Fertility of female goats across the seasons in Kerala

Abstract

Goats in temperate climate are seasonal breeders and in tropics seasonality of reproduction is believed to be less.
The study was carried out at Kerala Aaricultural University goat farm to find out fertility of remale goats across various
seasons and its relationship with climate variables so as to make suitable management alterations. Fenility obtained in
terms of 45,. day non return rate, conception rate and kids/kidding showed significant monthly and seasonal variations.
However, number of oestrus detected showed no obvious relationship with success rate of AI in terms of non-return and
conception rates. Also conception rate across months showed no relationship with any of the climatic variables studied. It
is concluded that even though fertility of female goats showed significant variations across months and seasons, there was
no influence ~f higher oestrus activity or any of the climatic variables across seasons.