Black Goat Farming and Feeding Management Techniques

Farmers raising black goats need to understand feed resources and scientific management knowledge. As the saying goes, to work in a trade you must understand that trade, and raising black goats is no different. Farmers should understand the local feed resource situation. Black goats are herbivorous livestock that mainly eat roughage, and to maintain the goats' growth, a certain amount of concentrate feed is also needed. Black goats have a large feed intake and have requirements for feed, especially roughage and distillers' grains and other by-product residues. Because these are bulky, to save on transport costs it is best to use locally available materials. Therefore, you need to find out whether pasture grass and green fodder corn can be grown locally or nearby, whether there are wild green grass resources and crop straws that can be used, and whether there are by-products from grain or other crop processing (such as wheat bran, corn husk, soybean hull, soybean cake, cottonseed cake, rapeseed cake) that can be used. In addition, while investigating local feed resources, you should also find out the prices of various feeds.

How to feed crop straw to goats? Liang Meng of the Weiyan Black Goat Base suggests that farmers should chop straw short before feeding it when it is fed directly. In northern regions, the promotion of silage for raising black goats is still not very widespread, and in winter most medium and small farms and individual goat-raising households feed mainly straw. Feeding straw to goats not only causes waste of feed but also increases the goats' energy consumption. Therefore, straw should be chopped short before being fed to goats, generally to a length of about 2-3 cm. Straw that is too long will prolong the rumen passage time of the straw and increase the burden on the black goat's digestive system, while straw that is too short will reduce the number of times the goat ruminates and weaken fore-stomach activity. Feeding this kind of straw for a long time makes black goats prone to fore-stomach diseases.

Scientific management knowledge for raising goats. For large-scale black goat raising, you must understand scientific management knowledge. For goat farms engaged in production and breeding, the main thing is to control the lambing interval well. For two births a year, you must seize the first estrus at around 30 days after kidding, when the conception rate is highest. Proper exercise can promote the growth and development of black goats, maintain a vigorous appetite and metabolic function, and help restore reproductive function after kidding. The management method of most farmers, in which black goats are tethered, must be changed to fenced management that allows them to move freely. Do a good job of heat prevention and cooling. In hot summers, use shade nets, roof sprinkling, and other methods to lower the temperature, while keeping the goat shed dry and the exercise yard well sanitised.