MINERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RAW GOAT MILK FROM THE REGION OF GOIÂNIA, BRAZIL.

432 samples of raw goat milk were analyzed for sodium, calcium, potassium, chloride, and ashes content. The samples came from 16 pure breed goats, 2 to 4 years of age kept in semi-feedlots. They were basically fed soy bran, cotton bran, triturated Guandu hay and disintegrated corn with its straw and corncob (according to requirements for due preservation and production). The mean values found were: sodium, $45{\pm}10.2mg%$ (24.5-65.6 mg%); potassium, $206{\pm}44.7mg%$ (116.6-295 mg%); calcium, $111{\pm}22mg%$ (66.5-155.4 mg %); ashes, $0.82{\pm}0.06mg%$ (0.68-0.95%); chloride, $235{\pm}39mg%$ (157-313 mg%). Results were related to: a) breed, the Brown and the Saanen revealed superior values for calcium and ashes, b) climate, which in the rain season led to higher contents of sodium, potassium, and calcium when compared to the local dry season, c) time of lactation which increasingly affected the contents of calcium, sodium and ashes, and d) the time between milking, when higher concentration of chloride and ashes were mostly concentrated in the evening and calcium in the morning. These results have important implications in the handling and management of the goat herd.