Genetic analysis of lifetime productivity traits in goats.

As part of the development of a breeding programme for dairy goats to support sustainable production in organic farming, the overall aim of the present study was to identify traits that can be used as selection criteria for lifetime productivity. The breeding goal is high lifetime productivity with a good milk composition and a good level of robustness in the animals, especially within grazing systems. The lifetime productivity traits analysed in this study were the length of the animal's productive life (LPL), the lifetime efficiency (LEF), and the animal's milk yield efficiency with respect the total number of lactating days (EDM); the average fat and protein content over the animal's lifetime, the fat-to-protein ratio (FPR), and the urea content (UC) were also included as indirect health traits and potential indicators of robustness in dairy goats.