The above opportunities have stimulated a number of people in Nigeria to investigate raising meat goats. However, many of them are not familiar with modern meat goat production techniques. Because the interest in meat goat production is new, there are few experienced goat producers in Nigeria, so here are a few tips to get you off the ground.
Evaluating Your Resources
The first step in meat goat production is to do an honest evaluation of the resources you have to devote to the project. Here is a list of resources you need to consider:
* Personal: What is your attitude towards goats and livestock in general? Do you like them? Are you comfortable working with larger animals? Do you realize that raising livestock is a 24/7/365 commitment, no matter the weather, time of day or other family, social, or work obligations? Is your family supportive of the decision to raise goats? How will you take vacations? Can you set up your farm to allow you to have your desired level of "quality of life?"
* Land: How much land is available and what is its productivity? Poor ground may support 2-4 goats per acre while better pasture may be able to support 6-8 goats per acre. If you are adding goats to cattle, you can add 1-2 goats per head of cattle. Goats will eat the weeds cattle dislike, thus improving the grazing for the cattle. Improvements like better forage species and rotational grazing can increase stocking capacity. Remember, it is better to have too few goats than too many – too many will put a strain on your resources.
* Buildings: Do you have buildings to house the number of does you want in the winter, along with their kids and any replacements you will have. You will need about 20 square feet for each doe. For example, with a 55-doe herd, you would need about 20 x 55, or 1,100 square feet for the animals. (The exact amount will depend on your production system.). Dry (non-lactating) does need only modest protection, even in winter, if they are well fed, while does with January kids need more. Most old dairy barns, machine sheds and outbuildings can be converted to excellent quarters for goats. But remember, goats should have an open, cold, dry barn rather than a tight, warm, humid barn.
* Machinery and Equipment: Do you have the equipment to clip pastures and clean barns? Or, will you be hiring out labor? If you are harvesting hay, do you have that machinery? If you only need about 100 tons of hay, it may be cheaper and easier to buy the hay than to make it. What about goat equipment? You will need proper fences (high-tensile electric), holding pens, sorting pens and chutes for restraint. You will also need small pieces of equipment for foot trimming, ear tagging, trimming show goats and possibly for shearing if you choose Boer goats.
* Labor: Do you have the time to properly care for the animals? You should check on your goats twice a day. Refill feed and water, if needed. During these checks, take a few minutes to stand and observe your goats. If you know what normal is for your goats, a sick one will be quickly found. Timeliness of goat management tasks is very important. You must have time to do the jobs when required and not put them off until next week or next month. An example of this would be your ability to evaluate your animals for internal parasites and respond if worming is necessary at that time.
* Capital: Do you have the capital or money available to get started? Are the goats going to be the sole support of the family, or will there be off-farm income? Regardless, the goat enterprise should be sustainable within 3-5 years. Finances are individual, so one cannot give much advice here. You need to carefully evaluate your financial resources before starting a goat enterprise. Compare goats with other alternatives.
Marketing Your Goats
The next step is to evaluate your market. You should not raise goats as a business if you do not have a profitable outlet for them.
* Commercial slaughter goats (sale barns, buying stations, goat pools, processing plants, on farm sales, meat products, restaurants, supermarkets, hotels and schools).
* Breeding stock (commercial or registered). Sell to other producers – you need to know how to reach them: breed organizations,m, breeding stock sales, farm website.
* Show goats (breeding stock or wethers).
* The goat meat industry is driven by Muslims and is affected by the dates of various religious holidays shown below plus others. The dates for most holidays change from year to year. However, the Islamic holidays change by 11 days each year. This will call for a constant updating of a producers kidding season if producing for that market.
Developing A Health Program
New producers, in their excitement to start, often over look the importance of developing a strong health program for their herd. This begins with the selection of animals from healthy herds and is absolutely necessary for successful long-term herd survival. When establishing a herd, all producers should make every effort to purchase animals from herds that are free of Foot Rot, Caseous Lymphadenitis (CL), Caprine Arthritis-Encephalitis (CAE) and other transmissible diseases. All purchased animals should be quarantined away from the rest of the herd for an observation period of at least four weeks upon arrival at your farm. This allows you to treat them for internal parasites and to learn of any serious disease problems before exposing your herd to them.
Goat Management and Health Tasks
Any successful goat producer keeps up with day-to-day management tasks, and does them properly.
§ Buck care: Can you care for bucks even during the non-breeding season?
§ Kidding: Can you handle a doe properly before and after kidding? Can you assist her as needed or recognize more serious problems? What do you do with a newborn kid?
§ Baby kid care: Do you know the basics?
§ Weaning: Do you know about the weaning process?
§ Vaccination: Can you recognize the important diseases? Do you have a vaccination schedule?
§ Internal and external parasite control: Every goat has parasites. Can you set up an effective parasite control program?
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