Determination of economic values for some important traits of Rayeni Cashmere goats reared under pasture system

In the present study a deterministic bio-economic model was used to estimate economic values for reproduction traits (conception rate, twining rate and litter size), production traits (body weight of kid sold at 6.5 months, annual cashmere weight, body weight of doe and annual milk yield) and longevity (survival of doe, survival of kid until weaning and survival of kid until sale age at 6.5 months), from recording of 10 Rayeni Cashmere goat flocks including 1810 does and 95 bucks in Kerman province in south east of Iran. Sensitivity analysis of economic values to price levels of input and output was also carried out. Revenue sources of production system included: live weight, milk and cashmere production, while live weight was the most important one and included 62.37% of the total revenues. Total profit was 126.2 $ per doe per year. The most important traits were annual milk yield followed by litter size with relative importance of 0.99 and 0.016, respectively. The lowest relative importance was body weight of doe (-0.040). In this system, all the economic values were positive except body weight of doe. Changes in prices of input and output had slightly effects on economic values.