Abstract :
Differences in live weight and mature size associated with farm of origin, age and sex were
quantified for commercial Australian cashmere goats. Goats from 11 farms in four Australian
states, consisting of 1367 does and 98 wethers aged 1–13-year-old were monitored
between December and June (early summer to mid winter). We used the live weight for
May, as this was present for all farms and was prior to pregnancy related increase in live
weight. Individual live weight ranged from 9 to 69 kg. For does, at each farm, live weight
increased substantially with age and approached the maximum value at about 5 years of
age. Farms differed greatly in the adult live weight with some farms reaching about 46 kg
and others only reaching about 30 kg. Nevertheless those farms that had the greatest mean
live weight for young does generally had the greatest mean live weight as adults. With
the exception of one farm, wethers and does of the same age had similar live weights. The
differences due to farm were much larger than the effects of age and sex. This study demonstrates
that there are large differences in the mature live weight of cashmere does obtained
on different Australian farms and these differences are likely to impact on economic returns
