I, Farm Boy! Science in Goat Breeding!

Breeding and raising goats is not simply getting one male, also called a Buck, and putting it in a yard with female goats, also called Does.

(Sorry ladies, please do not be offended but by nature, a lone goat Buck could breed with as many as 25 Does!)

To start a goat farming project, the farmer must clearly define what it is that he would like to produce – milk or meat?

If it is milk production, then you have to get good dairy breeds because our local goats do not produce a lot of milk.

There are several breeds to choose from – Anglo Nubian, Lamancha, Alpine, Saanen, Oberhasli and Nigerian Dwarf.

Of these, I would choose the Anglo Nubian and Lamancha as they are the most prolific dairy breeds, even in Philippine climatic conditions.

If it is meat production, there are only two choices – the South African Boers and the Philippine native goats which are basically mongrels.

The Boers, which had been vastly improved as a breed through advanced genetics, could grow to as much as 100 kilos.

The Philippine native goat, including those found in other Southeast Asian countries, like Indonesia and Malaysia, are small and basically mongrels with no distinct phenotypal manifestations.

While traditional Boers would predictably come out with white body and dark or red head, the Philippine native goats colors are unpredictable – white, cream, black, brown, grey or spotted.

As a chevon eater, however, I would go for the native goats, especially when slaughtered young, because the meat does not have the gamey smell or “anghit” in the local language.

After establishing what you would like to achieve, then you have to choose the breeds which would help you attain the objective.

Just a word of advice though: Goat breeding and raising is not recommended for impatient people and the “virtual” farmers.

Also, dairy goat farming, while it has great potentials, is not a profitable undertaking as yet, unless the milk produced is intended for local consumption.

I will explain the problem confronting the local dairy industry in future posts.

The best choice would still be breeding and raising goats for meat.

However, there is a need to upgrade our native Philippine goats and really establish a distinct genetic line for uniformity of meat quality and phenotypal manifestations.

There is a need to improve its size for more meat, from the current 15 to 25 kilos to at least 40 to 50 kilos.

Using Boer bucks over Philippine native does for upgrading, however, is not recommended.

Based on our experience, we lost many native does during birthing because the half-Boer kids are just too huge to pass through the vagina.

To upgrade the native goats, you have to first go through the process of crossing the native does with pure Anglo Nubian or Anglo Nubian-native cross to produce larger female goats.

The explanation to this is that while Anglo Nubians would grow large, the kids are actually lean and bony at birth, thus the native female goats could push them out during the kidding process.

From this process, you will be able to produce a 3-way cross meat goat line – 1/2 Boer, 1/4 Anglo Nubian and 1/4 Philippine native – a combination which would give you more meat but less “anghit” or “anggo.”

#FarmIsTheBestSchool!

#AgricultureIsCommonSense!

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