Controlled and healthy breeding

Controlled and healthy breeding Cue: Often, the mating of goats happens without any planning or control by the farmer. However, there are many advantages to farmers if they control which animals mate and when. This allows the farmer to plan when the birth of kids will occur, helping them to match the growth of the kids with feed availability and market requirements. If all the nannies produce kids within a short period, this can also make tasks such as weaning, castration, vaccination and feeding more easy to manage. Marketing may also be simpler if all the kids are ready for sale at the same time. There are various ways that farmers can prevent unplanned mating in their goats. The simplest method may be to keep bucks and nannies separately, although this will be more difficult if animals are allowed to graze freely. Other methods include tying a special apron around the belly of the buck, which prevents it from mating. In Tanzania, the NGO Farm-Africa has been supporting farmers in improving their rearing of goats. Lazarus Laiser visited the office in Arusha and met Communication Officer Glory Mziray. He asked her to explain more about why controlling the mating of animals is important, and other ways to achieve healthy breeding of goats. IN: ?Farmers control mating of their goats ?? OUT: ??you?ll find more benefits from them.? DUR?N 4?18? BACK ANNOUNCEMENT: Glory Mziray of the NGO FARM-Africa with some encouragement for goat keepers. The interview comes from a radio resource pack produced by CTA. Transcript Mziray Farmers control mating of their goats in order to avoid in-breeding, such as mating of animals of the same family, like brothers to sisters, brothers to mothers, daughters to fathers. In-breeding results in reduced performance in production and reproduction, like weak offspring, reduced production, reduced growth rates, etc. Laiser How to avoid in-breeding? Mziray One can avoid in-breeding by avoiding mating related animals, keep good records to guide your mating, to differentiate related from unrelated ones. Laiser Therefore the farmer needs to keep the records for the buck? Mziray Of course that is very important for the farmer. Laiser Are there any factors considering timing of the new births? Mziray Of course there are, one of them being season of the year. Appropriate season in relation to feeds, water, and incidences of diseases and parasites. And the other one is the ability of farmers to manage the animals. Laiser To the human being it is possible to control the date of birth. How about goats? Is there any possibility to decide the date of birth? Mziray This is possible to determine the date of the birth through deciding when to mate, so that the nanny gives birth at the time determined, and through administering proper feeding so that the nanny comes into heat regularly. Laiser What are things to be considered when mating goats for the first time? Mziray Things to be considered when mating goats for the first time. First of all you need to know age at first mating, recommended over one year, and you need to consider the body weight. This should be 75% to 80% of mature bodies. And the health status is important. The animal should be healthy and physically fit. And freedom from abnormalities, this is an important factor. Laiser How about the feeds, is it needed any special diet for the nannies and bucks before and after breeding? Mziray There are special diets for both nannies and bucks before and after breeding. As for the nanny, before breeding the nanny needs a special diet to encourage ovulation and conception. This feeding is termed flushing. Flushing gives high chances for twinning. After breeding the last two months of pregnancy needs also special diet to promote foetus growth, as at this stage the growth is faster. In case of twins the feeds will cater for the high demands of food, and the nanny will be strong at kidding. And the buck, a special diet is needed to promote semen synthesis and make it strong during mating. So the special diet is before mating, but after breeding no special diet is required. Laiser What should be considered when taking care of kids? Mziray Just like human being, a newly born kid should suckle colostrum within the first 24 hours after birth. Please farmers allow the kid to feed colostrum as much as they can. After a week kids should be provided with small quantities of good clean feeds, and then the kids should continue in milk for three weeks, and thereafter be allowed milk with fresh mixed fodder up to the three to four months. Laiser If we take weaning, what is the correct time of weaning? Mziray The age at weaning depends very much upon the level of management the kid receives. But on average the young stock will be weaned at four months of age. Laiser Diseases are dangerous to everyone even to goats I think. How to prevent the kids from diseases? Mziray There are some suggested ways to control diseases and parasites, one of them being maintaining good hygiene. As you can see this is not applicable to goats alone, even to human beings. So a farmer should maintain good hygiene, should make proper feeding to the goat, and proper routine managerial practices, proper ventilation in kids houses and pens, proper drainage system as well. Laiser Thank you very much sister Glory for all information that you gave us. Do you have anything that you would like to tell the farmer who is listening to our programme? Mziray Dear farmers, I would like you to take very good care of your goats, and you?ll find more benefits from them. End of track.