Goat Breeds in India: Weight, Kidding and Milk Chart

Twelve goat breeds compared on home tract, adult weight, twinning and milk, with the right breed for each region and feeding system.

Updated: 3 October 2026

No goat breed is best everywhere. Each breed below was shaped by one region and one way of feeding, so the right choice depends on where the farm is and whether goats will graze or stay in a shed. As a rule: Sirohi, Marwari and Jakhrana suit dry western India, Barbari, Beetal and Totapari suit stall-feeding in the north, Black Bengal suits the humid east, Malabari suits Kerala, and Osmanabadi and Sangamneri suit Maharashtra.

The figures come from four kinds of source, marked in each cell. F is the FAO breed survey (Acharya, 1982, data from the 1970s). C is the ICAR-CIRG Annual Report 2024 (2024-25 data from research farms and field units). T and J are papers in ICAR journals. Old farmer-flock and newer research-farm figures differ, so both are shown.

Breed chart

Breed	Home tract	Adult kg (male / female)	Kids per birth	Milk per lactation	Use
Sirohi	Rajasthan, Gujarat	50 / 23 (F)	91.5% single, 8.5% twins (F); litter 1.18 in field (C)	71 kg (F); 86 L in field (C)	Meat
Jamunapari	Uttar Pradesh	45 / 38 (F)	69% single, 28% twins, 3% triplets (F); litter 1.25 (C)	202 kg (F); 133 L (C)	Milk and meat
Beetal	Punjab	59 / 35 (F)	41% single, 53% twins, 7% triplets (F); litter 1.55 in field (C)	177 kg (F); 110 kg in 90 days (C)	Milk and meat
Barbari	Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan	38 / 23 (F)	Farmers: 23% single, 64% twins, 13% triplets (F); litter 1.53 (C)	107 kg (F); 139 L (C)	Meat and milk, stall-fed
Black Bengal	West Bengal	32 (4 animals only) / 20 (F)	45% single, 51% twins, 4% triplets (F); litter 1.84 at Kalyani (C)	58 kg (F)	Meat, skin
Osmanabadi	Maharashtra	34 / 32 (F)	Farmers: 50% single, 40% twins, 10% triplets (F); litter 1.62 (C)	0.5 to 1.5 kg a day for 3 to 5 months (F); 110 kg in 90 days (C)	Meat
Jakhrana	Rajasthan	58 / 44 (F)	57% single, 41% twins, 2% triplets (F); litter 1.3 to 1.5 in home tract (J)	3.2 kg a day (F); 153 kg semi-intensive, 107 kg extensive (J)	Milk
Malabari	Kerala	39 / 31 (F)	51% single, 42% twins, 7% triplets (F); kidding rate 1.68 (C)	44 kg (F); 86 L in 87 days (C)	Meat, some milk
Marwari	Rajasthan	33 / 26 (F)	Mostly single (F); kidding rate 1.05 (C)	91 kg (F); 88 L (C)	Meat, hair
Sangamneri	Maharashtra	38 / 29 (F)	Farmers: 75% single, 22% twins, 3% triplets (F); 1.78 kids per kidding (C)	83 kg (F); 120 L in 90 days (C)	Meat and milk
Totapari (NBAGR spelling: Totapuri)	Rajasthan	89 / 65 at 18 months and above (T)	Litter 1.98 (T)	About 1 kg a day for 283 days (T)	Meat and milk, stall-fed
Boer cross	Not an Indian breed; not on the NBAGR list	No Indian figures available	No Indian figures available	No Indian figures available	Meat

Home tract is from the ICAR-NBAGR register. Kids per birth are in per cent. Litter is kids per kidding. Milk is per lactation, in kg or litres as printed in the source.
Black Bengal 12-month weights in CIRG units were only 11 to 14 kg, so a Black Bengal is sold by head count, not by weight. Sirohi, Barbari and Beetal reached 22 to 31 kg at 12 months in CIRG units (C).
The Totapari weights come from a survey of 176 keepers in Alwar and Bharatpur. They are far above the other breeds in this table, so treat them as the upper end.

Which breed for which region

Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh: Beetal and Barbari. FAO describes Beetal as more prolific than Jamunapari and easier to keep in a shed.
Rajasthan and Gujarat: Sirohi for meat, Marwari in the dry Marwar belt (33 cm rain a year, F), Jakhrana where milk is wanted, Totapari near Alwar.
Maharashtra: Osmanabadi in the drier districts, Sangamneri around Ahmednagar, Nashik and Pune. ICAR field units record both in farmers' flocks.
Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha: Black Bengal. CIRG runs Black Bengal field units in East Champaran, Araria, Jamui and Katihar in Bihar, in Ranchi, Deoghar and other Jharkhand centres, and in West Bengal.
Kerala: Malabari, from a home tract with about 337 cm of rain (F).
Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, milk: Jamunapari. In a 2016 survey of 240 farmers in Firozabad and Mainpuri only 2.59% of goats were Jamunapari, while 72.4% of farmers preferred a Sirohi buck.

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Stall-fed or grazing

Stall-fed: FAO calls Barbari a dwarf breed highly suited to restrained and stall-feeding. At CIRG, Barbari kids on a six-month feedlot ration reached 27.6 kg (male) and 21.5 kg (female) at 11 months, against 20.3 and 18.2 kg on semi-intensive feeding (C). Jamunapari is more sensitive to confinement (F). The NLM guidelines list promotion of the stall-feeding model as an objective.
Grazing or semi-intensive: Sirohi, Marwari and Jakhrana. In the Jakhrana home-tract study, goats kept semi-intensively gave 153 kg of milk against 107 kg under extensive management, and kidded every 288 days against 333 (J).

Boer cross

Boer is not on the NBAGR register of Indian breeds. It appears in the NLM list of goat germplasm farms at the Dhoni centre in Kerala.
An ICAR-journal trial that fed 100, 150 and 200 g of concentrate a day found Boer crossbred kids significantly heavier than local kids, with better net return per animal. Indian adult weights, kidding and mortality figures for Boer crosses are not available, so none are given here.
Choose a Boer cross only with a vet nearby, a feed budget and a buyer who pays for weight.

Next steps

See a flock of the breed in your district before buying. Ask the seller for birth type, weights and vaccination dates.
Costs of a unit are in goat farm project cost. Loans and subsidy are in goat farming loan and subsidy. Housing, feed and the health calendar are in the goat farming guide, and the overview is on goat farming.

Sources

More in this guide

Goat loan and subsidy Goat farm project cost

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Which goat breed is best for meat in India? +

No breed is best everywhere. Sirohi (Rajasthan, Gujarat), Osmanabadi and Sangamneri (Maharashtra), Marwari (arid Rajasthan) and Black Bengal (eastern India) are the meat breeds in the chart. Pick the one already kept in your district, since it is adapted to local feed and disease.

Which goat breed gives the most milk? +

Jamunapari recorded 202 kg per lactation in the FAO survey and Jakhrana gave a daily 3.2 kg in farmers' flocks. ICAR-CIRG 2024 records 133 litres for Jamunapari, 139 litres for Barbari and 110 kg in 90 days for Beetal. Milk breeds need good feed to reach these numbers.

Which goat breed is best for stall feeding? +

FAO describes Barbari as highly suited to restrained and stall feeding, and Beetal as easy to adapt to stall feeding. A 2024 paper reports Totapari is popular for stall feeding in Alwar and Bharatpur. Jamunapari is more sensitive to confinement.

Which goat breed has the most twins? +

In the FAO survey of farmers' flocks Barbari had 64% twins and 13% triplets, Beetal 53% twins, Black Bengal 51% twins and Malabari 42%. Sirohi had only 8.5% twins. Twinning also depends on feed and management, so research-farm figures are lower for some breeds.

Is Boer goat a good choice in India? +

Boer is not an Indian registered breed. An ICAR-journal trial found Boer crossbred kids heavier than local kids with better net return per animal, but only when fed concentrate. Indian adult weight and mortality figures for Boer crosses are not available, so go with a vet and a buyer in place.

Where do these figures come from? +

Home tracts are from the ICAR-NBAGR register. Weights, kidding and milk are from the FAO breed survey (1982), the ICAR-CIRG Annual Report 2024 and ICAR journal papers. Each figure is marked with its source in the chart. Your own flock will usually give lower numbers than a research farm.