A STUDY ON GOAT PRODUCTION SYSTEM IN GUNTUR DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH
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Date
2019-04
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SRI VENKATESWARA VETERINARY UNIVERSITY TIRUPATI - 517502. (A.P.) INDIA
Abstract
An investigation was carried out to study the morphometric characteristics of local goats and goat production management practices followed by goat rearers in Guntur district of A.P. A total of 240 goat rearers, selected at random from three animal husbandry divisions of the district, were interviewed by a pretested schedule and required data were collected, analysed and presented in the present work. The local goats of Guntur district were medium sized. The predominant coat colour was multi colour (43.82%) and bicolour (43.38%) followed by single colour (12.80%). The bicolour pattern consisted of mainly black and white (24.45%) followed by brown and black (4.12%). The overall head profile of most of the local goats was slightly convex (58.63%), followed by straight (41.37%). Majority of the local goats had pendulous ears (82.30%), while very small number of goats had horizontal ears (10.95%) and erect ears (6.75%). Most of the local goats had wattles in both male (82.25%) and female goats (69.14%). Majority of local goats did not have beard (85.28%). Most of the local goats of both sexes of Guntur district were horned (93.51%) but few were polled (6.49%). The overall mean of the body length, body height, chest girth, paunch girth and body weight of local goats of Guntur district were found to be 68.3±0.2cm, 79.7±0.2cm, 77.8±0.2cm,77.8±0.3cm and 35.4±0.2kg, respectively. The mean body length of local goats of Narasaraopeta division was significantly (P<0.01) higher than that in Guntur and Tenali divisions. The mean body height of local goats of Narasaraopeta and Guntur divisions was significantly (P<0.01) higher than that in Tenali division. The mean chest girth of local goats was significantly (P<0.01) higher in Guntur division than that in Narasaraopeta and Tenali divisions. The mean paunch girth of local goats was significantly (P<0.01) higher in Guntur division than that in Tenali and Narasaraopeta divisions. The mean body weight of local goats was significantly (P<0.01) higher in Guntur division than that in Narasaraopeta and Tenali divisions. The mean body length, body height, chest girth, paunch girth and body weight of full mouth (8 teeth) local goats was significantly higher than that in 6 teeth, 4 teeth and 2 teeth goats. The mean body length, body height, chest girth, paunch girth and body weight of local male goats was significantly (P<0.01) higher than that in female goats. The body weight of local goats was significantly (P<0.01) positively correlated with chest girth (0.80), paunch girth (0.69), body height (0.64) and body length (0.64). The overall mean age at first kidding and kidding interval of local goats of Guntur district was 15.23±0.13 months and 8.49±0.06 months, respectively. The mean age at first kidding was significantly (P<0.01) lower in Tenali division than that in Guntur and Narasaraopeta divisions. The average kidding interval was significantly (P<0.01) lower in Guntur division than that in Tenali and Narasaraopeta divisions. The overall mean litter size was 1.83±0.03 per kidding. It was significantly (P<0.01) higher in Tenali division than that in Guntur and Narasaraopeta divisions. Majority of goat rearers belonged to backward castes (59.17%) followed by scheduled tribes (17.50%), other castes (12.50%) and scheduled castes (10.83%). Most of the goat keepers belonged to hindu religion. Majority of respondents belonged to middle age (62.08%) followed by old age (20%) and young age (17.92%). Majority were illiterate (80.42%) and remaining were low literates (19.58%) with primary education. Majority of the goat rearers (51.25%) were landless people followed by marginal farmers (41.25%) possessing less than 2.5 acres of dry/ rainfed land. Most of the goat rearers (61.25%) had large family size. Majority of goat rearers (53.75%) possessed medium flock size (21-40) followed by large flock i.e 41-70 goats (31.25%) and small flock less than 20 goats (15%). The overall mean flock size was 37.16±1.34 per farmer. It was significantly (P<0.01) higher in Narasaraopeta division (47.91±2.62) than that in Gutur (34.73±2.03) and Tenali (28.85±1.70) divisions.
Majority of the goat rearers (75%) used farm born bucks for breeding purpose, whereas 93.33% of the goat rearers used farm born does for breeding purpose. Most of the goat rearers (98.75%) selected breeding bucks based on body size and physical appearance of buck. Majority of goat rearers (53.75%) practiced 1:40 (Buck:doe ratio), remaining rearers practiced 1:25. Majority (59.58%) of respondents changed the buck more than 3 years, followed by every three years (36.67%), two years (3.33%) and every year (0.42%). All the goat rearers followed the flock mating in the breeding season. The major kidding season of local goats was winter (73.75%), followed by rainy (24.27) and summer (2.08%). Twinning was found in most of the flocks (81.25%) followed by singles (16.67%) and triplets (2.08%) in the study area.
The average period of grazing and browsing of goats in the study area was 8.48±0.10 hours in a day. The goat rearers followed extensive grazing system in the government waste lands, agricultural fields after harvesting the crops and nearby forest area. Most of the respondents did not practice concentrate feeding during breeding season and advanced pregnancy. Only 13.33 per cent of rearers practiced concentrate feeding during lactation. None of the goat rearers provided mineral mixture to goats. Majority of goat rearers (75.42%) practiced feeding of cotton, maize, ground nut and chillies crop bi-products to the goats. The major source of drinking water to the goats was tanks (54.17%) followed by canals (36.25%) and tube wells (9.58%). Only 26.67 per cent of respondents practiced migration in goats during summer season. Most of the respondents (97.08%) practiced colostrum feeding to new born kids. Most of the respondents (89.25%) did not provide concentrae to the kids, where as 98.75 per cent of rearers provided tender tree leaves for feeding of kids. Vaccination and deworming of kids was practiced by 50.75 and 64.17 per cent of respondents, respectively. Very few (2.08%) respondents practiced castration of male kids. All most all the respondents practiced extensive system of goat rearing. All the goat rearers provided kutcha type of moorum flooring. Most of the sheds had thatched roofing (56.25%) followed by asbestos roofing (24.17%). Majority of goat rearers (79.58%) located manure pit faraway from goat shed. Most of the goat rearers practiced vaccination (97.08%), deworming (99.58%) and control of ectoparasites (71.25%) for adult goats. Majority of respondents (79.58%) approached paraveterinarian for treating their sick goats. Only 11.67 per cent of respondents practiced self treatment for sick goats with technical guidance of para veterinarians. Most of the goat rearers (97.92%) did not practice the isolation of sick goats from healthy flock. None of the goat rearers practiced insurance of goats in the study area.
Majority of respondents (52.50%) marketed the male kids at the age of 3-4 months followed by 5-6 months (47.50%). Most of the rearers marketed bucks (63.75%) and does (81.25%) at the age of 5-6 years. Majority of respondents (68.75%) sold goats to middle man followed by butchers (22.50%) and farmers (8.75%).Shrinkage of grazing and browsing area for goats, lack of financial assistance from banks/ government agencies for the purchase of goats, high cost of feed and fodder, feed and fodder shortage, lack of scientific knowledge about feeding and management of goats, lack of willingness of young generation to take up the goat and sheep rearing profession and inadequate supply of veterinary services or medicines were observed to be major constraints perceived by goat rearers in the study area.
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