How to Raise Black Goats Profitably? A Detailed Guide to Farming Methods in 2017
From the end of last year to now, the market for black goats has risen somewhat. Judging from this market situation, black goat farming is undoubtedly still a good path for farmers to get rich. But to make money from this kind of farming and achieve good returns, you need scientific feeding and careful management. So how do you raise black goats in 2017 profitably?
1. A Good Growing Environment
To raise black goats, you must first build the goat shed well. Build a shed that is warm in winter and cool in summer according to local conditions. In winter, keep it well insulated so the temperature inside the shed stays above 5°C. Remove manure at fixed times every day, ventilate at noon, and regularly drive the goats outside the shed to sun themselves, which strengthens their constitution and helps them put on fat.
2. Select and Raise Good Breeds
Choosing superior breeds of black goats for raising is the key to good returns, because good-breed goats not only have good meat quality, fast growth, high feed conversion and good appearance, but also a low incidence of disease. Actively introduce fine goats, such as the Weiyan black goat, which has the advantages of a large body size, fast reproduction and a high dressing percentage, helping to continuously improve farming results and economic returns.
3. Feeding Techniques
Farmers should let the goats eat their fill of good green forage as much as possible, while supplementing with other necessary nutrient feed. To improve goat-raising returns, you must start from raising the lambs, especially doing a good job of supplementary feeding during the first and second winter-spring housing periods, so that they reach a weight of about 80 jin at 6 months of age for marketing, or reach more than 60 jin after a short period of intensive fattening for marketing. Treating rice straw and wheat straw with ammoniation can increase their crude protein content, which not only lowers feeding costs but also improves the economic returns of goat raising. Therefore, new straw-processing techniques such as straw silage, semi-dry storage and ammoniation should be vigorously promoted and popularized, and straw-based goat raising should be promoted.
Adding urea is an effective way to solve the shortage of protein feed in our country. Urea phosphate and monensin can increase daily weight gain and feed conversion rate by 10%-15%, and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) can increase feed utilization rate by more than 12%. Urease inhibitors developed and promoted in recent years also have a good weight-gain effect.
In addition, various additives such as multivitamins, minerals and trace elements can all be used as options.
Third, one of the more critical aspects of feeding is doing a good job of deworming and disease prevention.
When grazing, goats often become infected with various parasites internally and externally because they eat forage and come into contact with the ground. For example, inside the goat digestive tract, Haemonchus contortus, Bunostomum and Oesophagostomum are very likely to appear; externally, goats are very susceptible to external parasites such as mites, ticks, lice, flies and maggots. These parasites absorb nutrients and release toxins, hindering the goats' growth and development, and can reduce daily weight gain by 35% and feed conversion rate by 30%; in severe cases, parasites can cause death. It can be seen that deworming is an indispensable and important part of raising goats. Household goat raisers can deworm twice, in spring from March to May and in autumn from September to October, and fattening goats should be dewormed at the start of fattening. At present, there are many types of deworming drugs, and levamisole, trichlorfon and others can all be used, but their antiparasitic spectrum is narrow and the results are less than satisfactory. Afuding (Chongkexing) is the first-choice deworming drug. This drug is a broad-spectrum, highly effective, low-toxicity new antiparasitic veterinary drug developed and produced in recent years, and can simultaneously eliminate nematodes inside livestock and poultry as well as external parasites such as mites, ticks, lice and fly maggots. It comes in four dosage forms: injection, tablet, capsule and powder. Among them, the powder is moderately priced and convenient to use. Usage and dosage: administer orally or mix well into the feed. Use 1 gram per 10 kg of body weight; deworming is best arranged in the afternoon or evening so that the parasites are expelled during the daytime the next day, making them easier to collect and handle. Before dosing, it is best to stop feeding for 6-12 hours, giving only drinking water, to improve the drug's efficacy. After thoroughly eliminating all kinds of parasites inside and outside the goats' bodies, scientific feeding will produce remarkable fattening results.
Preventing goat diseases is also one of the keys to achieving relatively high returns in goat raising. If disease prevention is not done well, scientific feeding will all be wasted. To prevent goat diseases, in addition to doing a good job of cleaning and disinfecting the goat shed and the goats' bodies, ensuring the hygiene and safety of goat feed and drinking water, and deworming, if you do not have sufficient veterinary skills, you should also maintain regular contact with local veterinarians to do a good job of epidemic prevention and disease treatment.
Finished goats should be sold in a timely manner
Goats being raised should be sold in a timely manner once they reach a certain specification; otherwise, feeding costs will be too high and the gains will not be worth the losses, reducing goat-raising returns or even yielding no returns at all.