Goat is a hollow horned small ruminants.Goat belong to the family of Bovidea of the genus capra.Goat is an animal that is reared for its meat,milk and hide and skin.Morocco leather is from Sokoto Red.The goat milk is the richest in nutients of all the milk that is produced by animals including man.
Breeds of Goat
There are many breeds of goat which includes;
1. Sokoto Red
2. Angora
3. Nandi
4. Boe
5. Nubian
6. East African Small Goat
7. Kano Brown
8. Bantu
9. West African dwaed goat
10. West African long legged goat.
Terminologies Used in Goat
1. Buck(Billy) - This is an an adult make goat
2. Doe (Nanny) - This is an adult female goat
3. Kid - Kid is young or baby goat.
4. Wethe - This is a castrated make goat.
5. Kidding - This is the act of giving birth (parturition) in goat.
6. Chevon - Meat of goat
Reason For Rearing Goat
The reason for rearing goats include;
1. For meat production that serves as food for man.
2. For Hide and skin production used in making leather.
3. For milk production that serves as a source of production of protein for the body.
4. High Prolific: This means that goat givsi birth two times a year and serves as source of income
5. Goat is easier to keep.
6. Goat cost of feeding is very low.
7. Goat is used as sacrificial offering and festival
8. Goat may be trained for educational purposes like teaching and research.
Characteristics of Goat
1. Make goats are often bearded
2. Goats are very inquisitive animals.
3. Goats are very tough and hardy animal that can survive unfavorable environmental conditions.
4. Both male and female goats have horn.
5. Goat can eat on forage plant. In other words, goat is very cheap to produce.
6. Goats have the gestation period of between 145-160 days or four to five months.
7. Goat produce kid twice in a year.
8. They are small bodied animals.
9. Goat have nutritious milk.
Systems of Rearing Goats
There are three system of rearing goats which includes
1. Extensive System
2. Intensive System
3. Semi-intensive system
1. Extensive System - This is the type of system which allows the goat to roam about in search of food and water .Under this system a goat can send for itself under any conditions either drought or rain.It requires a little care as no good housing, feeding , healt care are provided. This system is the cheapest , the animals are exposed to adverse conditions and can easily be stolen by thieves as they wander around.
Advantages of Extensive System of Rearing Goats
1. Low cost of feeding - There will be no or low cost of feeding due to that goal goes around to find food.
2. Low cost of labour - Farmer won't stress itself much because the goats will care for themselves.
3. Low capital investment - The owner of the goat using extensive System will spend less as he would just buy the house as the goat moves around.
Disadvantage of the extensive system of rearing goats
1. Animals fall victim of thieves and other predators.
2. There will be lots of effort needed to control animals.
3. The productivity of animals will be low e.g low growth in milk production and meat.
4. It is difficult for goats under this system to go for crossbreeding .
5. It is difficult to control disease outbreak.
2. Semi-intensive system : In this system of rearing goats, they are provided housing which protect the goat from adverse weather conditions like rain, cold, heat etc. However, they are allowed to go out and graze in the pasture which is fenced round the goat house. In some cases ,the goat will be provided food like grass, household waste and remnants. This system is common in Africa. This system requires a little capital but large labour.
3. Intensive System : In this system, goats are confined within a building with limited access to grazing. As a result of this confinement, medications , water, balanced feed in terms of forage plants, salt lick to provide the necessary minerals and vitamins are provided. This system saves labour, increases production due balaced diet, maintains good records, and reduces mortality. However, this system requires high capital expenditure in terms of feeding, medication and housing.
Housing for Goats
Goats should be offered protection against ba weather conditions, predators and ideal environment for the development of the animals.The common features of animals include:
1. Goat house must have shade and protection against sun and rain.
2. The walls of goats house should be made of bricks,mud or wood.
3. The must be well ventilated and kept dry.
4. Bedding materials for goats should be straw,wood and shavings etc. The materials to use must me very absorbent.
5. The roof of goat should be made of metal sheets, asbestos sheet or plant material.
6. Each house should be provided with a hay-rack or manger for feeding feeding hay or silage.
Feeding of Goats
1. Goat feed must be balanced diet, i.e the feed must contain proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals to make their growth rapid.
2. A goat feeds mainly roughages, i.e grasses,fodder plants.
3. Goats can feed with household and kitchen wastes.
4. Goats can feed on grasses like carpet grass, giant star grass etc, and fodder crops like ground-nut, cowpea, styllonsanthes app, etc
5. Feeding of animals should be provided in accordance to their production, e.g, colostrum for kids, while pregnant and lactating goats need more feed that those dey goats.
6. Rotational grazing can also be practised, where by the goats are moved in paddocks as they graze on pastures.
Health Care and Sanitation
Common routines measures should be adopted for goat health care and sanitations which includes;
1. The goats house should be washed and cleaned daily.
2. Dead animals should be buried far away.
3. The environment should be clean at all the time.
4. Goats should be dewormed always.
5. Sick goats should be isolated and treated urgently.
The common disease of goats include;
anthrax,fever, red water, rinderpest, tuberculosis, brucellosis etc. Drugs and vaccinces should be administered by good veterinary doctor at appropriate time.
Management of Goat
The management of goat from breeding to market weight is grouped into three phases.These are:
1. From breeding to kidding
2. From kidding to weaning size
3. From weaning to market size.
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