.1, 71.3,76.2, 9.6, 15.7 and 13.7 cm, respectively. The body weights in male and female at 1-2 years of age were 27.4 and 24.1 kg and that of adult goats 34.5 and 27.3 kg, respectively. On the basis of body measurements and body weights the Berari goat was decided as medium size goat. Light to dark strip on lateral sides from base of horn to nostrils, black colour ring around neck in adult male, and black hair line along with the vertebral column extending up to tail in both sexes was observed as unique characteristic in Berari goat.