This study was conducted to investigate effects of slaughter age and gender on carcass characteristics of indigenous Hair goat kids reared under an extensive production system. A total of 60 Hair goat kids (30 females and 30 males) slaughtered at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of age was used as the material of this study. In the study, the cold carcass weights of kids at 3-12 months of age were between 6.15 and 10.83 kg. The cold dressing percentage was determined as 47.04-52.65 %. The effect of slaughter age on these traits was statistically significant (P<0.001). The cold carcass weight and the cold dressing percentage increased with the slaughter age. The effect of kid gender on the cold carcass weight was statistically significant (P<0.001). The mean value of this trait in males was higher than the females. The percentages of omental-mesenteric fat (P<0.001) and kidney-knob and channel fat (P<0.01) significantly increased with slaughter age. Subcutan, intermuscular, total fat and muscle/ bone percentages of the left half carcass significantly increased with slaughter age (P<0.01). However, bone (P<0.05) and muscle/total fat (P<0.01) percentages significantly decreased with slaughter age. The female kids had significantly higher values than males in terms of omental-mesenteric fat, kidney-knob and channel fat, subcutaneous, intermuscular and total carcass fat percentages (P<0.001). In conclusion, it is recommended that Hair goat kids should be slaughtered at 9 months of age under extensive management system to result in more edible meat production.

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Meat quality characteristics of Turkish indigenous Hair goat kids reared under an extensive production system were investigated in this study. A total of 60 Hair goat kids (30 females and 30 males) were slaughtered at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of ages. Slaughter age significantly affected meat quality characteristics. Cooking loss (P < 0.01) and shear force value (P < 0.001) increased with age. Meat color became darker red with increasing slaughter age (P < 0.001). The percentage of fat of musculus (M.) semimembranosus increased with age (P < 0.01). The percentage of saturated fatty acids was significantly higher (P < 0.01), whereas the percentage of unsaturated fatty acids was lower (P < 0.001) in the M. longissimus dorsi of the kids slaughtered at 3 months of age than those in the other age groups. The females had higher intramuscular fat than that in males (P < 0.001) and meat from male kids contained a higher percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acid than that from females (P < 0.01). In conclusion, meat from Hair kids slaughtered between 3 and 9 months of ages had better quality than those slaughtered at the other ages and also meat from male kids had better quality than those female kids slaughtered at the same age under extensive production system.

In this study, it was studied that viability in preweaning period and growth performance in the period from birth to 8 months of age of Hair kids (Anatolian Black Goat

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