Get a goat for milk: where to start, rules and difficulties

How to get a goat for milk, meat, fluff, where to start - this question interests many. This animal is profitable to breed. It eats little 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 in the evening. You can buy a meat breed, for the summer season it is fattened with grass and slaughtered for meat. True, such goats are very expensive, because almost no one breeds them in our area.

Breed selection

People living in the countryside or having a house near the city, a dacha and their own pasture, 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 sweetish creamy taste and light color. Animals are bred 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. The market is more likely to buy the meat of a pig or a calf than a goat. Skin and goat hair or down are not so expensive. Goats, if they are kept, are only for personal needs, but not for commercial purposes.

Dairy

Most often, goats are bred for milk. For this purpose, dairy breed animals are bought (Czech Brown, Toggenburg, Saanen, Russian, Gorky, Alpine, Megrelian Nubian). They begin to milk after the first lambing. They give about 4-5 liters of milk per day. The life expectancy 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 dollars and more, outbred - 50-100 dollars.When buying, pay attention to the udder of the animal. It should have a pear-shaped or cup-shaped elastic shape, medium-sized nipples, well-marked milk veins. A pasty or loose udder is a sign of a non-dairy breed. During the purchase, it is recommended to milk the goat. After milking, the udder should fall in folds, which will indicate the absence of fat 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 also milk a virgin goat.

It is forbidden to buy a goat relative. Due to inbreeding, weak offspring are obtained. If you can find a goat nearby, it is better to pay for mating 1-2 times a year than to constantly keep and feed this animal.

Downy

Hand knitting lovers and craftswomen can buy downy breed. These animals will still give at least 2 liters of milk per day. Goats of downy breed: Orenburg, Pridonskaya, Gorno-Altai, Angora, cashmere. They cost at least $300.

In the downy breed, the coat consists of coarse awn and soft down. Goats are combed out during molting. In the spring, some downy breeds (except Angora) are sheared. About 500 grams of fluff per season are combed from one animal. Its quality depends on nutrition, conditions of detention and age. Down is used to make yarn, which is used to knit clothes or various things (plaids, capes).

Meat

Exclusively for the sake of meat, goats of this breed are bred: Turkish, Andalusian, Boer, Kalahari, 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 for slaughter.If you buy a goat in the spring and graze in the meadow all summer, then in the fall you can already slaughter it for meat. After all, the 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 benefit is obvious: fast weight gain, minimal feed costs. True, breeding animals themselves are expensive (from $300).

Decorative

In the yard of some summer residents you can meet small-looking goats, more like baby animals. This is a dwarf ornamental 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 out of it. Milk is very fat - 6-10 percent.

Decorative goats are kept even in the apartment, trained, accustomed to the tray. Common Breeds: Cameroonian, Nigerian, Compound Model. It is also profitable to have ornamental goats: they do not smell, eat little, have a friendly character, and are raised for milk and meat.

Pre-training

Goats are kept in non-residential premises. It is not recommended to keep animals in the apartment. Goats, even dwarf ones, are very active, jumpy, it is not easy to accustom them to the tray, besides, they will chew curtains, tablecloths, clothes.

Requirements for the premises

For keeping animals, they build a barn made of wood, brick, blocks, with an area of at least 4 square meters. meters. In the room, 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, besides, in the cold, animals can catch a cold. In winter, the room is heated with infrared lamps.

Windows and a ventilation system are being installed in the barn. The roof is covered with waterproofing materials. The barn should be dry, warm, and free of drafts.

Straw is laid on the floor. It is changed 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 bought from a local farmer.

Feeder and drinker

In the barn it is necessary to install a nursery for hay and grass, a feeder for finely chopped vegetables and grains, a drinking bowl for water. Goats can be watered from a bucket 1-2 times a day. Animals are given fresh water. If you do not follow sanitary rules, goats can get poisoned and get sick. Drinkers, feeders, nurseries can be made independently or bought in a store.

Is it difficult to keep a goat

This animal needs 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, it is quickly tamed, loves affection, and 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.

Spring, summer and autumn

The easiest way to keep a goat is in the summer. During this period of the year, she can graze all day in the meadow. The main food is fresh grass. On the day the animal eats up to 4 kg of green mass. It is desirable that it eats clover, timothy, fescue and other cereal meadow grasses.

The goat is milked twice a day - in the morning and in the evening. After morning milking, the animal is taken out to pasture when the morning dew dries. At lunch, you can bring him to the barn and give him some finely chopped vegetables (carrots, beets, pumpkins), then again you need to take him out to the meadow.

In spring and autumn, animals are also grazed outside, but only in the warm season. 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 pre-harvested hay and vegetables. They give some grain as an additive.

In winter

Goats must be kept indoors throughout the winter. In frost, it is better not to take them outside, animals can catch a cold. Keeping goats in winter is not that difficult. Three times a day they need to lay hay in the manger. Vegetables, silage, grain, branches of coniferous trees are given as top dressing. Milked - 1, and sometimes 2 times a day.

One animal eats up to 4 kg of hay per day. Give a bucket or half a bucket of water twice a day. For the winter you need to prepare 500 kg of hay. In winter, the goat is given pharmacy mineral and vitamin preparations, a s alt stone for licking.

Features of keeping dairy goats

The animal starts milking 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 begins to be milked twice a day: in the morning and in the evening. Together with the uterus, the kid should be up to three months of age.Then he is transferred to independent food.

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. Animals that do not graze in the meadow are recommended to be given vitamin preparations, including vitamin D, as well as minerals.

Basic care rules

Feed the animals three times a day. The main food is grass and hay. Milked twice a day: in the morning and in the evening. After milking, give half a bucket of water. Animals must be kept warm and clean. Once a day they change the bedding (straw) to dry. Animals aged 3-4 months are vaccinated against brucellosis, anthrax, rabies, smallpox, and foot-and-mouth disease. They give antiparasitic drugs (Ivermek) twice a year.

How many years are kept for milk

The goat starts milking after the first lambing. The animal is ready for mating 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 milk yields fall.

The goat needs to be covered every year, otherwise the milk supply will decrease.

How to properly milk an animal

A goat starts to be milked two weeks after the first lambing. Before milking, the udders are washed with warm water and wiped dry with a paper towel. A favorite treat is poured into the feeder to distract the animal. For the first time, a goat can be naughty, throw a bucket. Over time, she will get used to it and will behave calmly.

The animal is milked by hand or with a milking machine. During milking, the nipples do not need to be pulled, they are simply squeezed with a fist or thumb and forefinger, squeezing a trickle of milk into a bucket. One milking takes 5-15 minutes. After milking, the udder is washed again with warm water.

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