Abstract/Summary

With a lack of goat-kid specific research, this thesis aimed to investigate the behaviour, productivity, and individuality of artificially reared goat kids during the milk feeding period and weaning transition, to recommend how on-farm management could be improved for the benefit of kid welfare. The first two studies collected survey data from farmers. The first established variation in management likely reflecting differing system needs relating to scale and milk feeding system; farms rearing >100 kids were more likely to ad libitum milk feed (P<0.001) and kids were more likely to be abruptly weaned from these systems (P≤ 0.001). The second reported farmers are unwilling to change practices due to kid health and feasibility concerns. The subsequent animal research was tailored towards commercial management, to address farmer concerns. The third study quantified how kids feed from ad libitum milk systems and found individual variation in milk feeding behaviour (intake range: 1.4-2.7 L/day; daily rewarded milk station visits: 2-19) together with concerningly low solid feed intakes (64 g/d of creep feed) before the industry standard practice of abrupt weaning, which likely affects welfare. The fourth study investigated a commercially feasible gradual weaning method for ad libitum systems, and successfully addressed farmers’ concerns. It found that milk intake was reduced (P<0.001); there were growth benefits (second weaning period: gradually weaned kids had higher gains P=0.046) and in the first (P=0.022) and second weaning periods (P<0.001) gradually weaned kids had higher creep intakes. The final study investigated methods to assess individuality and identified three consistent behaviours (‘stand still-look’ – familiar person tests; ‘latency until contact’ – novel object tests; ‘bipedal stance’ – both tests) that could be indicative of personality. This thesis fills key gaps in our knowledge of artificially reared goat kids and establishes a species-specific baseline for tailoring management and research in the future.