Sexual stimulation of male dairy goats

The objective of the present study was to investigate methods for enhancing the sexual performance of male dairy goats in the context of controlled breeding (“hand-mating”) and semen collection. Nine male goats were individually exposed to a single restrained estrous female who served either as a natural-mating stimulus or as a teaser female for semen collection. Tests were conducted under four conditions: (1) with another male watching in a runway adjacent to the test arena (W); (2) after observing the previously tested male court and copulate with the stimulus female (S); (3) a combination of the aforementioned two treatments (SW); (4) an unstimulated control treatment (C). In the natural-mating tests, sexual performance was significantly enhanced by each of the forms of stimulation. Differences in sexual performance under the three stimulation treatments were not statistically significant. In the artificial-mating tests, latencies to mount and ejaculate (into the artificial vagina) were significantly shortened by the S and SW treatments, but not by being watched (W treatment). Again, stimulation treatments did not differ significantly. Sexual stimulation did not affect semen volume or concentration. The improved sexual performance of stimulated male goats may result in a significant sav saving of time and labor to animal breeders involved in hand-mating or semen collection.