THE goat sector has been recognised as having great potential to contribute to poverty alleviation and improved livelihoods for farmers in remote areas.
Government has placed a new focus on this sector for food security, income growth and economic development.
Below are some tips for consideration when rearing goats:
Feeding
Farmers depend on natural grazing lands to feed their goats.
However, these feed resources become limited in quantity and also vary with the prevailing weather conditions.
During dry seasons, grazing lands lose feed quality and are not sufficient to maintain goats in healthy condition.
Feed shortages are common during the months of July to November.
Dry season feeding is of high priority to them in order to alleviate feed shortages and ensure the survival of goats.
Farmers supplement their small stock nutrition during dry seasons, contrary to the assumption that goats survive from grazing lands alone.
Most farmers use supplementary feed legume residues such as groundnut, cowpea and hay or cereal crop residues like sorghum and maize.
Some farmers improve nutrition of their goats by cutting and carrying legume trees or collecting acacia pods.
Farmers also purchase commercial feeds.
Despite farmers’ efforts in mainly using locally available material, goats’ body conditions deteriorate during dry periods.
Improving animal nutrition to reduce dry season mortality and augment animal condition will require access to information and support services, as well as inputs.
Farmers might have access to alternative feed sources, but lack the know-how regarding processing and storage.
Animal health
Farmers should have a basic understanding of goats’ diseases, prevention and treatments.
Most goats’ diseases are rife during the dry season, which could be due to poor nutrition and subsequent poor body condition.
Common diseases during the dry season are pulpy kidney (enterotoxaemia), internal parasites, tick-borne diseases and eye problems.
Diseases rife during the rain season include foot rot, tick-borne diseases and pulpy kidney.
Internal parasites are a common problem throughout the year.
Disease prevention and treatment can involve traditional, non-conventional and conventional methods.
For effective disease prevention and treatment, farmers need access to information on farm-level disease management and they also need access to relevant support services (animal healthcare clinics) and inputs (vaccines, dipping, dosing and medical care).
The frequent use of traditional medicines is, however, not a reflection of farmers’ deep indigenous knowledge, but rather exists by default as the inputs and know-how to apply the other methods are either inaccessible or unaffordable.
Housing
Most farmers house their goats in open kraals.
Appropriate shelter can prevent many goat diseases and reduce mortality rates, especially for goat kids.
Goat kids are highly vulnerable to cold and wet periods and soon succumb to exposure.
Foot rot is a common problem during the wet season when goats are housed in muddy or water-logged conditions.
Dry, well-ventilated housing is highly effective in reducing deaths during the wet season.
Many farmers are not aware that very effective goat shelters can be built from local materials costing little more than the price of labour.
Proper housing would protect animals against wind, cold, disease risks, rain and muddy conditions which prevail during the rainy season.
Breeding and husbandry
Maintaining and improving a good breeding stock is an important element to goat management.
However, although farmers see the importance of improved breeding, uncontrolled breeding is practiced in communal areas, compromising planning for mating periods and selection for quality criteria.
As a result, goats tend to kid any time of the year.
Under controlled mating, kidding could coincide with periods of better feed availability or planned supplementary feeding.
Farmers should maintain their own breeding buck.
In most of the flocks with a breeding buck the proportion of males to females is very low, that is 1:7 as opposed to the recommended ratio of 1:25.
Many farmers do not realise the value of maintaining breeding bucks, as they cannot control access to their bucks.
Instead, they tend to castrate the males in their flocks as a measure of reducing straying or improving meat quality.
Farmers cull their goats, but this is mainly due to old age or poor condition, which does not improve the breeding quality.
Additional information from International Crops Research Institute of Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).