The Effect of Short Term and Long Term Feeding of Barley Seed with or Without eCG on Reproductive Performance of Goat During Breeding and Out Breeding Seasons

Nutritional and hormonal programs are one of the important ways of improving goat reproductive performance. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of using barley seed and eCG at the same time on the reproductive performance of goat in nomadic breeding conditions. The number of 60 goats of two to three-year-old in the breeding season and 60 goats of three to four-year-old in out-breeding season were chosen. Then the goats were divided into six groups of 10 numbers. 1- Control group (without receiving barley seed and eCG); 2- Group receiving 400 grams of barley for eight days (short term); 3- Group receiving 400 grams of barley for 16 days (long term); 4- Group receiving 400 IU eCG; 5- Group receiving 400 IU eCG and 400 grams of barley for eight days and 6- Group receiving 400 IU eCG and 400 grams of barley for 16 days. The results indicated that in-breeding season twinning rate in groups receiving barley for short and long term with eCG were higher compared to the group without receiving eCG. At the same time, the minimum (five) and maximum (20) numbers of  born kids were observed in control and group six, respectively. The results also indicated that in out-breeding season none of the characteristics were influenced statistically by treatments. It can be concluded that using 400 IU of eCG and 400 grams of barley seed daily, can improve the twinning rate in breeding season but such an effect cannot be observed in out breeding season.