A Complete Analysis of the Key Technical Points for Farming Tall-Legged Goats

Anyone who has raised goats knows that goats give birth once a year, but the breed that Qinnong Web is introducing today can produce two litters a year, making it a high-yield breed among goats. This is not achieved through some special farming technique; rather, this goat can naturally produce two litters a year on its own. This is the tall-legged goat. Today, Qinnong Web will introduce the key technical points for farming tall-legged goats.

Speaking of tall-legged goats, it is unclear whether everyone is familiar with them, so Qinnong Web will first give everyone some background knowledge about tall-legged goats. The tall-legged goat is an excellent meat-type goat breed produced through artificial breeding. It has strong adaptability, tolerates coarse feed, and has a high feed conversion rate. Tall-legged goats reach sexual maturity relatively early. Rams generally show sexual behavior at 3-4 months of age, but only reach sexual maturity at 5-6 months of age. Ewes first come into estrus at 3-4 months of age, with an estrous cycle of generally around 20 days, lasting 46 hours, and they can come into estrus year-round. Tall-legged goats have good reproductive performance, with a gestation period of around 145 days, and can produce two litters a year with a high kidding rate. The kidding rate of first-time dams can reach over 160%, and that of multiparous dams over 210%. At birth, male kids average 2.1 kg and female kids 2 kg. Moreover, this goat was artificially bred specifically for meat, so its meat is tender and delicious, and it is widely praised in the market. Below is a detailed introduction to the key technical points for farming tall-legged goats.

I. Construction of Goat Sheds

To raise tall-legged goats well, you must first build a suitable living environment for them. Selecting a goat farm site and building goat sheds requires planning based on the current number of goats, the scale of development, financial conditions, degree of mechanization, and so on. At the same time, local conditions should also be fully considered to reduce production costs. Goat sheds should be built in places with relatively high terrain, good drainage, ventilation and dryness, sunlight exposure, and sufficient water sources. In terms of building elevated goat sheds, the shed is generally 4-6 m wide and 2-3 m high, with the length determined by the number of goats raised. The shed area is calculated at 1.2-1.5 sq m per adult goat. An exercise yard should be built beside the shed, with trees planted around it for shade. The floor boards are made by nailing wooden strips, bamboo strips, or thin wooden sticks into a bed surface with a spacing of 1-1.5 cm, so that manure and urine fall to the ground. The goat bed can be divided into separate pens, or made into movable panel surfaces. The interior requirements and design of the shed should address the following details: the interior is divided with movable wooden fences into ram pens, ewe pens, kid pens, and fattening pens, with hay racks, feed troughs, and drinking water equipment installed in the pens. Along the wall inside the shed, wooden strips are used to set up hay racks about 1 m high, with feeding gaps 15 cm wide. The feed trough can be made from cement or wooden boards into a long trough, generally 25 cm wide at the top, 22 cm wide at the bottom, and 10-15 cm deep, with an arc-shaped bottom. It is best to leave an outward-facing drainage hole. Drinking water equipment is installed along the wall; automatic drinkers can be selected, with one installed every 3 m. If no drinkers are installed, water buckets can also be placed inside the shed.

II. Moderate-Scale Farming

The moderate scale of tall-legged goat farming is determined by many factors, including the farmer's investment capacity, market prices, forage area, feeding and management conditions, and the ratio of males to females. Practice shows that the minimum scale for raising breeding ewes should not be less than 20, and the moderate scale should be 40-50. For specialized large-scale farmers, the farming scale is best controlled at 100-200. For free-range tall-legged goats in rural mountainous areas, grazing in summer should begin early and return early, with grazing possible as early as 9 a.m. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., let the goats rest in the pens and eat forage. In the afternoon, they can be brought back at 7 p.m. When the goats return to the pen, sufficient salt and clean drinking water should be provided. Feed the goats mixed feed 1-2 times a day (wheat bran, cornmeal, soybean cake plus rice husk and grass meal). At the same time, give the grazing flock lightly salted water 4-6 times a day.

III. Epidemic Prevention Management

Although tall-legged goats have few diseases and are relatively easy to feed, disease prevention and control work must still be done well, and vaccines should be administered in a timely manner according to the goat immunization program. Goat sheds should be disinfected regularly. At present, parasitic diseases also restrict the development of the goat industry. Goats suffering from internal and external parasitic diseases become increasingly emaciated in severe cases, and may even die. In mild cases, they also show varying degrees of emaciation because the goat's body nutrients are consumed, causing growth and development of young goats to be stunted, lowering the reproductive rate of adult goats, reducing wool and mutton output, and damaging pelt quality. Therefore, attention must also be paid to the prevention and control of internal and external parasitic diseases in goats.

The above is the key technical points for farming tall-legged goats compiled by Qinnong Web for everyone. The tall-legged goat belongs to a farming industry with relatively high economic returns, and its main consumers are in the food industry. Some high-end restaurants pay more than 60 yuan per kilogram for this mutton, which shows that the market prospects for developing tall-legged goat farming in rural areas are still quite good. Farmers who are interested can try raising them.