Efficient goat breeding for sustainable milk production

A new project to improve the efficiency of goat milk farming will use the latest data capture technology to encapsulate new, automated information to better inform the breeding policies for dairy goat production. Milk quality measures (e.g. fat and protein) will be collected alongside a broader range of functional fitness, feed intake, liveweight and health traits which, together with milk yield information, will form the basis of a new breeding programme. For the first time, the genetic basis for these new traits in goats will be estimated for UK-based goat milk production that will be internationally recognised. The project will be working together with other key international players for the development of standardised data recording protocols including the use of genomic predictions of genetic merit for key aspects of milk production.