Description and characteristics of Gorky goats, pros and cons and care
The Gorky breed of white goats is well known to the villagers. These are small (about half a meter in height) animals that give 1-3 liters of tasty and fatty milk per day. Goats almost do not get sick if they are kept clean and eat quality food. These animals tolerate subzero temperatures well, are very mobile and give birth to 2-3 kids annually.
History of the breed
Goats of the Gorky breed appeared from the crossing of Russian goats with Saanen goats, which were brought privately at the end of the 19th century to the Nizhny Novgorod province (Gorky region) from Switzerland. The result is white animals with high rates of fertility and productivity.
Officially, the new breed was registered only under Soviet rule. In the middle of the 20th century, the Gorky goats gained popularity among the rural population of the USSR. Animals are still bred today. This breed was loved for its unpretentiousness, high productivity and fertility.
Description and productivity
Appearance (exterior) and characteristics of the Gorky breed:
- color - white (gray tan marks are possible);
- the coat is short, smooth, with a slight downy undercoat;
- the body is trapezoidal, the belly is barrel-shaped;
- chest girth - 70-77 cm;
- body length - 65-70 cm;
- the head is small, with a beard and earrings, the ears are narrow and erect, the neck is of medium length;
- legs are parallel to each other;
- females are usually hornless, males have small horns;
- height at the withers - 62 cm, at the sacrum - 67 cm;
- rounded udder (with noticeable milk veins on the belly), with two cylindrical nipples;
- female weight - 40-45 kg;
- the weight of males is 55-65 kg;
- females give birth to 2-3 goats;
- lactation lasts almost 10 months;
- in one lactation period, one female gives more than 500 kg of milk;
- daily milk yield - 1-3 liters each;
- fat content of milk - 4.5-5.5 percent;
- slaughter meat yield - 45 percent;
- 250 g of wool is cut from one animal per year.
Pros and cons
Features of maintenance and care
Gorky goats tolerate the temperate continental climate well. Throughout the warm season (from early spring to late autumn), animals can be grazed on pasture. Goats love to explore the area, rarely graze in one place. These mobile animals often eat leaves from shrubs and trees.
In the room for winter maintenance, it is necessary to equip a nursery, a feeder and a drinker. Straw is laid on the floor. The litter is changed as it gets dirty (every day). The room where animals are kept must always be dry, warm and clean. It is better to equip windows under the ceiling. Milk yield indicators will depend on the length of daylight hours in winter (goats do not eat in the dark).
Feeding
Gorky goats are ruminants. Their main food is grass in summer, hay in winter. Supplements (vegetables, grains) are given in small quantities. It is important for the stomach to function properly and to produce a large amount of milk that animals consume a lot of grass and hay. In summer, it is advisable to graze goats in the pasture. One animal eats up to 8 kg of grass per day. Preferred vegetation - legumes and grasses.
As a top dressing for the Gorky goats, you can give finely chopped vegetables, beet tops, grain mixtures. You need to water the animals 2 times a day (a bucket of water). Milk depends on the amount of liquid.
In winter, the animals are given hay. They are fed 2-3 times a day. As a top dressing during this period, you can give straw, finely chopped vegetables, grain mixtures (barley, oats, corn), compound feed, branches. One animal eats up to 2.5 kg of hay, 1 kg of vegetables, 0.3 kg of grain mixture per day. In winter, the diet of Gorky goats should include sweetened water, salt, branches of coniferous trees and pharmacy vitamin and mineral preparations.
Breeding
Puberty in goats occurs by 5-8 months. True, it is advisable to inseminate females later. The optimal age for fertilization is 13-18 months. Pregnancy in a female lasts 5 months. It is desirable to have animals in late autumn, then the kids will be born in early spring, and in the summer they can be grazed in the pasture.
A pregnant female is transferred 2 months before giving birth to dead wood and slowly stops milking. Milking is completely stopped 30 days before lambing. The female gives birth to 2-3 goats at a time. The goat gives birth on its own, without human help. Immediately after birth, the kids should drink colostrum.
In the first days of life, the cubs feed 5 times a day. Then - three times a day. In the first weeks after birth, suckling goats are practiced. Then the animals are transferred to artificial feeding, and the females are handed out. Cubs should feed on mother's milk for up to 3 months. In the first decade of life, the kids begin to try plant food. Usually in the summer, young animals are grazed in the meadow, and closer to winter they are sent for slaughter or sold. A dairy goat is kept for up to 10 years, the peak of productivity in females occurs at 3-4 years of age.
Diseases
Gorky goats hardly get sick. These animals have excellent immunity. At 3 months of age, animals are vaccinated against infectious diseases (foot and mouth disease, smallpox, brucellosis, anthrax, rabies).
Major diseases and treatment:
- mastitis, inflammation of the udder (occurs due to keeping on a dirty bedding, injuries, with improper milking) - is treated with a diet, thinning drugs ("Oxytocin), milking, antibiotics;
- Tympania, or the accumulation of gases in the rumen (due to the use of a large amount of legumes covered with dew) - is treated by stimulating the reduction of the scar, inserting a probe into the esophagus, infusing milk into the inside;
- ketosis (due to an excess of grain feed) - is treated with a diet, the use of coniferous branches, sweetened water, vitamin and mineral preparations.
