Ingredients for the success of sheep and goat projects Volume 3 - Issue 3

Eid Ibrahim*

• Department of Sheep and Goats breeding, Animal Production Research Institute, Egypt

Received: January 21, 2020;   Published: January 28, 2020

Corresponding author: Eid Ibrahim, Senior Researcher (Assistant Professor), Department of Sheep and Goats breeding, Animal Production Research Institute, 5Nadi El-Said St., P.O. Box / Post Code 12611, Dokki,Giza, Egypt

DOI: 10.32474/CDVS.2020.03.000162

Abstract PDF

Sheep and goat projects, which include breeding and fattening, are projects that increase profit for the breeder and improve per capita income, and therefore the family. Therefore, they must be well looked after so that we can obtain the highest production from them in good health throughout the year. Sheep and goats have strong durability in environmental conditions, as well as a quick and low-cost capital cycle.
The ingredients for success of sheep and goat breeding projects are many, including the following:

Determine the objective of the project

The objective of the project is determined according to the capital available to the breeder, so it is one of two types:
a. The fattening project: It consists of fattening male sheep and has a duration of 5 to 6 months
b. Breeding project: in which the strain of ewes and the rams of breeding are selected at the rate of ram for each 25 sheep, and the appropriate production system is determined.

Preparing and choosing the place: (accommodation systems)

Sheep and goats hangars are among the most important factors directly affecting production, especially in the intensive production system (closed) that does not require grazing and providing all their balanced nutritional needs. Preservative and productive. The hangars are designed to work to protect them from high and low temperatures, direct sunlight, humidity and extreme cold. And air currents. It is necessary to take into account the design of barns in a way that guarantees an adequate area with an average of 2 square meters for the head and this space varies according to the ages of animals and the productive situation and also ensures that sheep and goats are not subjected to thermal stress that leads to a high temperature to 41.5 degrees Celsius, so some neurological symptoms appear and also ensures that no Exposure to cold air currents in the frost season, which may lead to lung infections, and if the animal continues to experience heat stress or frost for a long time, it may lead to death.
And when designing the pens, it should take into consideration that they are comfortable and equipped to carry out all farm operations, and they have animal protection factors against theft, predation, and fires, and that there are beaks for childbirth and places for isolating sick animals until they are treated and cured. Provide feed and clean water for feeding and drinking of sheep and goats, with 60cm allocated for the father, 35 - 40 cm for the mother and 22 - 30 cm for newborns according to age and weight. *Take into account when choosing the location of the farm to be easily accessible to ensure the success of the marketing process.

Choosing a breed

There are many breeds of sheep, domestic or foreign goats, or mixtures resulting from crossbreeding local and foreign breeds. The breed must be chosen according to the requirements of the market and the consumer, taking into account the theory of supply and demand when buying and selling in order to ensure good marketing at high prices.

Maternal and Parent Care

Sheep and goats, as well as rams and goats entering the breeding season, must be chosen with great care in terms of conformity to the species and of appropriate weight and good health and free from defects in order to ensure obtaining products of good specifications.
a. First: Formation of divorce
The males matching the type specifications, sound and of good health must be chosen and prepared for vaccination by examining them outwardly, examining sperm, examining their educational value, and training them to vaccinate females.
b. Second: Mothers before the breeding season:
c. Food payment process: flushing
This process takes place two weeks before the ewes and goats enter the reproductive season and continues for two weeks after the start of the reproductive season by increasing the amount of food provided to the ewes by 25-30% of the preserved diet and prefer to be from cereals such as corn or barley rich in energy, taking into account reducing the level of The preservative feed provided to the ewes two weeks before the food payment process, at 10%, so that the ewes benefit from the proper food payment.
d. Benefits of the food payment process:
i. Increasing the ovulation rate, which increases the convergence rate for the mother.
ii. It helps mothers to maintain pregnancy without an early miscarriage.
iii. C - obtaining products of good vitality and high weights at birth, and thus at weaning and marketing.

Third: Mothers during pregnancy

Providing a clean, dust-free, sunny barn, and its space suitable for the numbers of ewes in it, while providing clean drinking water and providing the appropriate food as follows:
a. During the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, ewes and goats are given the preservative nutritional needs because the size of the fetus is very small and does not affect the mother’s nutritional needs.
b. During the last 6 weeks of pregnancy (the last third) where the rapid growth of the fetus begins, as well as the development of the udder to produce milk, which requires an increase in the feed for ewes and goats by about 50% of the preserved diet and consider reducing the percentage of corn in the feed so that it does not exceed 40% to avoid increasing The percentage of fat in the body of the ewe and the compensation of the ewe with another source of energy in this period, let it be barley or molasses, which reduces the formation of fat and facilitates the process of childbirth.

Also, in the last trimester of pregnancy, the mineral calcium: phosphorous 2: 1 and other elements of table salt and sulfur, as well as vitamins AD3E on the feed or dissolved in drinking water or added green food, which provides vitamin A to ewes and goats, which maintain the integrity of the fetus’s body, are also taken into account. Also, the percentage of concentrated fodder should be increased, and the filling of the uterus should be reduced due to the large size of the fetus in the uterus, thus reducing the area of rumen.

c. During the last week of pregnancy, the ewes and goats should be isolated to the birth abacus that has been sterilized and disinfected and equipped with fodder and clean water, where calm and providing a suitable atmosphere for easy delivery and ensuring the mother knows the product and knows it and cleans it from fetal fluids and obtaining the colostrum, its weight, numbering, naturalization and adding it to the records.
d. During the lactation period (after childbirth), when ewes and goats begin to produce colostrum for 3 days, which is the most important period for newborns, it must be ensured that they consume whole colostrum because it is what gives them natural immunity with what it contains of the immune protein (alpha globulin) and is absorbed as it is in Intestine directly and makes lambs healthy in all their productive stages. Attention must also be given to caring for ewes during this period with great care and providing them with their production needs for food during this important period in order to give enough milk to the needs of the born products. In addition, mothers must be separated individually from the mother in terms of birth, three or four for the goats, due to the different needs of each of them from the nutritional decisions. *The previous stages are very important, and therefore must be taken care of in order to ensure access to healthy products and good health with high productivity in different stages of their lives.

Care for lambs Products

a. From birth to weaning: where the products from her mothers breastfeed the colostrum during the first three days and then continue feeding until the weaning at the age of four months in the non-intensive open production system where we get one birth per year, but it is preferable to follow the intensive production system (three Births in the two years for sheep ((two births per year for goats) where early weaning takes place at the age of two months in which the lambs are fed to their mothers for a whole month after birth and from the beginning of the first week in the second month the lambs are graded on the weaning bush which consists of (Crushed yellow corn 83% + soybean meal 15% + 1.4% limestone + 0.5% food salt + 0.1% mixed with mineral salts and vitamins) so that the average weight of lambs at weaning is not less than 15 kg.

From weaning: it includes the following

i. From weaning to sexual maturity: This is for male and female newborns chosen to supply the herd with new individuals that contribute to the expansion of the herd and increase production. The gradual transition from the weaning diet to the nutritional decisions according to age and growth according to the decisions of sheep (NRC, 1985). The lambs are monitored and weighed monthly until the age of sexual maturity, which is 18 months, after which they enter the vaccination to supply the farm with new lambs that contribute to increasing production.
ii. From weaning to marketing: (male fattening) in excess of the need of the herd and feeding continues in it on the same weaning diet, taking into account the graduation on a fodder with healthy corn grains that are not crushed during the first 15 days of fattening or their alternatives according to the available materials. It includes two types of fattening:
a. Fast fattening: feeding is done on the same weaning diet, with a protein ratio of 14% and energy 80%, and a daily growth rate of 250-350 g, where it reaches marketing weight at 6 months, with an average of 40- 45 kg.
b. Slow fattening: feeding is done on fill feed until full, and usually clover is a winter or clover alfalfa summer, in which concentrated fodder is used at a rate of 2 - 2.5% of the body weight and the daily growth rate reaches 200 g to reach marketing weight at 8 months at an average of 40 - 45 kg.

Attributes to be present in broiler lambs

i. The eyes are bright and do not have any secretions, which indicates that the good health of pregnancy.
ii. The animal’s back should be flat, wide and full of meat.
iii. When examining by hand, both the front of the chest, the neck and the back quarters (the back) must be full of meat.
iv. It is preferable to choose a lamb with a small paunch in size, which indicates good nutrition on the concentrated diet.
v. The wool is lustrous and does not split as soon as it is stretched by hand.
vi. The lists are intact.
vii. There are no abscesses or abscesses during pregnancy.
viii. The pregnancy is free from any defects such as lameness, blindness, scabies, or the like.
ix. Ensure that the pregnancy is eaten, which indicates that it is healthy and not sick.
x. 10 - Not to produce any secretions or leaks, whether from the nose or mouth.
xi. Lack of dung in a soft state attached to the night or late pregnancy to indicate that it is not

Diarrhea or disease

i. Prevention is better than cure: It includes the following:
a. The recommended veterinary immunization program must be taken into account during the different stages of life, the most important of which is the period of growth and fattening. Resistance of internal and external parasites that may cause delayed growth and lack of increase in weight, which reduces production and thus profit.
b. Providing blowing doses, the dispensing machine and digesting doses to treat bloating or hypersensitivity cases when they occur.
c. Caring for a balanced diet, especially the calcium content: phosphorous 2: 1 to avoid urinary stones and urine retention for males. Ammonium chloride should be added to the food at a rate of 0.5% with an average of 5-10 kg / head daily as eaten.