GOAT PRODUCTION

Breeds and Selection

Types:
 Meat - Philippine Native Goat, Jumna Pari, Boer
 Milk - Anglo-Nubian, French Alpine, La Mancha, Saanen, Toggenburg
 Fiber – Angora, Cashmere

Popular Breeds in the Philippines

Philippine Native Goat
Foreign/Introduced Breeds: Anglo-Nubian, French Alpine, La Mancha, Saanen, Toggenburg, Boer

Important factors in choosing a buck:

 Blood composition
 Constitution and vigor
 Breeding quality
 Aggressiveness
Important factors in choosing a doe:
 Milk production ability
 Reproductive capacity
 Dairy temperament
 Motherly instinct

Housing and Equipment (Facilities)

Goat house specifications:

 Backyard – 2 x 3 m = sufficient for 2 goats
 Commercial: 2-3 m high, sloping to 1.5 m behind
 Floor = wooden slats 2.5 cm thick, 5 cm wide
 Floor elevated 1 to 1.5 m
 Minimum space per animal: 1 sq. m

Fence specifications:
 Height: 1.5 m
 Hog wire nailed to wooden posts at 3-4 equally distanced points
 Posts staked every 3-4 m

Nutrition (Feeds and Feeding)

Feeding habits of goats:

 Goats will accept a wide variety of feeds.
 Goats do not thrive well if kept on one feed for any length of time but to prefer to select from many
varieties of feeds and vegetation.
 Goats generally refuse anything which has been soiled by other animals.
 The appetite of the goat for any given concentrates or mixture of concentrates, fed in quantities of
over 0.45 to 0.91 often decreases within a short period of time.
 Goats have a higher tolerance to bitter tastes
Practical Feeding Guides:

Lactating Does:
 Forage about 6 kg/hd/day
 Molasses 1 kg/20 l drinking water – to increase water consumption
 Vitamin-mineral salt – ad libitum

Pregnant Dry Does

 Concentrates 0.2-0.7 kg/day

Yearling Does
 Concentrates 0.2-0.7 kg/day
 Forage 5 kg/hd/day

Breeding Bucks
 Two weeks before and during breeding season – 0.45-0.9 kg concentrates

Young kids
 Milk replacer 0.5-1 l/day 3-5 times a day for 2 weeks

Care and Herd Management

Goat production systems:

 Tethering
 Extensive
 Intensive
 Integration into plantation

Care of the breeding buck:

 Must be separated from doe kids after 3 months and given higher energy ration
 Exercise
 Hoof trimming
 Hair clipped and face washed – reduce odor and discourage lice

Care of the Dry Doe

 Milking doe must be dried off at least 6-8 weeks before kidding
 Exercise needed

Care of the freshening doe and newborn kids

Signs of approaching kidding
 Udder and teats enlarge 2 months before kidding
 Nervous and bleats low
 Appears hollow in the right flank and both rumps
 Slight discharge of mucus – several days before kidding
 Paw bedding around
 Becomes more and more restless

 Tie string around umbilical cord 2-3cm from base of navel

 Afterbirth usually expelled 30 min to 4 hour after kidding
Care of the Kid
 Colostrum
 If doe died – give about 1 tbsp vegetable oil or milk with white of fresh egg

Disbudding
 3-5 wks old
 hot-iron cautery, dehorner, or chemical method (potassium hydroxide)

Castration:
 2-4 wks old

Weaning:
 3 days if dairy
 3 months if for meat
 Doe kids can be run with breeding herd at 8-10 mos. old

Care of Lactating Goats:

 Bucks should be separated – to prevent taint in milk

Other Management Practices:

Hoof Trimming
Record Keeping
 Types of records:
 Identification
 Production records
 Reproduction and/or breeding records
 Herd health and disease control records
 Feed record
 Others (herd inventory record, pasture production, personnel services, etc.)

Selection and Culling

Important traits for selection:

 Adaptability to environment and production conditions
 Reproductive efficiency
 Growth rate
 Carcass value
 Milk yield
 Fat percent

Heritability estimates for traits:

 Weaning weight: 0.33-0.55
 Weight at 7 mos: 0.49-0.77
 Milk yield per lactation: 0.36-0.60
 Protein yield (milk): 0.47
 Protein, %: 0.58
 Fat, %: 0.32-0.48
 Fat yield: 0.30-0.47
 Milking time: 0.67
 Age at kidding: 0.77
 Multiple births: 0.09-0.25

Breeding and Reproduction

Signs of estrus:
 Mounting other goats irrespective of sex or allowing other goats to mount the doe.
 Shaking of tail from side to side.
 Bleating.
 Mucous discharge from the vagina.
 Vulva is swollen and inflamed.
 Nervousness
 Frequent urination
 Capricious appetite
 Decrease in milk yield

Heat interval – 18-24 days (average 21 days)

Ovulation – 33 h after beginning of estrus
Gestation period – 147-155 days (average 5 months)
Special reproductive behavior – willingness to accept the buck even when pregnant (9-11 days after
heat)
Kidding interval – 7 months

Breeding Practices for Does

 Bred at 8 mos. if in good condition
 Usually bred at 10 mos.
 Bred twice: 12 hours after heat is first observed then 12 hours later if still in heat
 Culling: if failed to conceiveafter 2 cycles

Breeding Practices for Bucks

 Bred at 8 mos. old
 If less than 1 year old – not more than 20 does
 Hand mating – 1 buck for every 25 does
 Unrestricted breeding – 1 buck:25 does

Herd Health Program

General disease preventive measures:

 Start with healthy stocks. Isolate for 30 days after purchase.
 Deworm, delouse, immunize during isolation period.
 For pastured herds, deworm every 3-4 mos.
 Provide adequate quality ration.
 Provide proper housing.
 Practice sanitation in pens.
 Graze in safe pastures (snail control and pasture management).
 Delouse.
 Cull unproductive breeding stocks.
 Conduct regular checks for parasites.
 Segregate immediately animals that are visibly ill.
 Immunize regularly.
 Segregate goats from other animals.
 Add vitamin/mineral supplements for confined goats.

Animal Products and By-products

Chevon – meat of goat

Mohair – from Angora
Cashmere – from Cashmere goat

Slaughtering
 Best age is 12 mos.
 Yield: 43% dressing, 27% liveweight lean, 32% boneless recovery

3 methods of slaughtering goats in the Philippines:

 Singed
 Scalded
 Flayed

Steps in chrome tanning:

 Soaking
 Fleshing
 Pickling
 Tanning

Definitions of some terms used in goat farming:

 Barrel – the trunk or middle part of the body between the fore and hind legs
 Browse plants – shrubs or trees nibbled by goats
 Buck – a mature male goat
 Buck kid – a male kid
 Chevon – goat meat
 Doe – a mature female goat that has kidded
 Doeling – a mature female goat that has not yet kidded
 Doe kid – a female kid
 Fawn – light yellowish-brown in color
 Freshen – to kid or give birth to a young
 Hooks – the joint in the hind legs of an animal which correspond to the knee
 In-kid – pregnant
 Kid – a young goat still usually immature
 Kidding – same as freshening or parturition
 Maiden doe or virgin doe – a mature female goat ready for breeding
 Milking doe – a nursing or lactating female goat
 Scurf – the small shreds of epidermis that are continually shed off
 Stocky – thick-set; sturdy or firmly built
 Tan – to treat or change hide or animal skin into leather
 Wattle – fleshy lobe or appendage hanging down from the throat or chin, skin of goats
 Wether – castrated male goat before the secondary sex characters appear