Goat Farming in Nigeria: Beginner’s Guide

Goat Farming in Nigeria is seen as more of part of daily livelihood in most domestic households of the country. While there are different kinds of breeds of goats found particular to different regions of the country, it is common to find that people venture into goat farming largely on a subsistence level and with an extensive system of production where little provision is made to cater for the goats to shelter and feed while the rest is sourced in the community or environment by the goats themselves. However, the demand for meat production as a means of nutritional protein supply in the country has made more interest in goat farming develop on a commercial scale or a level quite better than the common peasant approach to keeping and rearing goats in Nigeria

How to Start Goat Farming in Nigeria

Space

Goat farming in Nigeria requires a lot of space depending on the number of goats you plan to keep. However, the male to female ratio states 1 buck to 10 does which means if you plan to start a serious goat farm, you need a considerable space to dedicate for goat farming. The place could be fenced and constructed to provide the goats with areas to roam freely, feed in the troughs, and drink, as well as get sheltered from the weather condition.

Goat Feeding

You must decide on what to feed the goats with. This leaves you with the option of creating a paddock for grazing within the space you plan to keep them or compounding feeds to adequately meet their nutritional demands. This will depend on the cost you plan to incur in your budget. However, feeding takes about 75% of the entire life of an animal.

Health care

This is a provision you must put in place to ensure that the animals enjoy routine healthcare that will help them to remain active and keep performing well. You will need the engagement of Veterinary Personnel or animal health personnel so that from time to time your animals are under monitoring and evaluation and in the overall diseases or ill health will not deprive you of your profitability.

Selecting Breeds of Goat

Goat farming in Nigeria, ultimately, requires that you study the terrain and nature of your geographical location to know what breed of goat to keep. In the west, largely are West African dwarfs while in the north are largely red Sokoto breed. However, you can get exotic breeds to develop and improve the ones you plan to keep so you can have better meat yield and a rapid growth rate. However, it is gainful to note that any breed you are raising has peculiarities that must not be violated so you do not end up regretting it.

In summary, Goat farming in Nigeria is one of the most lucrative enterprises in the livestock industry and has little or no limitation as people consume goat meats in Nigeria daily and also uses so many products from goats’ farm like manure to plant, skin for leather, etc.