How to raise goats at home?

Keeping dairy goats will provide the family with a healthy hypoallergenic drink. Breeding goats at home for novice breeders will not seem difficult. Of all pets, the goat is considered the most unpretentious. However, a restless animal can spoil the relationship between neighbors for a long time, if negligent in the content is allowed.

How to start keeping a goat in a household

Dairy goat breeds are often bred. If the purpose of care is to obtain valuable Angora fluff, you need to choose a meat-fluff breed for breeding. For breeding, you can buy a suyagnaya uterus on drifts or grown kids. It is better to purchase a litter or a goat from the uterus, which has already confirmed its positive properties - the quality of milk or the beauty of the fleece. These properties are passed on to the offspring through the maternal line.

Have chosen a future wet nurse - arrange her residence. Keeping goats at home for novice breeders is easy to organize. Typically, goats are kept half in stall and range. The shed will need to be dry and draft-free. There should be a thick layer of bedding, a bench or a block on the floor for lying in a clean, dry place. In the flock, the goat is kept loose.

Hay in the trough and water in the basin is the minimum set. If the goat is drifting, the owner must know the time of lambing. If young animals are purchased, the females are kept separately and the first mating occurs at the age of one and a half years.

The yield of offspring directly depends on the origin of the producer. If he is born from a dairy goat, the offspring will also have a lot of milk in the udder.

If the newborn is taken to a warm house immediately after lambing, the mother will not accept him. She has to lick every lamb.

In summer, goats are grazed or fed with freshly cut grass. But the unlimited growth of hooves will force at least 4 hours a day to walk the animal or regularly grind the hooves. When there is no pasture, hay, compound feed and root crops are used. In winter, the lack of hay when feeding goats with compound feed cannot be replaced. The temperature in the flock should not fall below 10 C, for newborn kids, at least 12 degrees.

The pen where the goat was placed must be strong. She will definitely explore all corners and try to leave. If the goat makes a further route through the fence to the neighbors, there will be a scandal. They graze animals in herds under the supervision of a goat-keeper, or tied to a peg. They talk affectionately with the animals, treating them with a crust of bread and salt.

Unpretentious animal eats:

weeds after weeding;
kitchen waste;
chopped root vegetables;
straw, hay, meadow grass.

The minimum information about breeding goats at home gives an idea of goats for a beginner. In the future, you will need to acquire skills in caring, get acquainted with the diet of feeding and raising kids.

Breeding, keeping, caring for goats at home

Good strong offspring are obtained from a goat in the early spring period. To do this, mating should be carried out at the beginning of autumn. A goat in hunting happens with a male not on a related line. If mating has not occurred, after 15-22 days the animal will worry again. The offspring will appear in 147-150 days. You need to take the kids right. They wipe the baby, remove mucus from the nose and mouth, let the goat lick, apply to the udder or milk colostrum in the first hour after birth. If the temperature in the maternity ward is less than 15 degrees, the kids are taken to a warm room and the umbilical cord is treated and disinfected with iodine. If the kids are suckled, they stay with their mother in a warm room and then the milk goes to feed the suckers. When breeding goats, suckling specimens give healthier and more numerous offspring. When creating a herd, milk can be donated in the first year.

With artificial feeding, the kids after birth are not allowed near the mother's udder and are fed from the nipple. In order not to make a mistake in feeding the kids from the first days of life, use the table.

At three months, the baby already becomes an adult and receives food from a different diet. At five months, young goats already have a hunt. To give a young body to grow stronger, mating is allowed after one and a half years.

The table shows how to feed the kids at 2 months, how to gradually accustom the kids to cereals, concentrates and root crops. Three-month-old goats should receive feed and supplements:

green forage from grass, shrub branches;
rough - hay, straw, dry birch brooms;
fermented green mass - silage;
compound feed;
crushed grain;
vitamins and minerals.

You need to keep the goats separately and castrate them in time. Keeping a dairy goat near the goat will give the milk an unpleasant odor. Therefore, the goat's aviary should be away from the dairy herd.

Adult animals should receive food that is seasonally balanced. Summer grass is irreplaceable in pastures. But it is impossible to graze animals in swampy areas, hooves will hurt. However, except for goats, no one can cope with clearings overgrown with bushes, steep mountain slopes, inconveniences. The goat will find food where large animals cannot crawl through. They gladly eat the young aftermath after harvesting the fields. An adult animal eats 6-7 kg per day, kids 2-4 kg of grass. If there is little feed in the fields, animals need to be fed in the evenings. The pen should always have a lick and drink twice a day.

In winter, goats eat dry feed, root crops and compound feed. But brooms prepared in summer will become a delicacy and vitamin supplement. Spruce and birch branches, oak and hazel - everything is suitable for feeding the goat herd. Food and drink should be kept warm during the stall period. A mixture of bone meal and salt is added to each feed as a mineral supplement. Outdoor walks are a must.

So that animals in winter do not suffer from skin parasites, it is necessary to comb the goat every other day, once a week to moisten the wool with a solution of soda to protect it from lice. Hooves must be trimmed during the stall period.

Breeding goats at home for novice breeders will be the first step in providing a family with natural healing products and down.

Home goat farm - video

Goats are perhaps the most profitable animals for keeping on a private backyard. Breeding them is worth doing, if only because of their phenomenal unpretentiousness and very good productivity.

Goats: breeding, maintenance, care

In order for a goat breeding enterprise to be successful, you should:

Provide the animals with a comfortable place to spend the night in summer and winter.
Correctly develop a diet.
Know how to get healthy offspring and raise them.

Next, we will consider how to achieve the highest productivity from animals in more detail.

What should be a barn

So, the successful keeping of goats at home in terms of productivity is possible only if they are equipped with a comfortable home. These unpretentious animals do not require too large areas. However, even in cramped conditions, productivity can drastically decrease. When designing a barn, it should be borne in mind that one goat should have at least 1.2 m2 of area, for an adult goat-producer - 2 m2, for a goat - depending on age - 0.70-0.80 m2. If these parameters are met, the animals will feel good, which will certainly affect the amount of milk and the quality of the wool.

The room for keeping goats must be insulated without fail. The fact is that these animals do not very well tolerate too severe frosts and heat. The air temperature in the barn in winter should not fall below + 8 ... + 10 degrees, and in summer it should not rise above +20 degrees. The floor in the goat room is usually planked and sloped towards the entrance to drain urine. Next to the shed, you need to fence off a walking area at the rate of 2-4 m2 per head. The fence should have a height of about 2 m. In a small shed, designed for a couple of goats, one window will be enough for good lighting and ventilation. In large rooms, supply and exhaust ventilation is arranged.

Feeders and a place to sleep

Goats (breeding, maintenance, caring for which procedures are not particularly difficult) should live in good conditions. It is important not only to build a fairly spacious shed for them, but also to equip it correctly. The feeders should be placed at a certain height - 15-50 cm from the floor. In addition, you will need to arrange special shelves for rest. They are stuffed at a height of 30-40 cm from the floor level along the entire length of the wall. The width of the shelves is 60-70 cm. In a large shed, you can even arrange a large platform designed specifically for goats to sleep.

It is advisable for each animal to arrange a separate fenced-off enclosure, in which, in addition to a drinker and a feeder, install a large manger for hay. They do not throw it to the goats on the floor, since these animals are very active and the hay lying under their feet quickly trample.

Manufacturer's choice

So, what should be the conditions for keeping goats, we have found out. Now let's figure out how to choose the right manufacturers. Experienced farmers advise against purchasing a goat or a goat at the bazaar. It is better to look in the area for someone who is seriously involved in these animals, or contact the nearest licensed nursery. If the purchase is made for some reason on the market, in order to choose a good dairy goat, you will need:

First of all, carefully examine her udder. It should be large with medium length nipples. The best milkiness is distinguished by goats with a regular round or pear-shaped udder, not divided into two halves, not sagging and not flabby.

In order to make sure that the animal will produce tasty, odorless milk, you should scratch the fur between its horns with your fingers. If there is no smell from the hand after that, then everything is in order.
The age of a goat can be determined by giving it a crouton. The young animal will gladly accept the treat and eat it right there. An old goat will roll a biscuit in its mouth for a long time, waiting for it to get wet.

When buying kids, you should carefully examine their mother. The degree of productivity of these animals is very well inherited. You should also ask the seller about the conditions of keeping and feeding the kid. It is highly discouraged to change his diet drastically. Solitary keeping of a goat on the farm is practiced quite often. But since these animals are unusually sociable, it is worth buying not one kid, but at least a couple.

When to mate

The successful keeping of goats at home is possible only if the established rules for mating are observed. Puberty in goats occurs very early - at 6-7 months.However, up to a year, mating is highly discouraged. If you hurry with this, an immature goat will develop much worse after giving birth. The same goes for the offspring. It is best to have goats for the first time in a year and a half.

Reproduction

Goats, the maintenance and breeding of which must be carried out according to certain rules, are very active animals, there are usually no problems with obtaining offspring from them. Hunting usually occurs in autumn. During this period, mating is most often carried out. The uterus bears the kids for about five months. Consequently, when conceived in the fall, they will be born closer to spring. And this means that the owner does not have to additionally insulate the shed. In May-June, the kids will quickly gain weight on green pastures. Sometimes mating is carried out in the spring. In this case, the owners of the animals will have milk in the fall.

Newborn care

Newborn kids will need to cut the umbilical cord at a distance of 6-8 cm from the tummy. The remaining tip is smeared with iodine. You should also remove mucus from the mouth, nose and eyes of newborns with a clean cloth and place them under the goat so that she licks them. The uterus should be milked no later than 4 hours after delivery. Colostrum is fed to kids from a bottle with a rubber teat. In the first days, feeding in this way is carried out at least 4 times a day. A week later, they switch to a three-day diet (700 g of milk per day). At the age of one month, the dose should be already 1500 g, and at two months - 2000. At this time, the kids can be fed no more than twice a day. By the age of three months, the amount of milk drunk is reduced to 500 g per day. Further, the kids can be transferred to an adult diet.

Milking

The successful keeping of goats at home in terms of obtaining a large amount of milk is possible only if certain recommendations are followed. To improve the performance of animals, you will need:

Follow the feeding schedule punctually.
Provide only fresh, high-quality feed to goats.
Give animals enough water at a temperature of 10 degrees.
Refuse milking before feeding.

Keeping domestic goats in winter

In the cold season, adult animals should receive coarse, concentrated and juicy feed. An approximate feeding schedule is as follows:

In the morning, they give concentrates (crushed cereals), juicy feed (carrots, beets - raw, potatoes - boiled). Next, the goat will need to be milked and put hay in the nursery.
At noon, the animals are fed with succulent feed - root crops or silage. After that, they milk again and add hay.
In the evening, they feed the crushed pieces and milk them.
At night, hay and one dried broom of deciduous tree branches are placed in the feeder. Spruce paws can also be given. They contain a lot of vitamins.

The goats are watered twice a day, 4 liters per head.

The amount of feed should be as follows:

Feed	Quantity
Hay	1.8-2.2 kg
Compound feed	0.5-1 kg
Carrot, beet tops, cabbage leaves	3-4 kg
Roots	2-4 kg

In addition, goats should be given feed additives, salt and chalk. Hay can be replaced with brooms in a double dose. Also, sometimes goats are fed in winter with fallen leaves collected in autumn. But it is not recommended to give too much of it. The number of birch brooms fed should be limited. They sometimes cause kidney inflammation in goats.

How much hay is needed

Mow the grass for the winter in June, during the flowering period or before it. One head will need to prepare about 380-420 kg of hay. You can mow and dry 200-250 kg, and fill the deficit with brooms. In this case, they will need about 400 kg.

Keeping goats in a warm barn in winter with proper feeding will allow you to get quite a lot of milk during this period of the year.

Pasture

Goats are driven to pasture in early spring. Transferring animals to a new diet should be gradual. To do this, at first, before pasturing, goats are fed with a small amount of hay and concentrated feed.

It is best to graze animals in elevated, fairly dry areas. They love odorous, tough types of grasses much more than the watery, tasteless ones growing in the lowlands. Goats are driven to the watering hole twice a day. In the very heat, they arrange rest. The pasture itself is divided into several sections. First, the goats are grazed on one, and then transferred to the other.

A special recreation area is set up on the pasture. From time to time, its location is changed, as it quickly becomes polluted with manure. Animals are driven home into the stall late in the evening. Thus, both woolen and dairy goats are fed in the summer. Keeping them in the warm season is not difficult at all. Many owners do not even feed the goats additionally, completely transferring them to a pasture diet.

Thus, keeping goats at home is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance. The main thing is to choose the right producers, develop a high-quality diet and follow the feeding and milking routine.

Goat breeding for beginners plays an important role in the farm. It provides products for family use and can also serve as a source of income.

Goats are quite unpretentious, but caring for them requires knowledge of many nuances. In order for these animals to be useful in the farm, it is important to follow the rules for their maintenance and breeding.

Breed selection

Before you start a goat, you need to decide on the goal... These animals have triple productivity, from them you can get fluff, milk and meat... The possible volume of each product depends primarily on the breed.

Dairy breeds

Getting milk is the most common goal in goat breeding. This product has a high price in the market and does not require high costs to obtain it. Therefore, when choosing, preference is most often given to dairy breeds. The most popular are:

alpine;
zaanen;
Toggenburg;
gorkovskaya;
Russian white;
Megrelian.

Representatives of this breed can produce up to 5 liters of milk per day. The highest milk yields are observed after the second birth and last throughout the rest of the childbearing age.

Downy breeds

Goat down lightweight, warm and soft, it competes even with sheep's wool. Each downy goat can produce from 350 to 700 grams of this product.

Also

In addition to down, goat skins are also popular, which are often used for sewing warm clothes. The most common downy breeds are:

near Don;
black down;
Orenburg;
Mountain Altai.

Meat breeds

Goat meat tastes as good as lamb meat, which makes it very popular on the market. To obtain a large number of products, you need to choose the breeds, the representatives of which are the most massive:

Boer;
gorkovskaya;
Zaanen.

The amount of meat products from each animal of these breeds varies from 75 to 115 kg.

Keeping and caring for goats

A particularly profitable factor in goat breeding is that any breed provides not only the main product, but also the accompanying ones. That's why goat breeding is very profitable... But you can get the desired amount of products only if the conditions for keeping these animals are observed.

The habitat of any breed of goat depends on the season. In summer they are found mainly in pastures. Goats are kept in stalls in winter. The room for their residence must meet several basic requirements.

The air must always be clean and fresh, this is achieved with the help of a well-established ventilation system.
During the day, the room should have a lot of light; in poor lighting, the amount of milk in goats will be low.
For kids, you need to highlight a separate segment, they should not be accommodated with adult animals.
The temperature regime in the room must be observed within 18-20 degrees.
The room should be large enough to allow the animals to move freely.Tying goats in a stall is highly undesirable.

These rules for keeping goats at home for beginner goat breeders are extremely important... Violation of any of them will lead to a decrease in the quality and quantity of products received. As a result, the maintenance of a goat in the household will quickly cease to pay for itself.

Goat care

For beginners, caring for these animals can seem quite daunting. But in reality, everything is not so scary. It is enough to observe a few basic rules how to care for goats at home.

The room should always be clean and dry. The wooden floor is covered with straw, and the concrete or brick floor is covered with peat. Manure should be removed 1-2 times a day, and it should be cleaned very carefully.
Goats need wooden loungers. To do this, in each stall, a flooring is made that rises above the floor level. On such sunbeds, the sleep of animals will be the most comfortable. It is only necessary to cover the decks with straw if they are intended for kids. Moreover, such a litter must be changed at least twice a day.
Goats need to have their hooves trimmed periodically. You should not be too zealous in this matter, as over-pruning can hurt the animal. You just need to shorten the hooves slightly as they grow back.

Nutrition

The diet and feeding system of goats should be given increased attention, only in this case it is possible to obtain the required amount of fluff, milk and meat. First of all, it is important to follow the regime. Goats need to be fed 2-4 times a day, at regular intervals, at the same time. Strict adherence to the regime will lead to increased productivity.

The main food depends on the season. In summer, the main part of the diet is fresh grass and tree branches that the goat independently receives during grazing. In addition to greens, you can give the animal vegetables, roots, food waste and concentrated feed. You can also add various vitamin and mineral complexes to the feed. But in small quantities, since the goat receives the bulk of the useful elements in the pasture.

In winter, there are problems with obtaining fresh greens. In addition, animals spend a lot of energy on heating the body, especially when they are in a poorly heated room. Therefore, in winter, the diet of goats consists of a lot of hay or straw, silage, grain, vegetables, root vegetables and concentrates soaked in brine. Vitamins and minerals must be added to the diet. Sprouted grains can be used as vitamins. A goat can get minerals from chalk and bone or fish meal.

In addition to the main food, in winter the goat should receive brooms from tree branches and salt, which can be licked. These two products must be placed in the stall at all times.

Particular attention should be paid to feeding pregnant and lactating goats. In the last two months of pregnancy, there is a very intensive growth of the fetus, so the expectant mother needs an increased amount of nutrients. The diet should contain a lot of protein, calcium and vitamins. Also, these substances are necessary during lactation. For the formation of the required amount of milk, the level of protein in the diet should be 30-40% higher than in the normal period of life.

Breeding goats at home

For novice goat breeders, the most difficult moment is, perhaps, breeding. However, this is a necessary process. The increase in the number of products is achieved not only by observing the rules of maintenance and care, but also by increasing the number of herds. There are three ways to do this:

buying kids;
buying a pregnant goat;
purchase of a herd for breeding.

If the first two methods do not raise any special questions, then the last one requires increased attention. But at the same time, it is he who will provide the fastest increase in livestock.

Goat puberty occurs at 6-7 months, but it is recommended to allow the female to mate no earlier than one and a half years. The best time for mating is September. Kids conceived this month will be born in the last days of February or early March. Thus, by the beginning of the grazing period, they will just get stronger.

To determine the presence of the possibility of mating, you need to pay attention to some symptoms:

the goat often bleats;
eats poorly;
the genitals swell a little, and mucus is secreted from them.

All these symptoms indicate the beginning of the hunting period, which is necessary for a successful mating. If fertilization did not occur during mating, then the same symptoms will reappear after 19-20 days. If there are no recurrent symptoms, this means a successful pregnancy. In order to make sure of this, you can try to bring the goat to the male. A pregnant female will certainly be kicked out. But the best test will be the delivery of a urine test in a veterinary clinic.

Upon reaching the three-month gestation period, the goat's belly enlarges on the right side. At this time, it is already possible to palpate the fetus. If at the time of pregnancy the goat was milking, then the amount of milk will be halved.

The birth of kids

Goat pregnancy lasts 145-155 days... At the end of this period, the animal begins to get nervous, prefers to be in a standing position, shows poor appetite. These signs mean the imminent birth of offspring. The birth process is fairly easy, but it still needs to be controlled.

For a start, you should stock up on iodine and scissors to cut the umbilical cord. Usually, a kid is born head first, while the front legs are extended. It is also possible for the baby to go outside, starting from the hind legs. Sometimes the kid is too large, in which case it is very difficult for the mother to give birth to it on her own. She can be helped in this matter. You need to wash your hands and grease them with petroleum jelly, and then gently pull the kid towards the mother's face.

Immediately after the baby is born, you need to cut the umbilical cord at a distance of 7-8 cm from the kid's belly and treat it with iodine. Also it is necessary to clear his respiratory tract and mouth of mucus... However, the goat can cope with the removal of the umbilical cord and mucus on its own. But still, it's better not to let it take its course.

Approximately an hour after the birth of the kids, you should expect the placenta to come out. It must be removed immediately. This completes the childbirth process. The goat must be drunk with sweetish water, and in a maximum of an hour and a half, make the first milking. In the first days, you need to milk 6 times, and in the next three times a day.

Raising kids

Raising kids is a responsible task. Babies can't do without proper care and feeding.

After the birth of the kid, its location and feeding depends on the direction of the breed. If we are talking about a downy animal, then you can leave it with your mother. In this case, the kid will receive natural nutrition - breast milk.

If the baby belongs to the dairy breed, then you need to feed him manually, immediately after birth, weaning from the goat. For the first ten days of life, the kid should receive exclusively artificial milk mixture, pasteurized goat's milk is also suitable. Feeding takes place through a bottle with a nipple. On the eleventh day, liquid cereals are introduced into the diet. At this time, you can start adding some hay to the trough.

By the age of one month, the kid should be offered compound feed. And three-month-old babies are already ready to switch to a full adult diet. In this case, milk and cereals should be canceled.

Goat diseases

In any farm, be it a large farm or a small summer cottage, animal diseases are not complete. It is impossible to completely get rid of this risk. An experienced goat breeder is able to quickly recognize symptoms and cope with illness.But a beginner who is just learning how to keep goats can skip the initial stages of the disease. But it is known that early diagnosis gives an increased chance of recovery... Therefore, it is worth remembering a few common symptomsthat serve as a reason to immediately contact your veterinarian:

heat;
diarrhea;
cough;
separation of mucus from the nose;
depressed state;
unusually hot udders;
gray gums;
swollen eyelids.

If you find any of these signs, you should not engage in self-treatment. Only a doctor can make the correct diagnosis and prescribe adequate therapy.

Any large farming starts with the first small steps. Goat breeding can be one such necessary step. Even a beginner who has never encountered any pets before can keep and breed goats. And making a profit in the form of fluff, milk or meat will have a beneficial effect on the development of the economy. Therefore, goat breeding is one of the most profitable occupations for those who want to devote themselves to farming.

Goats: maintenance and care

Attention, only TODAY!

Breeding goats at home for novice breeders can be a great way not only to get quality products, but also the first step towards developing their own business.

Goat breeding in Russia does not lose momentum, therefore products of this production are always in demand.

Let's try to figure out in detail how to choose the right breed of goats, whether they have features for caring for themselves and whether it is profitable to keep goats. Keeping and caring for goats at home cannot be considered too troublesome if a private livestock breeder knows everything about the goat, improves his knowledge and understands why he spends all his free time and energy.

Choosing a breed

So that animal husbandry (goats, cows, poultry, etc.) is not a burden, but a joy, you need to clearly decide for yourself what you expect from this activity. Before you start breeding goats on your own backyard, you need to decide for what purpose the goats will keep in the yard: for meat, milk, or for wool. This is a very important question, because the choice of the breed of animal depends on the answer to it.
Dairy goat breeds include:

Russian white;
gorkovskaya;
alpine;
zaanen;
Toggenburg;
Megrelian.

Most often, it is for the purpose of obtaining milk that the owners decide to take goats for maintenance. Since the cost of the product is very low and the market price is high, goat milk can be considered a profitable product.

Taking into account that from dairy goats you can expect about 5 liters of milk per day, it will be enough for your own needs and for sale.

The best performance begins in dairy goats after the second lambing and can continue throughout the entire production period.
Downy goat breeds:

Orenburg;
mountain Altai;
black down;
arapava;
near the Don.

If the goat is properly cared for, then its wool can be even more valuable than sheep's wool, because it is much softer and lighter. It is also important that goat wool has good heat-insulating properties. As a rule, one goat can produce about 350 - 700 g of down. In addition to down, leather is also used for sewing winter outerwear. It is important to note that downy goat breeds also produce milk. One female can produce approximately 300 liters of milk per year.

Arapava goat

By the way, the long hair of the Arapava goats is highly valued today. The homeland of these animals is the Arapawa island in New Zealand, from where they were brought. If domesticated, these animals can make excellent family goats.
If you decide to have a goat in order to have natural meat, then it is better to buy meat breeds. It:

gorkovskaya (up to 75 kg);
Zaanen (up to 100 kg);
Boer (up to 115 kg).

As you can see, the Gorky and Zaanen breeds are also used for milk production.The fact is that animals of these breeds, in addition to good milk production, are famous for the fact that they can build up large masses.

Most often, females that give little milk, old or young goats are slaughtered.

It is important to note that whichever breed you choose, you will in any case receive several products, only the amount of product produced depends on the breed. That is why keeping goats at home does not lose popularity.

Preparing the room

If you seriously decide to acquire these animals, you need to prepare housing for them. Stalling goats is the most optimal option. In the warm season, the stall can be alternated with pasture. Typically, grazing lasts approximately 185 days. The rest of the time, when there is no greenery, goats should be in the stall.

Keep the stall warm in winter

Keeping a goat is based on two basic rules:

Arrangement of a normal stall.
Compliance with the correct diet.

When preparing a room for animals, you need to take into account the fact that they will be in it both in the warm and in the cold period. Make sure in advance that the indicators of temperature, humidity, lighting and ventilation are normal.
The domestic goat does not react well to too damp and dirty air, so the stall should be well ventilated. Otherwise, the animal will grow poorly. In order for the goat to produce a lot of milk, the housing premises should be well lit during the day. You also need to make sure that the temperature in the stall is constantly maintained at 20 ° C. The boundary values are the thermometer marks of 10 ° C for adult goats and 12 ° C for young animals. By the way, young and adult animals should be kept in different rooms. It is recommended to isolate small kids for a while from the rest of the livestock.
It is important to note that it is best not to tether domestic goats in the stall. Naturally, there is nothing without it on the pasture, but there should be enough space in the stall for the animal to feel free.

It is important to note that if you decide to have goats in the country, then this is a bad idea.

These animals need to be looked after daily, and not only during the period of residence in the country. Such livestock raising is best done by those owners who live in the private sector.

Power features

It is difficult to imagine a goat that eats irregularly and at the same time produces a large amount of milk. The nutrition of these animals must be complete, you must follow the regime if you want the animals to grow well. Otherwise, it will be difficult to let the exhausted livestock even for meat.

Keeping goats in winter is reduced to 4 meals a day.

In the spring-summer period, when the animal spends most of its time in the pasture, it needs to be fed 2 times. The maximum milk yield of females is given in the warm season, when they feed mainly on pasture. However, this is still not enough for full lactation.

Goat nutrition should be varied and complete.

During grazing, the goat should additionally receive:

concentrates;
vegetables and root vegetables;
dry hay.

200 g of concentrates and up to 1 kg of vegetables are enough for the animal per day. Dry hay can usually be fed at night.
Keeping goats in winter means a more extensive diet. Such food must necessarily include:

hay;
corn;
vegetables;
silage;
branch feed;
lick salt.

During the stall period, a goat can eat up to 3 kg of hay, 1 kg of grain and a little more than 1 kg of silage. The amount of roots and vegetables should be sufficient for the animal to receive the necessary vitamins. There should always be brooms and lick salt in the stall.
Also, caring for goats includes adherence to the drinking regime. During the grazing period, the animal needs to be watered three times a day: in the afternoon - in the pasture, in the morning and in the evening - in the stall. When the animal is indoors around the clock, it is recommended to give water twice a day.

What should be the feeders

During the preparation of the premises, special attention should be paid to the place where the feeding will take place. In advance, you need to prepare special feeders for different types of food.
In the stall, it is recommended to make the following feeders:

crèche for roughage or silage;
for concentrates and root crops;
drinkers.

It is important to note that all feeders should be placed at a height of no more than 50 cm. They should also be age-appropriate. When making a nursery, you need to take into account the feeding and drinking front, that is, how much space one animal will take during a meal. As a rule, 30 cm is allocated for one adult animal, 20 cm for a kid.
The largest in size should be a nursery for roughage and silage (65 × 75 cm), the smallest - feeders for young animals (20 × 10 cm). The width and height of the drinkers usually varies around 40x25 cm.
All feeding containers should be cleaned regularly and kept clean. If there are residues from the previous feeding in the trough, they must be removed in a timely manner.

What is the care of the livestock

After the premises are ready to move in, you need to read the information on how to care for these animals. The productivity of animals will depend on the quality of care. For example, if you decide to organize dairy goat breeding, but at the same time do not clean in the stall and do not take care of the livestock, then goat milk will have an unpleasant specific smell, which is why hardly anyone wants to buy such products.
Goats should be kept dry and clean. This is a guarantee that neither milk nor meat will stink, and the wool will have a shine. Manure should be removed regularly. To prevent the animals from trampling and lying in the mud, it is enough to clean the stall once a day. This may be too difficult for beginners, but without careful and regular cleaning, all efforts to establish quality dairy goat breeding will be in vain.

To keep the floor constantly dry, it can be covered with straw or peat. Typically, straw is used for wood floors and peat for concrete or brick flooring.

Since goats like to sleep on elevations, wooden loungers should be equipped in the stall. An adult livestock does not need to cover them with anything, and it is best for kids to line them with straw.
When breeding a large livestock, one must not forget about timely trimming of hooves. If this is not done, then the animals will constantly drag a heavy load, which will cause discomfort. You can trim the hooves yourself, but it is recommended to invite a specialist for the first time.

Young growth care

If caring for an adult livestock is based on regular cleaning, then caring for young animals is more painstaking and laborious. The main requirement is a warm room and isolation from adult animals. Straw or peat bedding for kids should be changed 2 - 3 times a day.

Keep kids warm in winter.

Sometimes the owners leave the kids to grow under the uterus. But this is only appropriate for downy breeds. If you are engaged in goat breeding for milk or meat, then after birth, the kids need to be transferred to a separate stall. This can only be done after they are dry.

If the kids were born in severe frosts and in the stall the temperature is below 12 ° C, then they must be taken to the house or other heated room.

Within an hour after birth, the kid should be fed with milked colostrum. With colostrum, the baby will receive all the necessary vitamins and minerals for the functioning of the digestive system and strengthening the immune system. For the next 10 days, he needs to be bottle fed, and then gradually accustom him to a bowl. During the first month, the kids need to be fed 4 times a day, later you can switch to 3 meals a day.
Gradually, young animals need to be taught to dry leaves and hay, by the end of the first month, you can give compound feed. The initial dose is 50 g per day.It is necessary to increase the dose in such a way that by the end of 3 months the kid has eaten about 300 g of compound feed per day. From 3 months old kids can be switched to adult food.

Since the young are very active and mobile, you need to make sure that the kids have enough space to play. If possible and weather conditions permit, it is best to release them into a corral or pasture.

If you follow all the recommendations, then the troublesome breeding and keeping of goats will be compensated by high-quality natural products. Subject to all the rules for caring for young goats, they should gain 3 - 5 kg per month.

What you need to know about keeping a goat

Caring for goats is not as laborious as caring for a male. As a rule, it is unprofitable to have a goat, therefore many owners only invite males to mate. If you nevertheless decide to replenish the farm with a goat, then you need to know several important principles of its maintenance.
The goats should not be in the same stall with the goats. This is due to the fact that males give off an unpleasant odor, which is quickly absorbed by milk.

In order for the goat to be in shape, it is necessary to monitor its weight.

Since males are only needed for fertilization, their weight must be controlled. If the goat is obese, then its sexual activity decreases significantly. In some cases, this can even lead to infertility. Therefore, it is recommended to feed males with coarse and green feed, do not overdo it with compound feed.
The pedigree goat should be regularly taken to the veterinarian for examination. If the doctor confirms that the goat is healthy, then he will be able to fertilize about 50 females with a 100% guarantee. The appearance of the goat must be monitored constantly, and not only during the mating period.

Breeding livestock

Raising goats should usually start with either the acquisition of young stock or the purchase of a pregnant female (parent flock). When buying animals, be sure to ask about the pedigree, because milk production mainly depends on the heredity and breed of the goat. If the owners crossed closely related goats, then there is a high probability that their offspring will be unproductive.
For reproduction to be of high quality, the female must have a good physique and the correct udder. It is better to choose a goat taking into account its pedigree, because if a high-milk breeding female gave birth to it, then it will also stand out for its productivity. Considering all these features, it is best to buy animals from trusted sellers or friends, so as not to fall for the bait of unscrupulous owners. Adult goats or breeding from scratch - the choice is yours.

It is recommended to mate in early autumn, then the offspring will appear in early spring.

Usually kids born during this period develop better than others. In addition, do not forget that the pastures will begin to turn green already in April-May, so the grown young growth can be released for grazing.

Signs of disease

If the owners do not know how to keep the goat correctly, then the animal can get sick. Almost all animal ailments develop with the same symptoms.
The most common warning signs include:

increased body temperature;
lethargic behavior;
diarrhea;
mucous nasal discharge;
hot udder;
swollen eyelids.

You do not need to start treating animals on your own, it is best to entrust this matter to a specialist. All you need to do is take proper care of your goat. After examination and several tests, the veterinarian will diagnose and prescribe medications. It is important to remember that the goat should be kept in a comfortable environment.

How to raise goats at home?

How to start keeping a goat in a household