Feeding and Grazing Behaviour of Goats

Many parts of the tropics have long periods when little or no rain falls consequently vegetations dies back and surface water disappears. The quantity of the vegetation also declines, with the best being eaten first. The longer the dry period lasts the poorer the quality of the roughage becomes. Goats will then eat less of this material.

If the nutrients in the feed are less than required for an animal’s maintenance it will begin to lose weight as body reserves are depleted. As this happens the females will become anoestrus and so not breed.

Nannies that are already pregnant will produce very weak kids. In very long dry seasons animals will die, with the youngest, weakest and oldest dying first.

Goat keepers may counter these adverse effects by feeding goats on tree leaves or legumes. This practice can lead to deforestation problems when many animals are kept. This has happened in some areas of the third world such as Nepal and the Sahel region of Africa.

Goats are selective and agile feeders. They will walk long way searching for feed and are happier having a range of vegetation available to them including trees, shrubs and grasses. Shoots and leaves are preferred to stem. In intensive unit, if not managed effectively, goats will refuse and spoil a high percentage of forage offered.

When goats are first let out on to pastures in the mornings they will initially graze unselectively but then start to wander and become increasingly selective. Unlike sheep, goats will scatter and graze and browse individually, climbing trees or standing on their hind legs to browse at higher levels.

They will stop grazing if disturbed, for example, by rain. In hot conditions goats favour grazing in the early morning and evening. In Arabia they will graze at night if allowed, preferring to seek out comfortable shade during the heat of the day.

Where goat keepers can control their animals under extensive system they may be able to use range better if they allow sheep and goats to graze together. These two species are complementary in habit which means more animals may be kept in a set area. The sheep will graze the lower grasses whilst the goats will browse shrubs and trees.

Good goat keepers will know the browsing habits and movement patterns of the flock and their favourite watering and sheltering spots. They will allow natural resting times in the middle of a day and know when to move the flock. Goats are much more difficult to move during cold, wet or windy periods.

Goats change their feeding habit between seasons. In the dry season they will eat bushes and trees which in wetter periods they would ignore, preferring in this season grasses and legumes. They can distinguish bitter, sweet, salty and sour tastes and show tolerance to bitter and salty tastes.

Although goats do not flock together in the way that sheep do, they do have a good herd instinct and if handled frequently become used to being moved or herded in large groups.

Calling to animals in specific sound or intonation when feeding, will teach them to move together for handling. Identifying the dominant females and males whom others will follow can also be useful.

Agro-industry by-products

Industries that process agricultural produce often leave residues by-products that can be fed to animals. The feeding value of such by products varies considerable.

Some examples are listed in Table 9.7 but the same product’s feeding value will change with different samples feeding a product to a small number of goats to observe the effect is one solution to this problem.

Some by-products, such as molasses and cassava, are high in energy but low in protein whilst others, such as linseed meal or desiccated cotton seek cake, have good levels of both protein and energy.

Table: By-products as a Source of Energy and Protein

	Protein	Energy
Brewers’ grains Cassava peelings Rice husks Sorghum Stover Wheat bran Coconut cake meal Cotton cake meal Cotton seed cake (decorticated) Linseed meal Soya bean meal	√     √ √ √ √ √ √	√ √ √     √ √ √ √

√ = good

Fertility is affected by both environmental and genetic factors.

For the farmer, fertility is seen as the ease with which a doe successfully conceives after kidding. The shorter the period, or the fewer the number of services, the more profitable the exercise; and the happier the farmer. The farmer would consider the number of services needed to get the nanny pregnant to be an indicator of fertility of the buck.

Prolificacy improves with age, with most nannies progressively giving more kids per litter up to their fifth or sixth kidding. Prolificacy is measured by litter size, kidding interval, kidding percentage or service period.

These figures are usually expressed as per animal or for a group of animals. Thus the average kidding interval for the West Africa Dwarf is 258 days. Its litter size is 1-6 kids.

Read Also: Practical Feeding Guide for Goat Production