Influence of farm, parity, season and litter size on the lactation curve parameters of white British dairy goats

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Abstract
The following goat lactation model was fitted (using non-linear regression) to 407 lactations from five commercial goat dairies and one Research Institute goat herd: y = A exp (B(l + n'/2)n' + Cn' 2 - 1·01/n) where y = daily yield in kg; n = day of lactation (post parturition); and n' = (n -150)1100.Influence of farm, parity and season on the parameter estimates for 376 individual lactations was studied, using multiple linear regression. The models adopted were of the form: A = 1·366 + 1·122 × parity - 0·137 × parity2; ln(-B) = - 1·711 + 0·107 × parity + 0·512 season one; C = 0·037, with a standard deviation for A of 0·658, for ln(-B) of 0·636 and for C of 0·127.Influence of litter size on parameters was investigated for the Research Institute herd. There was no evidence of an effect on any of the model parameters.