Where to start if you decide to have a goat for milk and maintenance rules
How to get a goat for milk, meat, fluff, where to start - this question interests many. This animal is profitable to breed. It has little to eat and gives at least 2 liters of milk per day. You need to feed the goat three times a day, milk it in the morning and evening. You can buy a meat breed, feed it with grass and slaughter it for meat during the summer season. True, such goats are very expensive, because almost no one breeds them in our area.
Breed selection
People who live in rural areas or have a house, summer cottage and their own pasture near the city can afford to have a goat. This animal gives tasty and very fatty milk, from which sour cream, feta cheese, cheese, cottage cheese, butter are obtained. Dairy products have a sweet, creamy taste and a light shade. Animals are brought up to have their own milk and not buy it in the store.
You can also get delicious tender meat, beautiful skin and warm fluff from goats. The milk of these animals is unlikely to be sold; only children drink it. Pig or calf meat is more likely to be bought in the market than goat. Pelt and goat hair or down are not that expensive. Goats, if they are given birth, are only for personal needs, but not for commercial purposes.
Dairy
Most often, goats are raised for milk. For this purpose, they buy dairy animals (Czech brown, Toggenburg, Zaanen, Russian, Gorky, Alpine, Megrelian Nubian). They begin to milk after the first lambing. About 4-5 liters of milk are given per day. The life span of animals is 8-12 years.
For breeding, it is better to buy young goats that are already being milked. They cost, depending on the breed, about $ 300 and more, outbreds - $ 50-100. When buying, pay attention to the udder of the animal. It should have a pear-shaped or bowl-shaped elastic shape, medium-sized nipples, well-visible milk veins. A doughy or loose udder is a sign of a non-dairy breed. It is recommended to milk the goat during the purchase. After milking, the udder should fall off in folds, which will indicate the absence of fatty deposits.
When buying young goats from the age of 4 months, you should immediately think about a goat. After all, the goat begins to milk only after the first lambing. The goat is crossed at 12-18 months, and the pregnancy lasts another 5 months. Only then will she start giving milk. True, you can milk a virgin goat.
Downy
Lovers of hand knitting and craftswomen can buy a down breed. These animals will still give at least 2 liters of milk per day. Downy goats: Orenburg, Don, Gorno-Altai, Angora, cashmere. They cost no less than $ 300.
In the downy breed, the coat consists of coarse awn and soft down. The down is combed out to goats during molting. In the spring, some downy breeds (except Angora) are cut their wool. About 500 grams of fluff are combed from one animal per season. Its quality depends on nutrition, conditions of detention and age. Yarn is made from down, from which clothes or various things (blankets, capes) are knitted.
Meat
Goats of this breed are bred solely for the sake of meat: Turkish, Andalusian, Boer, Kalahara, Kiko. Adult animals weigh 50-90 kilograms. At the age of 5-6 months, the weight reaches 20-30 kg, and the young can be sent to slaughter. If you buy a goat in the spring and graze in the meadow all summer long, then in the fall it can already be slaughtered for meat. Indeed, an animal gains up to 500 grams per day.
Usually beef goats are kept for 8-12 months and slaughtered. If kept longer, the meat becomes tough. The benefits are obvious: fast weight gain, minimal feed costs. True, the breeding animals themselves are expensive (from $ 300).
Decorative
In the courtyard of some summer residents, you can find small-looking goats, more like baby animals. This is a dwarf decorative breed. Such animals reach only 50 cm in height and weigh no more than 25 kilograms. But they are milked and give about 1.5 liters of milk per day. You can make delicious cheese from it. Milk is very fatty - 6-10 percent.
Decorative goats are kept even in the apartment, trained, taught to the tray. Common breeds: Cameroon, Nigerian, courtyard model. It is also beneficial to have decorative goats: they do not smell, eat little, have a friendly character, and are raised for milk and meat.
Preliminary preparation
Goats are kept in non-residential premises. It is not recommended to keep animals in the apartment. Goats, even dwarf ones, are very active, jumping, it is not easy to train them to the tray, besides, they will chew curtains, tablecloths, clothes.
Room requirements
To keep animals, they build a shed of wood, bricks, blocks, with an area of at least 4 square meters. meters. Indoors, even in the cold season, the temperature should be maintained at 15-20 degrees Celsius. After all, goats are milked almost all year round, and in the cold, milk yields decrease, and in the cold, animals can catch a cold. In winter, the room is heated with infrared lamps.
A straw bedding is laid on the floor. It changes as it gets dirty. Usually - once a day. If a goat sleeps on wet and dirty bedding, it can get sick. First of all, the udder will suffer, because of which milk production may stop altogether. Straw can be purchased from a local farmer.
Feeder and drinker
In the barn it is necessary to install a manger for hay and grass, a feeder for finely chopped vegetables and grains, and a water trough. You can drink goats from a bucket 1-2 times a day. The animals are given fresh water. If you do not follow sanitary rules, goats can be poisoned and sick. Drinking bowls, feeders, nurseries can be made by yourself or bought in a store.
Is it difficult to keep a goat
This animal requires constant attention. He needs to be fed 3 times a day, milked twice a day. You can't just leave the animal and leave. You will have to live with him for 8-15 years.But this animal looks like a dog, is quickly tamed, loves affection, has a friendly character. And it takes less money to keep a goat than a cow. After all, she eats little, but every day she gives milk.
In spring, summer and autumn
The easiest way to keep a goat is in the summer. During this period of the year, she can graze in the meadow all day. The main food is fresh grass. The animal eats up to 4 kg of green mass per day. It is desirable that it feeds on clover, timothy, fescue, and other cereal meadow grasses.
The goat is milked twice a day - in the morning and in the evening. After the morning milking, the animal is taken to the pasture when the morning dew dries up. At lunchtime, you can bring him to the barn and give him some finely chopped vegetables (carrots, beets, pumpkin), then you need to bring him out to the meadow again.
In spring and autumn, animals are also grazed outside, but only in warm weather. In cold and rainy weather, goats must stay in the barn or they will get sick. In early spring and late autumn, they are fed with hay and vegetables prepared in advance. A little grain is added as an additive.
In winter
Goats should be kept indoors throughout the winter. It is better not to take them outside in frost, animals can catch cold. Keeping goats in the winter isn't too difficult. They need to put hay in the nursery three times a day. Vegetables, silage, grain, branches of conifers are given as top dressing. Milk - 1, and sometimes 2 times a day.
One animal eats up to 4 kg of hay per day. A bucket or half a bucket of water is given twice a day. For the winter, you need to prepare 500 kg of hay. In winter, the goat is given pharmaceutical mineral and vitamin preparations, a salt stone for licking.
Features of keeping dairy goats
The animal begins to milk after the first lambing. Goats are mated at the age of 12-18 months. Pregnancy lasts 5 months. During this period, they are given more nutritious food (hay, grass, vegetables). After lambing, the first milk goes to feed the kid. After two weeks, the goat is milked twice a day: morning and evening. Together with the uterus, the kid should be up to three months old. Then he is transferred to an independent feed.
No grazing
In large farms, goats are kept without grazing all year round. In summer they are fed with freshly cut grass, in winter - with hay, silage and vegetables. It is recommended that animals that do not graze in the meadow be given vitamin preparations, including vitamin D, as well as minerals.
Basic rules of care
The animals are fed three times a day. The main food is grass and hay. Milk twice a day: morning and evening. After milking, they give half a bucket of water. Animals must be kept warm and clean. Once a day, they change the bedding (straw) to dry. Animals at the age of 3-4 months are vaccinated against brucellosis, anthrax, rabies, smallpox, foot and mouth disease. Antiparasitic drugs (Ivermek) are given twice a year.
How many years are kept for milk
The goat begins to milk after the first lambing. The animal is ready to mate at 12-18 months. Pregnancy lasts 5 months. The goat's first milk is given in the second year of life. They are milked for about 10 years, the peak is at the age of 5, then the milk yield drops.
Every year the goat needs to be covered, otherwise the amount of milk will decrease.
How to milk an animal correctly
The goat is milked two weeks after the first lambing. Before milking, the udders are washed with warm water and dried with a paper towel. A favorite treat is poured into the feeder to distract the animal. For the first time, the goat can be capricious, throw the bucket. Over time, she will get used to it, and will behave calmly.
The animal is milked by hand or using a milking machine. During milking, you do not need to pull on the nipples, they are simply squeezed with a fist or thumb and forefinger, squeezing a stream of milk into a bucket. One milking takes 5-15 minutes. After milking, the udder is washed again with warm water.
