Management practices of goats in bundelkhand region

Goats are kept by people of all categories of land holding and communities with larger flock size among marginal and small farmers in Bundelkhand region. Majority of the goat keepers (54%) belonged to backward communities followed by schedule castes (37%) and general (9%). The average family size, land holding size, contribution of goat to annual household income and goat flock size were 5.60±0.18, 1.46±0.24 ha, 17.50% and 9.17±0.84, respectively in Hamirpur district. Corresponding values for Mahoba district were 6.22±0.28, 1.51±0.17 ha, 16.70% and 7.60±0.67, respectively. Rural households prefer Bundelkhandi breed over other breed of goats due to better adaptability. Use of stray buck, selection of buck from own flocks (>80%) and its use for a long period (4–6 years) in the same flocks, use of a buck on 100 females per year and breeding (>25%) at an early age were major demerits in the breeding practices. Range grazing was the major feed source as most (93.3%) of the goat keepers reared goat on range grazing. However, 57.7% of them also provide straw and stubbles with grazing. About half (42.3%) of the goat keepers provided occasional and suboptimal concentrate to lactating goats in winter season. Major sources of drinking water were ponds and bore well followed by canal and hand pumps. Goat keepers possess mixed type houses (60.3%) followed by close (30.9%) and open houses (3.6%) for goats. Floor (89.2%) and roof (84.6%) of goat houses were kaccha. Most of the (43.8%) goat houses/shelters were part of human dwelling, followed by near to owner's houses (44.3%) and away from houses (11.9%). Vaccination was performed mainly for PPR and FMD by 14 and 12% and deworming by 19.6% goat keepers. Goat keepers follow self-treatment (61.4%) of their sick goats followed by Livestock Assistant (20.4%) and neighbours (18.2%). Holistic goat development policy and consistent efforts are required for mobilization of support services, availability of key inputs and micro-credit for making goat farming more remunerative.