Milking Goats
Dear shrikant,
Milking Goats for commercial use is only profitable for a large goat farm,say about 1000 goats.
Presently there is no local market for selling goat milk like that of cow or buffalo milk.But there is a commercial market for it.The main commercial buyers of goat milk are the pharmaceutical companies as goat milk is widely used in cosmetic products.
The other market is for by products of goat milk like goat milk powder,goat butter and goat chesse.These markets are mainly situated in Metro cities.
Milking goats for small goat farmers is not profitable always,lets look how:
1.To get extra amount of milk from goats to sell it in market,extra amount of dry and concentrate fodder has to be feeded which further increases the cost on fodder.
2.There is no local market for selling goat milk,so selling milk 365 days is a bit problem.Goat milk is not readily sold as that of cow or buffalo milk in local market.
3.To milk meat goats we have to feed large amount of concentrate fooder which makes the goat fat(cholesterol content rises) and fat goat(local goat breed) is not good in laying kids,becoming fat decreases the kidding capacity of goat as fat gets accumalated in the kids developing pouch (uterus) so there will be every little space for development of kids in embryo, also the kids obtained after pregnancy are of under weight.Fat goats are good only for milking purpose as that of sannen goat breed of switzerland which produces 8-10lit of milk per day.
The milk obtained from goat without feeding extra concentrate and dry fodder is required for goat kids.So feed all the milk to goat kids which will enhance their body growth and will also decrease the fodder cost of kids.
So while starting a goat farm your aim should be either on meat or milk.
The demand for goat meat is far more than that of goat milk.
Note:Here fat goat means having high fat content in body than that of meat(protein) content.I have explain it in brief so that it can be easily understood to readers,it requires a very deep knowledge to understand the concept of fat goat and that can't be explain here.If you want to know the concept,you must have to know the biology of goat(scientific knowledge of goats body and chemical reactions).
Regards,
Dr.Shaikh
www.osmanabadigoat.com
