Associations of mature live weight of Australian cashmere goats with farm of origin and age

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