Artificial Insemination of Spanish Goats: A sustainable approach to maximize the goat meat production in the Southeast

Commodities

Practices

Sustainable Meat Goat Production in the Southeast (SE) will be achieved by making sustainable practices available to farmers. Transcervical artificial insemination (Ai) is an important tool to achieve a sustainable business since it helps farmers improve the genetics of their herds in a short time and with a lower cost and risk, than when an improved buck is brought from outside the farm and must be kept safe for 1 year for a breeding season that can last 3 to 5 days. Ai for goats does not represent a high investment for the farmer, it has multiple benefits for the business, and since no surgical procedure is needed any trained person can do it. For this project, we will bring the expertise of Dr. Juan Romano, a professor retired from Texas A&M with many years of experience in small ruminant reproduction to guide Extension specialist and agents on the process of estrus synchronization and AI of the does. This registered pure Spanish goat herd started to be managed at Mississippi State University, one year ago with 10 pregnant does and 3 males, today with 45 animals, is an example of how in one year, this meat business can grow. The plan includes the estrus synchronization of 16 young and adult does for 2025 and Ai them with semen from an improved Spanish buck. This process will serve as a preliminary experience for building in the future an Ai school for Extension agents and goat farmers in the SE.

The outreach program planned for 2025 will include two train-the-trainer field days for MSSTATE Extension agents working with goat farmers in their counties. They will have the opportunity to learn the estrus synchronization of the does (Fielday 1) and the transcervical Ai procedure (Fielday 2). This experience will also be an opportunity for our team of students to help during the Extension outreach and take part in the writing of an abstract that will be presented at the ASAS meeting in 2026 and an extension factsheet for farmers.

The team has experience working on the reproduction of Spanish goats, in 2024 we worked also with Dr. Romano on the estrus synchronization of the does for natural mating with the buck, producing this abstract on the topic, as preliminary data for this project.

ABSTRACT Submitted to ASAS 2025:

Reproductive performance with two CIDRs permanencies for estrus synchronization in Spanish goats

Caelin Hodges¹, Kelsey Mazeres¹, Ke'Daja Freelon², Larry Leon-Medina¹, Maxwell Mkunga¹, Dr. Rhonda Vann¹, Dr. Juan Romano³, Dr. Leyla Rios de Alvarez¹

¹Mississippi State University, Department of Animal and Dairy Science; ²Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture; ³3R Ranch Livestock Co., Somerville, TX.

Spanish goats have adapted to the US through centuries of natural selection and breeding and has become a meat breed very popular in the US. This preliminary study aimed to evaluate two different durations of CIDR® inserts (Eazi Breed™ for sheep, 0.3 g of progesterone - P4) in ten (n=10) cycling female Spanish goats (IACUC-24-257). Does were randomly allocated into two (02) groups, G1- 2 weeks with CIDR®, and G2-1 week with CIDR®. Each group had 2 young does, and 3 adult does. All does were confined in a collective pen with ad libitum hay (mixed Bahia and Bermuda), loose minerals, and water and received approx. 220 g/animal/day of commercial concentrate (13% CP). The protocol used for synchronization was: on day minus fourteen (-14, June 17th, 2024), CIDRs were inserted vaginally on G1, and immediately after, each doe received 1 ml of gonadorelin (synthetic GnRH: 50 µg/ml; Factrel®) by IM route in the neck. On day minus seven (-7, June 24^th, 2024) G2 received the CIDR® + GnRH injection. On day zero (0, July 1^st, 2024), all does had the CIDR® removed and received 1 ml of Dinoprost Tromethamine (natural PGF2α; 5 mg/ml; Lutalyse®), IM in the neck. On the same day 0 a proven Spanish male (3 years old) was taken to the does twice a day (8:00 h and 17:00h) for 30 to 45 minutes until every doe was mated twice (12 h apart). The male bred all the 10 does from days 1 and 2 post removal of CIDR® (day=0). All does were returned to normal grazing management after the 2 matings were completed. In both groups, weights (BW), number (NK), and sex of kids (SK) were compared using ANOVA (SAS 8.3), and the Chi-Square test was used to evaluate the distribution of the SK in the groups. No differences were found for BW of does or kids, NK and SK (P=0.40), BW of G1 does was 41.19 kg, with 10 kids, 7 females, and 3 males, and 2.69 kg and 2.96 kg of BW, respectively. G2 does had a BW of 38.96 kg, 13 kids, 3 females and 10 males, with 2.12 and 2.52 kg of BW, respectively. The Chi-Square test showed a significant difference in the distribution of SK in the groups (P=0.02). These preliminary results show that the duration of the CIDR® for the synchronization of Spanish does did not have any effect on the NK and BW of the kids. This protocol can be successfully applied using one or two weeks of CIDR®, GnRH, and PGF2α, allowing a shorter kidding season and easier management of the groups. The study will be repeated with a larger number of does in 2025.

Keywords: goats, reproduction, meat, southeast, breeding season