The aims of thisstudy were evaluate influence of the environmental and genetic effects on thekidding interval, using 486 records of kidding crossbred dairy goats obtainedfrom 1988 to 1996 in Paraiba State. The environmental effects were analyzedby means of the procedure GLM of the SAS with a model that included as fixedfactors the contemporary group and kidding type, and covariates age of goatat kidding and lactation length. Buck, goat inside of the buck and error wereincluded as random effects. MTDFREML program was used in the analysis with ananimal model containing the contemporary group and kidding type, the linearand quadratic effects of age of kidding and lactation length as fixed effects.Animal and permanent environmental and error were included as random effects.The least-square means of kidding interval was 275.55 ± 60.96 days. Kiddinginterval was affected by the contemporary group and lactation length effects.Estimates of heritability and repeatability were low, 0.09 and 0.09, respectively,showing that smaller kidding intervals would be obtained by better management.
