118
Analysis of Weight Records of Etah Goats
advancing time was significantly more rapid in
males than in females. In all the three characters
compared the Jumna Pari breed was significantly
better than Barbari in regard to m.f.l.w. and
m.f. growth-rate. Also the growth-rate decrease
with advancing time is significantly more in
Jumna Pari than in Barbari.
To find the best season for kidding, the averages
of m.f.l.w. and m.f. growth-rate for the summer
and winter kiddings were compared in each breed.
The information is set out in Table III. In both
the breeds the kids born in winter show significant-
ly higher m. f.l.w. than the kids born in summer.
With regard to growth-rate both the seasons are
alike for each breed. This shows, on the whole,
that kids in winter are better than the kids born in
summer.
We now come to the question whether the
successive generations have shown any improve-
ment with regard to the three characters. For
this, dams from first generation were compared
with their daughters in the second generation.
The results are shown in Table IV. There is no
significant improvement in regard to any charac-
ter. Comparison of second and third generation is
set forth in Table V. There is deterioration though
the differences are not statistically significant.
The comparisons so far made are those between
the successive progenies and their mothers, and
although appropriate from the viewpoint of testing
the success of breeding policy do not give us a
complete picture of the improvement in the per-
formance of the herd as a whole in successive
generations. This is done in Table VI. This
gives the analysis of variance with regard to the
three characters of the three generations taken as
a whole. We find no significant changes; rather
there is a deterioration from second to third gene-
ration.
To see if the bucks possessed any transmitting
abilities with regard to these three characters, we
compared the daughters of a sire, against their
dams for these three characters. Such a compari-
son is possible for buck Nos. 633M and 152M. For
others the number of daughters was less than four
and so they have been omitted. The pedigrees of
these bucks are given below :—
633M
152M
{ 144 M
1st progeny of dam
221
{ 48 M
Purchased dam 53
{ 48 M
Purchased dam 66
These comparisons are set out in Tables VII and
VIII. No buck shows any transmitting ability
in fact the progeny of buck No. 633 shows deterio-
ration, which may be really due to the general
deterioration from second to third generation.
Having considered whether or not the sires are
good transmitters, we shall now consider the ques-
tion whether selection from amongst the dams
would lead to improvement in the successive
generations. The consideration of this question
is made possible because no culling out of the
female progeny was practised as a part of the
breeding policy on the farm. For this the first
generation, whose daughters are available in the
second generation, were ranked in order of their
performance for these three characters. And the
daughters of the first six were compared against
their mothers and also with the rest of the goat
in the second generation. The progenies show no
improvement on their mothers, neither do they
show significant differences from the daughters of
other dams. Table IX sets out this comparison
This shows that selective breeding on the side of
the dams is without effect.
We now come to the last question. As shown
in Table II the sexes of either breed do not differ
significantly in regard to m.f.l.w. and m.I.
growth-rate. So in correlating initial weight with
the above two characters, no distinction in sexes
was observed. These correlation coefficients,
marked with asterisk whenever significant are
given in Table X. The coefficient of correlation
represents interdependence of two varieties. Thus
the significant positive correlation coefficient bet-
ween initial weight and the m.f.l.w. in both the
breeds, shows that higher the initial weight the
higher is the m.f.l.w. In Barbari goats the
growth-rate is also significantly correlated with
the initial weight.
Conclusions. In both the breeds the males did
not differ significantly from the females in the
mean-live-weight and growth-rate. But in both
these characters the Jumna Pari was significantly
superior to Barbari. In both the breeds the goats
kidded in winter were definitely superior to the
goats kidded in summer in regard to the mean-
live-weight. In both the breeds the mean-live-
weight is significantly correlated with the weight
of the kid at the time of birth, i.e. increase in birth-
weight reflects an increase in the mean-live-weight.
In the Barbari goats the growth-rate is also signi-
ficantly positively correlated with the weight at
birth. There was no improvement with regard to
mean live-weight, or growth-rate in the successive
generations, rather there was deterioration though
not significant, from second to third generation.