Tanzania Journal of Agricultural Sciences (2021) Vol. 20 No. 1, 54-62
Milk from goats has uplifted the nutritional standards of many poor households in rural
communities in developing countries. In Tanzania, consumption of milk in these communities
has increased since introduction of dairy goats in 1960s. Nutritional composition including
carbohydrate, protein, fat, minerals and associated quality attributes are important factors of milk
for human consumption. Also, milk should be obtained from health animals in order to safeguard
the health of consumers. These parameters are affected by many factors including management,
production level, breed, parity and stage of lactation, as well as processing and handling conditions.
We carried out this study to evaluate the composition of milk from dairy goats namely Norwegian
Landrace (NL), mainly crosses with indigenous Small East African (SEA) goats which are bred
and managed in Mgeta division, Morogoro region, Eastern Tanzania. We collected 75 milk samples
considering various factors. These samples were analysed for somatic cell count (SCC), crude
protein (CP), butterfat (BF), lactose, total solids (TS), solids-not-fat (SNF), Chloride (Cl) as well
as milk density. We obtained averages of each parameter for each factor and made statistical based
on analyses which were performed general linear model procedures of the statistical analysis
system. Averages for milk yield (MY), SSC, CP, BF, lactose, Cl, TS, SNF and milk density were
1.32 litres/day, 1.48x10 5 cells/ml, 3.65, 4.34, 4.20, 0.15, 12.29, 7.95 and 27.98% respectively.
Conclusively, values of parameters were within the recommended ranges and milk from NL goats
is good for consumption.