A Study on Lactation Milk Yield and Milk Qualtiy Characteristics of Kilis Goats in Farm Conditions

Considering the traditional ice cream production in Kilis goat breeding regions and the demand for goat cheese, it is very big importance to focus on these criteria as selection criteria in research on milk components. This study was carried out to determine the relationship between lactation milk yield and milk quality characteristics in Kilis goats. Animal material was consisting of 170 Kilis goat reared from two different farms in Kilis province. The least squares mean for lactation yield and lactation length were 177.97 +/- 4.45 kg and 184.84 +/- 0.95 days. The values for the total dry matter (TDM), oil (%), protein (%), lactose (%), casein (%) in Kilis goats were determined; 12.175 +/- 0.125, 4.025 +/- 0.088, 3.346 +/- 0.054, 4.068 +/- 0.027, 2.563 +/- 0,040, respectively. In our study, the correlation between milk protein ratio and milk dry matter was significant at the level of 0.88 (P<0.01). In our study, the correlation between milk protein ratio and milk dry matter was significant at the level of 0.88 (P<0.01). In this study, the relationship between the fat component and the lactose component was found r = 0.13. In addition, it has been reported that the relationships between milk quality characteristics vary according to the lactation period. Although there is no significant change in milk protein, lactose and milk dry matter at the beginning and middle of lactation, milk fat ratio increases while lactose content decreases in the last periods of lactation. As a result, Kilis goat have the high values for milk yield and characteristics of milk quality compared to several goat genotypes and even they had higher values that some goat genotypes. In addition to this, it is confirmed that Kilis goat have adequate values of protein and casein, especially for cheese production.