How to Raise Boer Goats? A Detailed Guide to Breeding Methods and Techniques
Among goat breeds, the Boer goat is a breed with an extremely high lean meat yield, and its body weight can reach about 200 jin at adulthood. Its daily fattening results are also ideal, with a high feed conversion ratio, making the Boer goat a very good choice among meat goats. So how should it be raised? Let's learn about it together below.
1. Sheep Pen Construction
The sheep pen is a very important part of Boer goat breeding, and a high-quality sheep pen can effectively increase the economic value of Boer goats. The sheep pen should be built in a relatively dry place. If the location is relatively humid, a certain height should be reserved at the bottom for their excrement, so as to achieve the effect of separating the excrement from the resting area. To prevent goats in two adjacent breeding areas from fighting each other, a solid wall should be used to separate them in the middle. The feed trough should be a bit larger to avoid a large amount of spillage during feeding. The water trough should be placed diagonally above the feed trough, but it must not overlap with the feed trough in the vertical direction, so as to prevent water from entering the feed trough.
2. Breeding Management
In the early stage of breeding, ewes and rams should be managed separately. Rams have a somewhat irritable temperament and can easily harm the young goats. When taking the flock out for grazing each time, attention should also be paid to doing it separately. The number of rams each time should not be too large, otherwise it can easily cause fights. During daily cleaning, the ewe breeding area needs to be cleaned every day to avoid causing the young goats to be infected with some diseases. As for the rams, it can be done a bit less frequently, once every 2-3 days. The manure below should be cleaned once every 5-7 days, and after cleaning it should also be rinsed with water.
3. Food Feeding
Feeding is an important means of fattening Boer goats. In summer, feed small amounts more frequently, about 3 times a day; in winter, about 2 times is enough, and the amount of food given should be a bit larger. In the early stage of feeding, the feed should contain a bit more moisture, while in the later stage of feeding, more high-protein items should be added, such as mixing some soybeans into the feed. In summer, a little trace salt can be added to the water for the Boer goats to drink when eating. After each feeding, some grass items need to be placed in the sheep pen to serve as a certain amount of supplementary feed.
4. Precautions
Feeding times should be fixed, as this can effectively speed up their digestion. Secondly, attention must be paid to the quality of the feed and similar items, because many Boer goat diseases are caused by feeding moldy food. Some vaccinations should be carried out as early as possible to reduce the risk period for Boer goats. Try not to bring livestock items of unknown origin into the sheep pen, so as to reduce external pathogens. Attention must be paid to the exercise of Boer goats. Although their lean meat yield is extremely high, long-term confined feeding also prevents their lean meat from growing well.
The above are some breeding methods for raising Boer goats. It is suggested that friends with permitting conditions can, under closed breeding conditions, try fencing off a piece of land and appropriately placing them in the wild so that they can move freely, which can improve the goats' vitality to a certain extent. If you find this useful, you can follow our website!