The health and milk yield of goats depends on the proper organization of personal premises. If the cost for a goat is of insufficient size, with violations of standards and conditions of detention, the animals will develop chronic diseases that can lead to death.
goat stall
The content of the article:
Who needs stalls and why
Before you build a goat house, decide what breed of goat you want to buy and how much. You can buy them everywhere in Russia where there are large farms, since they guarantee completely healthy and thoroughbred young animals. Therefore, if you are interested in dairy goats, pay attention to the farms where there are animals of the White Russian and Gorky dairy breeds. If you already have experience in keeping and breeding these breeds, we suggest paying attention to animals of Swiss origin, Toggenburg, Alpine and Saanen goats.
The cost of a young goat depends on the breed, Russian ones cost 5 – 000 rubles, and the price of Alpine ones starts from 15 rubles, but their purchase pays off.
Goats are sold starting from two months of age. For example, a kid of the Saanen breed can cost from 3 rubles. depending on the farm.
Goats are placed in stalls to simplify their maintenance, as well as to isolate sick or aggressive (vigorous) animals.
dimensions
The stall should correspond to the size of the goat, not restrict its movements and not cause it a stressful state. What does it mean? The standard is a length of 1,7 meters, and a width of at least two meters. Practice has shown that milk yield depends on the width of the stall – if the goat is crowded, it will give a minimum of milk yield, and in a wide stall – a maximum.
Since the goat is a herd animal, it is desirable to have at least two individuals in the same pen in neighboring stalls so that they can see each other. This means that the height of the stall should be such that the goat can turn its head without tension and see its neighbors.
The height of the stall fence is from 1,2 m or more, depending on the size and breed of goats
Materials
The stall is created from natural materials, beams or logs, as they perfectly retain heat.
- The side walls of the stall can be with gaps, the main thing is that there are no drafts in the goat’s house, and for this the walls of the goat’s house should also be wooden, without cracks, insulated with sawdust, peat or a second layer of boards.
- Make the floor hard, preferably from flat slate or metal with a slope of 2-3 cm for urine and feces to drain into a special container.
- The wooden floor is impractical, because the tree perfectly absorbs odors and moisture, so it will stink very soon, there will be a danger of the development of pathogenic microflora and various diseases.
- For the door of the stall, a galvanized steel mesh is used, which is firmly fixed in a wooden frame so that the goat cannot be injured by the sharp ends of the mesh.
Design
What should be a normal goat stall? The standard design is one that has side walls, a front with a feeder and a back that can be opened to take the goat out to pasture or tend to the inside of the stall.
Commercial stall
Often a feeder or a hay nursery is hung on the door so as not to go inside once again, so the back wall is the wall of the goat’s house, and the side walls – boarded – border on neighboring stalls. The height of the door can be about a meter. From above, the stall, if it is inside the goat’s house, should be well lit, and when placing the stall in the yard in the warm season, it is advisable to cover it with a grate from above.
Conclusion
There must be ventilation to ensure air circulation all year round. The air in the room must be fresh, without an unpleasant smell, because otherwise the food will be saturated with it, and the goats will refuse to eat it. A vent pipe with a butterfly valve in the goat’s house is a good option, because you can manually adjust the suction strength when you do this.
Building a goat stall is not too difficult if you know the design features, materials, dimensions and room requirements.
