Effect of Heamoglobin and Potassium Polymorphism on Milk Production Traits in Goats

A study was conducted to determine the effect of hemoglobin (Hb-type) and potassium (k-type) types on milk yield characteristics of Agropastoral goats. Records were obtained from a total of 250 does over a period of one year. The milk yield characteristics were initial milk yield (IY), average daily yield (ADY), initial yield (IY), peak day (PD), peak yield (PY), and lactation length (LL).The data generated from the study were analyzed using General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SAS and Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) procedure of SAS was used to separate the significant means. Hb-type significantly influenced some milk yield characteristics of the goats. Does with HbAA and HbAB were similar and significantly had (P<0.05) higher ADY and PY than HbBB. But there were no significant (p˃0.05) differences in milk yield characteristics when potassium types were consider, however animals of high potassium (HK) types were found to be favoured by natural selection in the region over low potassium (LK). It was concluded that, potassium and heamoglobin types can be explored to help in improving milk production traits of indigenous goats by identifying the heamoglobin and potassium types that are more adaptive to a particular environment and has a comparative advantage in milk yield characteristics.