Goat breeding is one of the most profitable livestock business. Goats are hardy creatures and they breed extremely well in captivity. They do not need special diets or specific animal food. As long as they can do their grazing around large enough areas having a variety of vegetation, their nutritional needs would be fulfilled. Don’t get so excited yet, cause the business itself is littered with pitfalls. Look before you jump (into).
If the breeding of goats is a piece of cake, why would everyone not jump onto this bandwagon? MI list pros and cons for you to consider.
Breeding
The typical ratio in Myanmar for billy and nanny goats are 1:15. Google or YouTube may say 1:20+. Yet, 15 females would be just nice for a billy. Female goats normally can get pregnant by the age of only six months. Depending of the size of the female, the average litter size is two, after the first year of breeding. During the first year, the offspring is typically one, since their body is not that well developed to accommodate multiple offspring.
And, they give birth at least two times per year. So, if you start with 15 female goats, your numbers may grow to 45+ (addition of 30 goats) before the end of the year. This is 200% minimum gross return. You be hard pressed to find a better investment return than this.
Yet, if you are not experienced in breeding and care, all your baby goats may not survive; the mother may not produce sufficient milk, the kids may be born premature, or underweight, or with defects. The kid mortality rate is inversely proportional to your breeding experience. The higher your goat breeding experience, the lower will be your kid mortality.
Shed
A goat shed building is not like a house building exercise. The shed simply cannot be built up to our imagination. It is best to build a shed with a wooden flooring around five feet in height. The flooring has to be sparse enough to let the faeces and urine out, yet the planks need to be close enough so that the kids’ legs would not get stuck in between. Building a shed high serves two purposes at least; one, goats like to climb, so they would everyday would be climbing up and down the steps to their shed, and two, they can get fresh air (i.e., not smell their own poops), as their bodily waste would drop five feet down from their floor.
In addition, in a humid country such as Myanmar, you would need a mosquito net, to keep the blood suckers out at night. Blood loss and irritation caused by mosquitos can have a direct impact on the productivity of your goats. Mosquitos can cause weight loss (lower weight means lower sales price) and a decrease in milk production (kids may die due to lack of mother’s milk). Hence, mosquito nets are a necessity as well as regular fumigation exercise.
Weather
Goats do not like wet or cold weather. They grow and breed well in hot climates. As such, raining seasons are a danger to the goats survival. They tend to get flu once their feet get wet. The goats can die very quickly from that. There are however medicines that can prevent or cure such illnesses.
Pricing
Goats are normally sold between 100,000 and 150,000 Kyats in (~$80) in Myanmar. If the goat is really sizeable, the price would go close to 200,000 Kyats. A dead goat is normally sold for meat measured in viss (1 viss = 1.63 kg). In general, a dead goat would yield approximately 30-40% of the price of a live goat. If a goat dies you would lose at least half of what you had paid for.
One thing to watch out for is the transport of livestock. Myanmar rules are such that the transport of livestock over state lines is not allowed, unless you have burdensome licenses, etc. The sellers either can sell within the state or transport the animals across state borders illegally.
Supplements
If you want your goats to grow faster and be more resilient to diseases and weather, you may have to add in supplements in their diets. Their supplements are not expensive and the returns far exceed minuscule investment.
Last but not least, if you are a green horn, it is a must that you visit the goat farms around your areas for practical knowledge and learning from them. This could be supplemented by so many goat related videos on YouTube. This approach would be one short cut method to reading lots of books and learning through your own experiences.
