How to Choose a Healthy Goat?

A successful Goat farm is determined by the health of Goats they breed. Healthy goats produce healthy kids. The requirements for starting the Goat farm is finding a location for the simple Goat shed, having healthy goats and growing nutritional feed. All three make a profitable goat farm.

Does should be healthy for nurturing Kids. Bucks should be strong for getting quality kids. Let discuss how to find better quality goats.  If you are buying a new batch of Goats, always get from the same farm, do not every mix it up. Disease management and adaptability will be tough. Choose the right age and right weight based on breed standards.

1. How to Choose Better Quality Healthy Female(Does) Goats?

Do not commit the same mistakes which are been followed before. There are simple things to check before buying the Doe(Female Goat). Every breed has its own characteristics and like Jamunapari has.

If the Doe is young, need to check their parents. Examine her mother’s udder and her father’s teats; this will give you a preview of what’s to come. Without a better Udder, the quality of their kids will deteriorate. It’s important to check a buck’s teats before buying his daughters or when choosing a mate for your doe. He should have the correct number of teats for his breed.

Examine a doe’s udder before you buy her. It should be globular, soft, pliable and free of lumps. It should have held the udder up high and tight to her body. She should have two normal, shapely teats with no spurs or outgrowths. Both sides of the udder should be the same size and both teats the same size or almost so.

2. How to Find Best(Healthy) Male Goats(Buck)?

Selecting a purebred Buck(Male goat) is the best decision any goat farmer can do. Though it’s expensive, in the long run, you will be blessed with better quality kids.

Upon choosing a low-quality buck, you will face loss in the Goat farming business. The buck produces weak kids, which do not gain weight nor resistant to diseases. This, in turn, will make you spend on medication and also it will slow down the pace to sell them in the market. In the long run, you will never make any money as mortality rates will be increased.

Choosing the right Buck

1. Prefer the Male kid born as single. second priority can be given to those born as twins. Never ever go with triplets or more.
2. Always choose from the purebred like Jamunapari, black Bengal goat, tellicherry, pygmy goat.
3. Check the lineage, their father(buck) and mother(doe) should be healthy.
4. Also, check the weight chart based on the breed for a better quality of goat.

3. How to find the age of Goat?

It’s easy to estimate the Goat’s age just by examining the eight teeth in the front of its mouth

1. Less than 1 year: All the teeth are small and sharp(only baby teeth present).
2. Between 1 and 2 years: The center two teeth are big(permanent teeth) and the rest are small.
3. Around 2 years: The center four teeth are big and the rest are small.
4. About 2.5 years: The center six teeth are big and the rest are small.
5. About 3 years: All eight teeth are big.
6. Older than 3 years: The teeth gradually spread and may eventually fall out in old age.

Determination of Goat Age

The age of a goat is judged from its front teeth (incisors) on the lower jaw. There are no teeth on the upper jaw.

The kid at birth, or shortly afterward, has teeth on the lower jaw. These are known as suckling teeth. They are small and sharp in kids.

When the kid is 12 to 14 months old the central pair is shed and is replaced by two large permanent teeth;

when 24 to 26 months old two more small teeth are shed and are replaced by two large teeth, one on each side of the first pair;

when 36 to 38 months old there are six permanent teeth;

and when 48 to 50 months old a complete set of four pairs of permanent teeth are present.

Occasionally teeth develop much more quickly and the goat may have all its permanent teeth by the time it is three years old. Once all the permanent teeth have developed the degree of wear and tear gives a rough indication of age.

The teeth start wearing four to six weeks after the eruption. Wearing of teeth depends upon the type of feed and care given to the animals. Some may mature early and others late. The age of eruption of teeth serves as a reasonable and dependable guide for judging maturity.