The aim of B. Sc Thesis was to investigate how the farming method and the method of taking milk from the Alpine goats, affects the milk oxytocin and cortisol concentrations. There were 20 Alpine goats included in our study, from which there were 10 from organic and 10 from conventional farming. The goats were located at PRC (Pedagogical Research Centre) Logatec. Each goat participated in the study for 4 consecutive weeks; each week we took two samples from each individual. We therefore had 8 samples per goat– 4 taken during milking and 4 during suckling. The measurements were taken at the Veterinary Faculty in Ljubljana. Our results showed that goats from the organic farming are »happier« and under less stress, based on a higher oxytocin concentrations and lower cortisol concentrations, compared to the conventional farming. Milking caused higher stress response in goats than suckling with cortisol concentrations being significantly higher. In contrary to our expectations, the oxytocin concentrations during milking were higher than during suckling. This phenomenon could be explained with the »main source of happiness« in domestic animals – food, which may represent the trigger before milking started. The kids of goats, which had higher levels of oxytocin and lower levels of cortisol grew faster than kids of goats with reverse values – calculated from daily gain, which was calculated from the intermediate weighing. There were additional factors that influenced the milk hormonal concentrations, such as: the number of somatic cells, the successive lactation and the number of kids per goat.
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