This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
Goats have provided meat and milkfor people longer than sheep or cows. More people use milk productsfrom goats than from cows. There are several hundred million goatsin the world. They produce more than four-million tons of milk andmore than one-million tons of meat every year.
Goat milk improves the diet of many families around the world. Inaddition, goats are friendly animals. They can be cared for bychildren.
There are several ways to help goats produce more and bettermilk. One way is to give goats high-protein plants like alfalfa,groundnut grasses, and vegetable leaves to eat. The covering of riceis also high in protein. Providing a special diet for goats isbetter than letting the animals find their own food all the time.
Goats with horns seem to survive better in the heat than goatswithout horns. But all goats should have covered shelters where theycan escape the rain and extremely hot or cold weather. If the goatshelter has a metal roof, it should be painted white to reflect heatfrom the sun. There should be plenty of fresh air inside theshelter.
Goats enjoy exercise and need to move around. When goats areinside a shelter, each adult animal should have at leasttwo-and-a-half square meters of space. When they are outside, afenced-off area should allow about forty square meters for eachanimal.
Fences should be about one-and-a-half meters to two meters high.Some wire fences can be dangerous for young goats. Their horns canbecome trapped. So make sure the wire fence is the right height foryoung goats.
Many of the same methods used to keep cows healthy can also beused with goats. In fact, sometimes young cows cannot drink a lot oftheir mother’s milk because they get sick. Instead, they are givengoat’s milk to drink.
You can get more information about raising milk-producing goatsfrom Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is an organizationbased in the United States. It helps people around the world usescience and technology to solve problems. VITA is on the Internet atwww.vita.org.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by GaryGarriott.