subject: How To Raise A Dairy Goat - Tips If You Don't Know Where To Start This Profitable Business [print this page] Dairy goats are small ruminants domesticated for their milk and meat, among other things. Dairy farming is a simple job and is very profitable. What follows are some tips about how to raise a dairy goat.
How to raise a dairy goat begins with understanding the goat. A female goat is called a doe, a male is a buck, and the young are kids. In temperate climates, a doe shows signs of seasonal breeding, mating in autumn and bearing children 5 months later. In tropical climates, this seasonal behavior is less marked and they can give birth three times in two years. In each pregnancy, two to four kids are born. Young ones reach maturity in about five months and can already give birth by 12 to 15 months.
Feeding dairy goats is also a low cost part of how to raise a dairy goat. The goat has four stomachs which digest food very efficiently. They get much of the nutrients in the food they eat and thus need relatively little food for proper growth. They have a high capacity for eating fibrous food such as barks, but must be given high protein forage such as legumes, hay, and alfalfa. Good quality hay must be given to goats regularly because it serves as their cheapest source of vitamins and minerals. Goats even eat vegetable peelings and leaves such as cauliflower, cabbage, carrot leaves, and turnip tops. These additional must be given together with, and not in place of, their regular diet.
In some farms, the forage diet is further supplemented with a mixture of different materials called concentrate. The concentrate is used to enhance their growth and keep them producing milk in good quality and quantity. This concentrate can be a mixture of seeds and other materials such as cottonseed meal, rice bran, cassava waste and other farm by-products.
The goat is a very sturdy animal and can survive even with minimum supervision, while still producing good milk. How to raise a dairy goat is indeed very easy. Occasional inspection is all that's needed to ensure these animals serve their farms owners well.
How To Raise A Dairy Goat - Tips If You Don't Know Where To Start This Profitable Business
