LAUSR

Creep feeding is a management practice used to improve the weaning weights of livestock including meat goats. The effects of creep feeding on replacement doe performance have received little attention. This study examined creep feeding effects on fitness traits of replacement does over their first five years in the breeding herd. Doelings that were either creep-fed (CF; n = 79) from 30 days of age until weaning (90 days of age) or not creep-fed (NC; n = 71) entered the breeding herd at 18 months of age and remained until death or failure to wean offspring in a second year. Doe body weights, packed cell volume (PCV), and fecal egg counts (FEC) were recorded each year at breeding. Cumulative totals for survivability to 6 years of age (SURV), kids weaned (TKW), weight weaned (TWW), and weaning rate (TWR) were analyzed for each doe. Doe body weights, PCV, FEC, TKW, TWW and TWR were analyzed using SAS MIXED models. Treatment group along with the sire breed, litter type, and dam age as traits of the doe were used as model terms. SURV was tested using SAS GLIMMIX models. Treatment, sire breed, litter type, and dam age of the doe were used as main effects. For sire breed, does were either Kiko-, Spanish-, Myotonic-, or Savanna-sired. There was no weight advantage (P > 0.05) observed in CF does (CF = 34.8 ± 0.9 kg vs. NC = 34.1 ± 0.9 kg) at breeding. A previous study on the same group of did show a weight advantage for CF at weaning and at 1 year of age, but that significance was lost by entry into the breeding herd. However, sire breed (P < 0.05) did impact body weights. Kiko-sired does were the heaviest (P < 0.05) and Myotonic-sired does were the lightest (P < 0.05) at breeding. Creep feed did not (P > 0.05) impact TKW (CF = 2.8 ± 0.3 kids vs. NC = 2.4 ± 0.3 kids) or TWW (CF = 35.7 ± 3.8 kg vs. NC = 32.7 ± 4.0 kg). Sire breed impacted (P < 0.05) TWW. Kiko-sired does weaned more (P = 0.02) weight than Savanna-sired does (43.4 ± 4.7 kg vs. 21.8 ± 4.8 kg, respectively). TWR, SURV, FEC, and PCV were not affected (P > 0.05) by treatment group. Preliminary assessment suggested that creep feeding doelings did not affect their reproductive performance as adults under the conditions of this study.