Keeping A Goat In The Country

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

The hassle of keeping this pet in the country pays off with tasty and healthy milk

Goats are animals, one might say, multipurpose. They are bred to produce milk, meat and various types of raw materials (down, wool, skins for sheepskins and leather). Depending on this, four main "goat" directions are distinguished: dairy, down, wool and coarse-wool mixed (milk, down and wool - a little bit of everything).

Dairy goats give 450-550 kilograms of milk per year. Its fat content is 3.8-4.5 percent. In the best farms, with proper feeding and maintenance, milk yield reaches up to a thousand kilograms. Goat milk is a very valuable, easily digestible product, especially valuable for the nutrition of children and people with stomach diseases. Compared to cow's milk, goat's milk is more high-calorie, contains more dry matter, fat, proteins, mineral salts. It is also used for processing into cheese and dairy products (yogurt, cottage cheese, kefir). Goat milk products have a delicate taste. True, the oil is poorly stored.

Goat meat is equivalent to mutton in nutritional and taste qualities. The carcass of a fattened goat contains 20-28 kilograms of meat and 4-6 kilograms of lard. In the carcass of a 7-10-month-old kid, respectively, 12 and 1.5 kilograms. From goats of a down breed, a fleece of down is obtained up to 0.2-0.5 kilograms. The maximum is up to two kilograms. Goat down is of exceptional fineness (15-20 microns), softness, relative strength and low thermal conductivity. It is used for knitting openwork shawls (famous Orenburg) and shawls.

The wool of specialized wool breeds, primarily Angora, is homogeneous, characterized by high strength, elasticity, elasticity and strong silky sheen, excellent spinning qualities and good dyeing ability. This wool is known as mohair. Angora wool in its pure form and mixed with sheep's wool is used for the manufacture of high-grade drapes, plush, velvet, suiting fabrics, carpets, as well as for various knitwear. Fur-type goats are made from the skins of these goats. Leather goats are processed into premium chevro, chrome and other types of leather. A husky is made from the skins of goats.

It is clear that the villagers, summer residents who keep goats, are unlikely to be able to achieve high milk yield, fleece of wool and down, because the overwhelming majority of their animals are outbred. The livestock is very diverse according to breed characteristics: this includes various local goats. They give a little milk - 100-200 liters per year, a small fleece of fluff - 75-150 grams, a low cut of coarse wool - 0.5-1.2 kilograms and a small meat carcass. Their live weight is 30-45 kilograms. But in order to get the maximum benefit from these even outbred goats, it is necessary to feed and maintain them properly.

The goat house should be dry, clean, spacious, bright, well ventilated, warm in winter and cool in summer. Goats are not afraid of the cold, but they do not tolerate dampness, drafts, stuffy, stale air. In a damp stuffy room, they often get sick (especially young animals), their hair is steamed and begins to shed prematurely. In winter, the normal temperature in the goat's rue is 6-7 degrees Celsius. The windows in it should be arranged at a height of at least 1.8 meters from the floor so that the goat cannot break glass with its horns. The floor should be wooden, made of well-planed boards, tightly fitted together.

It is necessary to whitewash the walls in the goat's house several times during the year. This measure is necessary not only for cleanliness, but also for disinfection of the premises. For whitewashing, a kilogram of quicklime is diluted in one bucket of water. Do not keep chickens in the same room with goats, as cutaneous parasites can pass from them. Young goats from the age of five months should be kept in a separate room from the goats.

Now, when, we will consider, the necessary room for goats is selected, it is necessary to learn how to feed them correctly. Goats need to be fed three times a day: in the morning at 6-7 hours, in the afternoon at 12-13, in the evening at 18-19 hours. The intervals between feedings should be the same if possible. Goats are milked after or during feeding. The main feed for goats is grass of natural pastures, aftermath (grass that grew in the same year on the site of the mowed), hay, silage, straw and concentrates. Grass of pastures is the main and cheapest summer food for goats. Its nutritional value depends on the botanical composition of the herbage and the growing season of the plants. The more legumes and cereals in the herbage, the higher the nutritional value of the green forage.

Young grass is rich in calcium and vitamins, especially carotene. That is, such substances that the goat's body needs for normal development. Pasture feed is digested in the goat's body by 75-85 percent. Silage, potatoes, rutabagas, fodder beets, carrots, turnips are used as succulent feed and as a source of vitamin A (carotene). Such feeds are not only well digested by animals themselves, but also contribute to the digestion of others, especially roughage. Together with succulent feed, goats also eat well straw.

Quite often (especially in winter) concentrated feed is used for feeding goats. They are high in nutrients but low in vitamins and minerals. Therefore, in order to diversify the diet of animals, it is necessary to strive to use as many different feeds as possible. The more varied their composition, the more complete it is. In addition, dried tree brooms with leaves can be substituted for up to half of the total amount of roughage a goat needs. Three to five dry brooms of birch, poplar, willow, willow, aspen, ash, linden, acacia, mountain ash (each weighing about two kilograms) are equivalent to a kilogram of medium-quality meadow hay. Goat brooms are harvested in June-July. Goats can be fed young spruce shoots (spruce leg), which contain many vitamins.

In a personal subsidiary farm, you can successfully feed food waste: potato peelings, tops of vegetables, the remains of liquid dishes: soups, borscht. The approximate daily rations of a dairy goat are given in the diagram (in kilograms):

one.	Medium quality hay - 2.5 Root crops (fodder beets, pumpkin, cabbage) - 1.5 Wheat bran - 0.4 Flaxseed cake - 0.1
2.	Clover hay - 2.0 Oat straw - 0.5 Juicy forage - 1.5 Wheat bran - 0.5
3.	Meadow or forest hay - 2.0 Spring straw - 0.6 Kitchen waste (thick) - 1.3 Bran or mixed feed - 0.7

In addition to the main product - milk, down is also obtained from goats. It must be collected during natural moulting before stalling and clogging up with spine. Awn - long and coarse hair, among others, shorter. The fluff is usually combed out twice: the first time at the beginning of the molt and the second time after 15-20 days. The down of the first is valued higher than the second, since it contains almost no guard (coarse) fibers. It is necessary to brush in a clean, dry, bright room. To comb out the fluff, they carefully put the goats on their side on a table and tie three legs: two front and one back. You can also tie the goats by the horns and neck to a post and comb out the fluff in this position.

Goat fluff combs

First, the fluff is combed out with rare combs (Figure 1, position a), while vegetable debris, manure are removed from the fleece, and a small part of the fluff is combed out. Begin to comb first the neck, then the chest, shoulder blades and the back of the body on one side of the animal, then on the other. The resulting down is folded separately.

In the same sequence, the main fluff is combed out with frequent combs (Figure 1, position b). Combs can be made from steel wire with a diameter of 2-3 millimeters. It is fixed on a wooden spatula: in a rare comb 6-8 teeth, in a frequent comb - 14-16 teeth. The comb is led in the direction of growth of the braids from top to bottom - from the back to the stomach. Do not apply too much pressure to the comb to avoid injury to the skin.

After the second time, the goats can be sheared. Goats of all breeds are sheared in spring. The timing of shearing depends on weather conditions, the fatness of the animals, the time of lambing of the queens, and so on …

Wet animals should not be sheared, as raw wool quickly warms up and deteriorates. If the animals are wet, then they must be allowed time to dry. Sheared goats should be protected from colds and sunburn. Therefore, in the first days after shearing, during strong winds, cold rain and during the hottest part of the day, animals should be kept indoors.

Summer residents who are going to keep a dairy goat should in no case buy it as a "pig in a poke". An informed, correct choice is required.

What qualities can serve as a criterion?

First of all, you need to pay attention to the origin, body shape, signs of milkiness and age. The goat must be strong, hardy and fertile. A healthy goat has a vigorous appearance, shiny smooth coat covering the body, strong bones and dense thin skin. A good dairy goat has a deep, fairly wide chest, a wide straight back, rounded ribs, a voluminous belly, wide-set straight legs with a strong hoof horn. The body is slightly barrel-shaped.

The udder of a dairy goat should be spherical or pear-shaped, not overgrown with wool, elastic to the touch. After milking, the skin on the glandular milk udder becomes covered with fine wrinkles. If a goat's udder remains large after milking, it is considered fat and is not able to produce a large amount of milk. A drooping udder that dangles from side to side when walking, and an udder that is divided into two lobes or with short teats are considered vicious.

The shape and length of the ears, the color, the presence or absence of earrings on the neck, or other signs not associated with milkiness are not of practical importance when choosing a goat.

Goats usually show the highest milk yield after the second or third goat. So, choosing a goat, do not make a mistake, and then you will have a source of such rare and extremely healthy products as milk, meat, yogurt, cottage cheese and kefir.