如何在一个小农场上养山羊

Buying Goats for a Small Farm

Before buying goats, decide whether you want to raise them for yourself or in order to sell meat or milk. Keep in mind that a single doe will produce 90 quarts of fresh milk every month for 10 months of the year.Even if you're raising goats for your own use, you'll need to keep at least two so they don't get lonely: a doe and a wether, or two does.

在为您的农场购买山羊时要考虑的另一个因素是，每个饲养的母鹿每年至少要生一个孩子。许多山羊农民建议从最终想要的动物开始，以学习如何在没有大群压力的情况下饲养山羊。

饲养牛奶或肉的山羊

In addition to selling goats' prolific milk, many goat farmers make cheese, goat's milk soap, and other products with it.

山羊肉在世界上大部分地区都很受欢迎，尽管它在美国并不常见，但许多人确实吃了它。有这样的要求，必须每年进口山羊肉。每只cast割的雄性山羊或肉都会产生25至40磅的肉。

It's fairly easy to keep dairy goats and raise the bucks for meat since you have to breed your does to keep them in milk and roughly half of all kids are male. The Boer is the main meat breed in the United States; it is primarily raised for meat and not milk,so you may decide to breed your milking goats to Boers or another meat breed to produce crossbred kids for meat, while still keeping does for milk.

住房和围栏山羊

山羊外壳很简单：只要让它们保持干燥和无水，他们很高兴。对于大多数气候，三面结构就足够了。有一个小摊位来隔离生病或受伤的山羊或怀孕的山羊以分娩是有帮助的。包装的污垢足以容纳山羊房中的地板，但应覆盖着厚厚的床上用品：刨花（不是雪松），稻草或废物干草。由于干草是山羊的主要食物，它们倾向于浪费多达三分之一的食物，因此您每天可以将废物干草插入床上用品区域，从而节省金钱。保持床上用品清洁干燥，将新层铺在顶部，并根据需要取出并更换所有层。

围栏有点复杂。山羊需要一个very strong fencethat they can’t climb over, knock down, or otherwise escape from. If there is so much as a tiny hole, they will find a way to get out. They use their lips to explore their world, so if a gate latch is loose, they can wiggle it open with their lips and escape. They also chew almost everything—rope, electrical wiring, and so on, are all fair game.山羊能跳和攀爬,所以你的山羊通行e should have a climbing-proof roof.

A smooth high-tensile electrified wire is ideal if you want to take an existing fence and make it goat-proof. You can use a nonelectric fence at least 4 feet high but aim for 5 feet for active品种such as Nubians. Brace corners and gates on the outside so the goats can’t climb up. You can use wooden fencing, stock panels, a chain-link fence, or you can combine a wooden rail fence with woven wire.

喂养山羊

山羊可以放在草地上或在树林中浏览，吃灌木和幼树。旋转山羊很重要，以便将山羊旋转到新的牧场，这样它们均匀地放牧，不要弄脏它，这可能会导致寄生虫的积累。

山羊require additional hay even when they have pasture, as they can't eat all fresh grass. You can feed hay free-choice—give them as much as they desire, up to about four pounds.Young goats and pregnant or milk-producing does require some goat "concentrate," or goat chow.肉山羊除非他们的护理或成长的孩子，否则请在干草上做得好。