Goat farming is a common farming business in Africa. Goat farming is highly profitable and sustainable and many farmers can conveniently do this business without restrictions in Africa. Goat is ruminant animals popularly reared for the Goat meat, skin, hide and milk. When we talk about the richest milk in the world, Goat milk comes in handy. It has the highest quality and nutrients even than goat’s milk.
In west Africa, Goats are one of the most popular animals when it comes to rearing livestock. So, the high population of farmers investing in Goat rearing can never be wrong at the same time.
If you are someone that never thought of goat farming and managing Goats farm because you think they are very difficult to maintain, you better reshape that idea. Let’s even say they are one of the easiest animals when it comes to livestock management. They are also very gifted with different features that can be purposeful later on.
This article contains a detailed description of what Goat farming looks like and how profitable it can be if properly monitored.
The Importance Of Goat Farming?
Farmers that take Goat farming as their main livestock do that for several reasons. These reasons are what their yield will be like after culturing the Goat from the kid to maturity stage. Below are some of the important reasons Goat are reared.
1. Food Production: Goats serve as a source of food. The goat meat is high in numerous minerals.
2. Source of income: Goat meat is rare compared to other livestock meat. This means that you can have a lot of customers to yourself. Also, you can sell hides and skin from goats to industries if you have large investments in livestock. You can also sell their kids maybe once a year because they give produce twins or triplets about three times a year.
3. Milk Production: Doctors do advise their patients that they should give their young kid Goat milk. This is because it is the most nutritious milk when it comes to dairy farmers. It is also rare and you can earn from it by selling to other people around you.
4. Low Feeding Cost and Capital: There is something peculiar about their kind of food. You can easily feed them with any of your homemade food or food remains. But buying them their feed might be more healthy to their lifestyle. The feed itself is very cheap no matter where you are buying it. It becomes easier to rear Goat since they graze ok grasses as well and they can help in resolving the effect of weeds and forage crops around their farm.
5. For festivals: In west Africa, we are known for a lot of festivals where different sacrifices are made. During these festivals, animals like dogs, goats and others are used as offerings to the Gods. So, Goat can also be a means of purity during sacrifices, festivals and offerings.
6. For Research: Goats are one of those lab animals. They are used for testing different drugs and the latest innovations in many industries. These results from the research carried out on Goats are used to educate students and learners. Even though research is the only way to get the mainstream behind the high quality of Goats milk.
How To Manage Goat Farming Business
Managing your livestock is important. This will help you to monitor their health and lifestyle later on. This is the reason we are bringing this up.
There are three main categories when it comes to the management of Goats and profiting from the management. Below are the categories through the ich the management of goats will pass to mature and finally become a product of a profitable market.
1. Breeding To Birth
Just like human beings, goats also should be taken care of as well. They should be well fed, bred and treated so they can give birth to healthy kids. The male and the female Goat (Buck and Doe) are specifically involved in these.
First of all, you have to keep your Goat in a proper housing unit. This can be a well-ventilated building made with planks and the floor should be hard. Now you will bring in two different goats (male and female) of about 12 months – 12 months is necessary for breeding purposes. A week before you allow them to mate give the doe (female) a lot of nutritious feeds to improve the proficiency of their birth.
During the heat period of the Goats, ensure that you perform the hand mating of the goats first before they can be having the necessary matings together. Immediately you notice any pregnancy factor, just know that the gestation period of about 145-150 days has started (5 months). The doe should be given nutritious food, free grazing around the farm and celeb drinkable ways.
After about 120, you can start your preparation for the new kid. Sanitation, clean water, food, adequate Livestock supplement and proper bedding should be available.
2. Birth of kid to weaning
After the birth of the kid, the next step is to monitor and enhance the growth of the new kid. The kid will need the farmers to help to suckle colostrum for its first 3 days of living After it has been able to manage itself on the colostrum, the next step is to give it the creep feed which contains virtually every component to improve growth. The kids should also be vaccinated and prevented from all these disease-causing organisms. Also, the environment should be kept clean. Finally, you can start giving roughages and energy giving foods to improve animal growth.
3. Finishing To market
After 8 weeks the kid can have their independence and now can be productive like their mothers. Theresas the period most Africans leave them to graze around and enjoy their lifestyle. Just provide the right housing, proper feeding and adequate care, you are going to generate a lot of return from it.
Nevertheless, you can market your Goat products at ofarms.ng. This is the safest marketplace where you can market your agro-products for free without any problem.
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