Producing fresh quality nutritious milk is the main reason for establishing commercial dairy goat farming business.
There are three types of commercial dairy goat farming system. And they are small farm, medium farm and large scale commercial farm.
Generally, a farm with less than 100 goats is considered as small dairy goat farm. A farm with 100-300 goats is called medium sized farm.
And a farm with more than 300 goats is known as high commercial dairy goat farming organization.
Benefits of Commercial Dairy Goat Farming Business
There are many advantages of starting commercial dairy goat farming business. The main advantages are listed below.
- Great source to fulfill the daily family nutritional demand.
- Setting up commercial dairy goat farming business is much easier than cattle or other dairy farm.
- Require less initial investment or capital for starting.
- Diseases and other health hazard are less in goats.
- Milk products prepared by goat milk has a great demand in the local and international market. The demand is increasing rapidly day by day.
- Goat milk is very tasty, easy to digest and has an unique flavor.
- In some countries goat milk is used as medicine for Ayurveda treatment.
- Goat’s milk is easily digestible. Even, children and old people can easily drink and digest goat’s milk without any single problem.
- Commercial dairy goat farming can be a great source of employment for he unemployed educated youths and rural women.
- After finishing milk producing campaign you can sell your goats for slaughter purpose. That is an another source of great income from commercial dairy goat farming.
Start Commercial Dairy Goat Farming Business
Good plan always help to make a business successful. So, before starting commercial dairy goat farming business make a proper decision, goat farming business plan and follow the step by step stages.
Select Breeds
There are numerous dairy goat breeds around the world. But, setting up commercial dairy goat farming business with all those goat breeds are not highly profitable.
Only a few of them can be raised for commercial purposes. I have listed here some highly milk productive dairy goat breeds. All this breeds are very suitable for commercial dairy goat farming.
- Saanen: Saanen is a world famous and most popular dairy goat breed which originated from the western area of Switzerland. Nowadays, many producers of some countries like Australia, West Indies, India, Ghana, Kenya, Israel, Malaysia, Philippine and many more are raising Sannen goats commercially. They can easily adjust themselves with almost all weather. Adult buck weights around 70-75 kg and doe around 60-70 kg. A doe can produce about 2-3 kg milk daily. The milk of Saanen goat contain about 3.5% of fat.
- Toggenburg: Toggenburg is another dairy goat breed of Switzerland. Generally they are very big sized. An adult buck weights about 60-65 kg and doe around 70 kg. A Toggenburg doe can produce about 3 kg milk daily.
- Anglo Nubian: Anglo Nubian is a hybrid dairy goat breed. They are result of Nubian and English goat’s cross breeding. They are very beautiful and suitable for meat production along with highly milk production. They can tolerate almost all types of weather condition. An Anglo Nubian doe can produce about 2-3 kg milk daily.
- Alpine: Alpine is a highly milk producing dairy goat breed and originated from Switzerland. They are very popular throughout the world. Especially in Europe. But, they can adopt themselves with almost all types of weather and climate around the globe. There are many cross breed of Alpine. For example British Alpine, French Alpine etc. An Alpine doe is able to produce about 4-5 kg milk daily. An adult Alpine buck weights around 65 kg and doe around 60 kg.
- Jamunapari: Jamunapari is a highly milk productive Indian dairy goat breed. They have similarity with Saanen goats. They are very big sized and known as poor man’s cow in India. Adult buck weights around 60-90 kg and female around 35-60 kg. A Jamunapari doe can produce about 3-3.5 kg milk daily.
Housing
Housing is very important for commercial dairy goat farming. Goats are smaller in size compared to cows. And they need less space for housing.
Being small sized animal, many different buildings are very suitable for housing them. While making house for commercial goat farming you have to include the following facilities in the house.
- Sufficient flow of fresh air light.
- Proper ventilation system.
- Facilities for controlling temperature and moister.
- Sufficient cooling systems during summer season and heating system in winter season.
- Make the house free from all types of harmful insects and animals.
- Never let the rain water to directly enter inside the house.
- Comfortable enough for the goats. You can make a bed for your goats with straw or sawdust.
- Never keep bucks and does in the same house.
Feeding
Good feeding practices lead to high milk production and good health. The good dairy goat feed elements includes haylage, corn silage, hay, corn, grain, tree leaves, any type of green grasses and various types of by-products like brewers grain and beet pulp.
For commercial dairy goat farming you have to feed your goat complementary food too. You can buy and feed the ready made complementary food that are available in the market for dairy goats.
But, that type of ready made food may not contain all types of necessary nutrient elements. So, for preparing complementary food, buy all ingredients separately and mix them up before feeding your goats.
Never forget to add all necessary nutrient elements in the food. Along with providing high quality nutritious food, always provide them sufficient amount of fresh and clean water according to their daily demand.
Breeding
Breeding is another important factor for commercial dairy goat farming. Along with natural breeding, you can also try artificial breeding which is known as artificial insemination.
Nowadays, most of the large or medium dairy goat producers are using artificial method for breeding purposes. Artificial insemination also helps to improve the genetics, quality and production of dairy goats.
Milking
Milking goat is very easy and simple. For commercial purpose you have to use milking equipment. This will save time, labor and keep the milk fresh.
There are many equipment available in the market for milking goats. Generally, goats are milked on milk tables and in milk parlours.
Parlours are of different sized. buy the equipment according the number of your goats. See how to milk a goat.
Raising Kids
Raising kids is one of the intense tasks of a dairy goat farm. Because, most of the dairy goat breed give birth of kids only once a year. Some goat does give birth only one kid and some other produce many kids per year.
You can keep only the female kids, and sale the male kids. You can feed your goat kids cow colostrum or nanny for a few days after their birth.
After this stage, you can feed the kids milk replacer with bottles, nipple pails or with an automatic kid feeder.
Marketing
Proper marketing ensure high profit from your commercial dairy goat farming business. First of all, try to sell milk directly to the local goat milk consumers. After that, try local market and if possible try large market in your country.
Goat’s milk consumer is increasing fast. So, there are great opportunities for establishing commercial dairy goat farming business. If you properly follow the steps discussed above, you will definitely be success in this business.
