Early prediction of some kid body dimensions from maternal traits

This study was conducted in the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture, Ruminant Research Station, west of Baghdad. It included 447 goats born of both sexes belonging to local, Shami and their crosses. The body dimensions of kids at birth and the dam s weight and age at birth, as well as the dependence of weaning weight on the birth weight of the kids by the use of simple linear regression equations. The results presented that coefficient of regression of most studied dimensions on the traits of maternal weight at birth and weight of the kid at birth has significant effect, except the regression of the body length at birth on both the maternal weight at birth and the kids weight at birth, which was not significant, The results showed the possibility of dependence on the studied maternal characteristics and kids birth weight to predict the dimensions of the goat kids body at birth.