Goat Species

There are several different classifications of goat breeds, but a single, comprehensive to this day has not yet been invented. The most suitable one for farmers is based on the type of animal productivity.

She divides all goat breeds into three groups:

1. Dairy - such as Toggenburg, Zaanen, Gorky, Russ, Mingrelian and many others.

2. Wool - Soviet wool, Angora.

3. Downy - Podonskaya, Orenburg, mountain-Altai, black down, Bashkir and others.

Breeds related to each of these groups give high productivity in only one direction, while in others the level is average or even low. But there are also breeds that can boast of a combination of average indices of 2-3 features - they are called combined.

To get a good economic effect from any goat breed, you need to provide animals with comfortable conditions. Premises in which it is planned to contain them, should be dry, light and without drafts. In winter, the temperature of the air there should not be below six degrees of heat. If, along with older goats, small kids are kept, then the temperature should be kept at a level no lower than eight or ten degrees of heat. But in the summer, when the goats in the room spend only night, there, on the contrary, should be cool, not stuffy. Before the goat, you need to arrange a small enclosed courtyard in which animals are kept in the daytime even in winter, when the weather favors it.

Windows in the room where goats are kept are needed, but they should be located strictly on the south side, and the distance from the floor to the window sill should be at least 1.5 - 1.75 meters so that the animals can not break the glass. The floor in the goat should be plank, clay or earthen, raised at least 20 centimeters above the ground. And in order to drain the formed fluid, for every meter of the floor you need to make a bias of 2 centimeters.

If the farm contains several goats, it is recommended that the premises be divided into several separate stalls equipped with doors so that the animals can be there without a leash. In the goat should be built nurseries to accommodate coarse feed, as well as feeders for silage, root crops and concentrates. Regardless of the goat breed, they need to have shelves 50 to 60 centimeters wide at the height of 40 to 50 centimeters above the floor along the walls: animals like to climb on them at night and sleep there. Thanks to these shelves their wool is less soiled and sloshed.

The room should always be dry and clean; Ventilate it, take out manure and change the litter you need as often as possible. It is also important after a while to whitewash the walls of the goat with a lime solution, for the preparation of which you need to take 1 kg of quicklime per bucket of water. It is important not to allow the content of females with the male, since its smell can easily be passed on to the goats and, consequently, to their milk. Also it is not allowed that chickens live in one room with goats: they can contaminate food and infect animals with parasites, for example, lice.

In winter, when windless weather and frost are at least 12 degrees, goats need to be strolled and fed in the courtyard, which has a positive effect on their health and increases productivity. Wool, which is contaminated, must be cut, hoof growing - cut, following certain rules. Short-haired breeds of goats need to be cleaned every day with a hard brush.

Quite a lot of popularity in our time was given to the Zaantal or Zaanen breed of goats, which was brought out in Switzerland. These animals - with a broad forehead and muzzle, thin ears, a full neck, a broad and bulky chest, well developed and sloping croup, strong feet and strong hoofs. They do not have horns. Zaanen goats have short wool, white suits, goats are longer, and the neck is equipped with earrings. The growth of animals at the withers is 90 centimeters, the weight of males is 65 to 70 kilograms, females are 50 to 55 kilograms.