Malaysia Veterinary Forum (Archive)

Dr. TanDY

Rear Goats Of Fine Breed, Says Abdullah

Source: Bernama

BAHAU, April 8 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi urged more people to rear goats of fine breed in line with the government's aspiration to raise mutton production by 20 per cent by the end of the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP).

He said the expansion of the goat breeding industry could also generate other spin-off industries which were growing such as pharmaceutical, cosmetics and health product industries besides raising the income of those involved in goat breeding.

FEEDING TIME…Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi feeding a Boer goat on his visit to the Subur Boer Goat Farm in Serting near Bahau.

"Although the Ministry of Agriculture (and Agro-based Industry) had already taken the initiative to boost goat breeding four years ago, the number of goat breeding centres needs to be increased," he told reporters after visiting the Subur Boer Goat Farm in Serting, near here.

He also urged goat breeders who were using local stocks to change to this species because they produced high quality meat, grew at a faster rate and fetched a higher price.

"The work involved is about the same but if it yields higher returns, then it's much better. In addition, there will be other by-products that can be generated when there are more goats in the country.

"Everything needs proper organisation even if it starts with animal products," he said.

Earlier, Abdullah witnessed the signing of the agreement between the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) which was represented by its Deputy Director-General Dr Sharif Haron and the chief executive officer of Gema Padu Sdn Bhd (GP) Major (Rtd) Ng Bon Chong. GP owns the Boer Goat Farm through Subur Sejahtera Sdn Bhd (SSSB).

The agreement will lead to a higher production of Boer goats locally and it had been identified by Mardi in its objective to produce breeding stocks of top quality.

The farm, which is being run on a joint-venture basis with the Negeri Sembilan State Development Corporation, breeds 2,500 Boer goats.

The other objectives of SSSB include supplying Boer goat breeding stocks to local breeders, creating a National Boer Auction Centre at Serting, providing a training centre for breeders, and providing a business model for pig breeders who wish to change their products.

lcs · Joined: 05 Jul 2006 Posts: 65

HA!!!! EVERY THING CAN BE SETTLE EASILY IN FARMING IF U HAVE THE MONEY!!! ALL THE MATTER IS DOLLAR AND CENTS, GOOD BREED, GOOD FORAGE,GOOD FARMING AREA.....
THE MAJOR CONCERN IS OUR GOAT INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA DO NOT HAV A PROPER AND WELL ORGANIZEN MARKETING STRTEGY.
I CAN OWN A FARM BUT I DON KNOW HOW TO MARKET MY PRODUCT, HOW CAN I SURVIVE???????????
SELLING LIVE GOAT NOT LIKE SELLING NASI KANDAR, U CAN TAKE TO A MARKET TO SELL IT, I THINK THE GOVERMENT SHOULD EXIST A PROPER MARKETING SYSTEM OR TEACH THE FARMER TO MARKET THEIR GOAT...
THATS WHAT I WANNA SOUND OUT.

varanus · Joined: 12 Feb 2006 Posts: 472

What's wrong with the marketing? I think what we have now is not marketing as we do not produce enough to meet the demand. If the demand is much higher than the products, where is the marketing problems? We are still dependent on oversea imports on the ruminant especially for meat. I think one of our problems is not producing enough.

lcs · Joined: 05 Jul 2006 Posts: 65

ha! i know that we are keep on importing the goat from the oversea. because the cost of importing is lower than what we are producing ourself. if goat farming is very profitable, there are many people involve in the goat farming since long long ago. sorry sir, can i know what marketing stategy in your mind that existing in our malaysia goat farming field??how the famer selling their goat?? i already consult with dr that involve in this field very long long ago. as i know he work with the pioneer company that taking all the exotic breed from AUS into MAL. he already told me and i think what he is telling me is true. maybe we can share what i know and what u know about the marketing strategy in malaysia in goat field. thanks!!

varanus · Joined: 12 Feb 2006 Posts: 472

I think you got me wrong. What I was trying to say is the problem is not the marketing strategy. It is the production.

Of course it is cheaper to import and to produce large animal. Our government know that. But why are we encourage producing our own. Because of currency exchange. It is true the consumer will get a cheaper product if buy from oversea but the money will go to their country. That's why government is promoting producing own dairy, meat cows as well as small ruminant. For poultry, if I am not mistaken we are self sufficient but it is cheaper to import from Thailand. All these thing are because of the scale of production. Most of the ruminant production you see are all small scales. The cost will definitely higher. Small scale farmer with 30 dairy cows compare to milions of dairy cows, which one has a lower production cost. Also of the environment factor affecting the production. Our country is not favourable for these kind of production. That's why UPM, MARDI and others are doing a lot of research to improve this situation.

Again, why do you want to think of the marketing problem when you don't have enough product to market. Just my 2 cents. Please share with us wht the dr say about marketing strategy. I will be happy to learn more thing because everyone in different field will have slightly different opinion. Put everything together we might come up with something.

Dr csh · Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 427

Quote: HA!!!! EVERY THING CAN BE SETTLE EASILY IN FARMING IF U HAVE THE MONEY!!! ALL THE MATTER IS DOLLAR AND CENTS, GOOD BREED, GOOD FORAGE,GOOD FARMING AREA.....
THE MAJOR CONCERN IS OUR GOAT INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA DO NOT HAV A PROPER AND WELL ORGANIZEN MARKETING STRTEGY.
I CAN OWN A FARM BUT I DON KNOW HOW TO MARKET MY PRODUCT, HOW CAN I SURVIVE???????????
SELLING LIVE GOAT NOT LIKE SELLING NASI KANDAR, U CAN TAKE TO A MARKET TO SELL IT, I THINK THE GOVERMENT SHOULD EXIST A PROPER MARKETING SYSTEM OR TEACH THE FARMER TO MARKET THEIR GOAT...
THATS WHAT I WANNA SOUND OUT.

I agree totally with varanus.

I think it goes without saying. Without capital, you cannot run ANY type of business. If a farmer is smart enough to understand production, nutrition, management, reproductive strategies, it will not be a problem finding out how to market their products. I am talking about smart business minded stockman and not the kampung pak cik with 30 goats running in the rubber estate and side of the road.

Marketting strategy does not take a rocket scientist. Find out who is the consumer, then approach them with a better deal than they already have. Either set up a seperate distributing company or reach agreements and contracts. Lazuli farms as advertised in another article does that really well.

I understand the point that we are facing some issues with production. Why can't we meet our demands? This is because the smart guys who know enough about how to produce goats, are producing it where they are familiar with (overseas) and making truckloads of money. The next question would be: How do we get them to produce here? One way is to give them incentives. But incentives costs money and we could buy the product cheaper than what we need to spend in incentives. Now put yourself in the government's shoes, and then put yourself in a businessman's shoes: what would you do?

The entire talk of marketting is irrelevant. If we have products to market, it will take an MBA 2 seconds to figure out the general idea and a few month of market research and negotiation of set it up. I disagree that a lack of marketting is our problem. What we are lacking is a progressing goat production industry.

wslmiaw · Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 12

We are setting up a goat farm soon in Kulim Kedah.

Any advice or comment would be appreciated, inlcuding supplies are welcomed!

wslmiaw · Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 12

We are setting up a goat farm soon in Kulim Kedah.

Any advice or comment would be appreciated, inlcuding supplies are welcomed!

Dr csh · Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 427

Good luck in your new venture. What would be your primary product? Meat, milk, replacement stock?

Advice? First of all, please set up a good record keeping system to help you firstly manage the day to day operations, prevent animals recently treated with drugs from entering the food chain, and also to help you assess your success in an objective way. WIthout records, you might not know if you actually have a problem and can help you identify trends, and assess the benefits/detrimental effects of a management change.

Secondly ,please be familiar with good management starting from feeds and feeding, breeding management, housing, vaccinations and deworming protocols, disease testing, pasture managements and waste management.

I don't know much about your operations and it is difficult to give specific advice but IF you have specific questions, feel free to ask.

brokamal · Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Posts: 1

Dear Dr csh, I too am just starting with goat rearing, albeit on a small scale, initially focusing on meat and breeding.

Am trying to draw up basic goat healthcare program for my farm, hope that you could provide some guide on this, such as vaccination and deworming protocols/schedules and maybe a list of vaccines to keep in the "first-aid" box.

TQ.

Dr csh · Joined: 21 Jan 2006 Posts: 427

To answer your questions:

Vacciation... Well I do not know what vaccine you use and the best way to get an idea of what protocol to use is to follow the manufacturer's recommendations. I think you need more information on the vaccine and the epidemiology of disease you wish to control in order for you to modify the protocol to your farm. Convenience is an important factor but if it would severely affect the efficacy, then you are better off not doing more.

One comment I can give is your vaccination program sounds too sporadic. I would recommend your bucks get the vaccine twice a year and your does and kids get vaccinated at a specific stage (a month before kidding), at specific age groups for the kids rather than whole herd vaccination programs.

For tetanus, I would NOT use antitoxin as part of herd health. Stick with the tetanus toxoid. Also, you probably need to booster the 3 month vaccination with a booster injection 3-4 weeks after the first injection.

DEWORMING:
I would strongly encourage using both management and anthelmintic use to control parasites particularly internal parasites.

For internal parasites, I would use the FAMANCHA system and perhaps pasture rotation. It takes 3 days for the parasite eggs to hatch and be infective so you want to keep them in a pasture not more than 3 days if you can help it. Also, most of the infective larvae will die by 3 weeks so if you can divide your plot of land into at least 7 small parts and rotate them, you could help minimize exposure. Also, the FAMANCHA system is highly recommended. It is known that >80% of eggs shed in a herd come from 5-10% of the animals. If you treat those, you will be able to reduce the herd shedding with minimal use of anthelmintics and by doing so, you can slow down the selection for resistant parasites. Now, how do you know which ones to treat? look at the conjunctiva (that is the pink part on the lower eye lid. if the goat is pale, then treat the goat. If the goat is pink, then do not treat them. If you need to treat the same goat more than 2-3 times a year then you are probably better off culling her at the soonest convenience.

I'm not really sure how much good foot baths do for goats but try to make sure you have the foot clean and have sufficient "effective" contact time. You could achieve this by first placing and slatted type flooring and water foot bath to remove the fecal material and mud stuck to the foot, then make sure you make a narrow but long foot bath so that the animals move through them in a line and by making it longer there will be more effective time. Also try not to have them walk right back into more mud as soon as they leave the footbath. Formalin and CuSO4 are fine. The only concern with the copper sulphate is that the copper that you use in the footbath is likely to leach into your pasture and cause high levels of copper in the pasture and goats are sensitive to copper toxicity

udeenx · Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 4 Location: kay bee

[quote="wslmiaw"]We are setting up a goat farm soon in Kulim Kedah.

Any advice or comment would be appreciated, inlcuding supplies are welcomed![/quote="wslmiaw"]

ermm..for boer supply u can buy from here...lots of supply and also cheaper price,nice businessman also -->www.kambing-boer.blogspot.com

hardcore _breeder · Joined: 14 Aug 2007 Posts: 3 Location: KL

[quote="udeenx"] wslmiaw wrote: We are setting up a goat farm soon in Kulim Kedah.

Any advice or comment would be appreciated, inlcuding supplies are welcomed![/quote="wslmiaw"]

ermm..for boer supply u can buy from here...lots of supply and also cheaper price,nice businessman also -->www.kambing-boer.blogspot.com

that guys esis(rozal) and mahatir right?..i know this two fellow...

hardcore _breeder_V2 · Joined: 14 Aug 2007 Posts: 3 Location: All Area

[quote="udeenx"] wslmiaw wrote: We are setting up a goat farm soon in Kulim Kedah.

Any advice or comment would be appreciated, inlcuding supplies are welcomed![/quote="wslmiaw"]

ermm..for boer supply u can buy from here...lots of supply and also cheaper price,nice businessman also -->www.kambing-boer.blogspot.com

there is many choice of boer supplier..but its hard to find "genuine importer/boer supplier"...there is middleman in transaction...usually they got agent at australia to manage all this things..and they just wait untill arrive at KLIA...its also depend to category..there is stud buck..commercial buck..there is boer for breeding(breeding protocol) or for slaughter(more cheap)...we also must know where the goat from...taraweena?chevdor? for me if u really want to be serious breeder...get ur money and go tu aus..by yourself..ooopsss dont forget to apply AP first.. :D

wslmiaw · Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 12

Made in Malaysia - cost effective - blocks for cattle.

www.aspenbiomass.com

Resellers are welcomed!