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How to Raise a Dairy Goat - Tips If You Don't Know Where to Start This Profitable Business

2016/5/4 10:17:00

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 raising goats for milk. 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. Understanding the female goat is key to maximizing their production. Like humans, goats also have their cycles. They mate in the early autumn and gestation is also 150 days. Since these goats are nearly always pregnant and lactating, they need lots of protein, energy and mineral most especially iron.

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.

Are you looking for tips on how to raise a dairy goat for profit? Separate yourself from the usual goat owners who are prone to common mistakes. If you would like to learn more tips on caring for goats and how to raise goats correctly, please visit: www.raising-goats.com