Growth pattern of crossbred kids under two different shelter systems

Abstract EN

An experiment was conducted at the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal, India, to study the growth pattern of crossbred kids under two different shelter systems.

Twenty-four crossbred kids were selected on the basis of age and body weight and randomly divided into two groups of housing conditions (12 kids each).

Group 1 was kept under NDRI existing goat housing facilities having concrete floor in covered and open area with concrete roof (CF-CR.).

While group 2 was kept on elevated slotted wooden floor with thatched roof (WFThR) which had significantly (P<0.05) lowered maximum and minimum temperature and relative humidity as compared with CF-CR.

The kids were provided ad lib.

high quality green fodder Berseem and concentrate mixture.

The analysis of variance revealed that the type of shelter had significant ( p < 0.05) effect on body weight gain of kids.

The highest value of weekly weight gain was observed in (WF-ThR), which differed significantly (P < 0.05) from (CF-CR.).

It can be concluded that the provision of thatched roof with elevated slotted wooden floor (WF-ThR) significantly (P < 0.05) increased body weight gain of kids by 15.82 % and 13.70 % in hot dry and hot humid seasons, respectively.