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Sheep farming advantages over Goat farming:
Below article gives brief description, how sheep farming advantages are more compared to goat farming, in terms the grazing habits, feed consumption and maintenance.
1) Habits of grazing:– The goat is having browsing habit of grazing. They climb on the stem of plant
eat peripheral portion of leaves and buds which cause injury to the vegetation, hence goat cannot be grazed in reserved area of the forest or military area. While, sheep utilize waste of feed and fodder. They have picking habits and can survive on the waste material. Sheep graze at
the ground level while goat dislike and refuses dirty, wet, foul smelling, stale and trampled fodder .
2) Eating habits:- Sheep will not graze/eat all the day long where as Goat will be continuous grazer/eater. If the farm is Stall fed, feed cost will be less in sheep compared to goat. Goat will take lot of time for gaining weight where as she attain the weight in shorter time.
3) Goat refuses the feed, which is soiled by the other animals. They require clean and fresh feed. They are highly selective and sensitive feeding habit due to development of the taste buds while the sheep do not have selective feeding and survive on any scanty feed available in the field.
4) Goat are remarkably efficient user of the course and cellulose materials where as sheep are less efficient.
5) Goat need higher dry matter as compared to sheep. Goat is efficient and 100% converting carotene to vit- A where as sheep is less efficient.
6) Goat is having toughest mouth of all the ruminants while sheep are not so.
7) Goat consumes large quantity of feed as compare to sheep. Because of the feed cost and other factors (for stall fed sheep) , sheep farming advantages are more compared to goat farming.
8) Goat utilized the herbage from inaccessible places where as sheep do not.
9) Goat prefer the more quantity of leguminous fodder like green , arhar , cowpea, berseem , Lucerne and dry matter intake of goat is 3-5% whereas sheep require less leguminous fodder and grains and DM requirement is 3.5 %.
10) Goat moves speedily while grazing in the field often in scatter manner therefore they consume variety of medicinal plants hence the milk of goat is easily digestible and used for T.B. patient. Where as sheep moves in cluster form slowly and diversified habit of consumption of food is not present in this species.
11) Tree leaves must be harvested carefully and should be made available to the flock. The flock man must be wise and he should move the flock very slowly and due precaution should be taken at the time of grazing by the side of road for goat flock as they are too much active and aggressive in nature. The shepherds should made available leaves of bamboo, peeple, subabul, neem, anjan, jamun, bohamea, glyricidia, and tamarind etc.
12) Caudal cent glands are present in male goatwhich gives bucky smell to milk and meat, hence the people prefer sheep meat and milk as compare to goat.
13) Goat do not prefer fodder like sorghum and maize but silage , straw and hay are liked by preparing from forest grasses , while sheep eat all type of wild grasses, herbs or crops residue. Other disadvantages of goat if they are openly grazed, they are environmental destroyers.
14) Concentrates containing urid, mung, gram, and gram husk are utilized well by both the species.
15) Sheep & goat thrive on natural flora pasture and varied type of green foliage from forest, small twig matured leaves from trees. The food includes all sorts of herbages, pastures, woodland, forest, coarse grasses unappetizing weeds, shrubs, thorny bushes, brambles, tree leaves etc. Deccani, Sangamneri, Madgyal, Osmanabadi, Berari are some of the breeds rared in Maharashtra by shepherds which are named according to their region.
16) As sheep gains weight in shorter time,Commercial sheep farming advantages are more compared to commercial goat farming. Marketing also easy for sheep compared to goat.
Bottom Line: As sheep farming advantages are more, the people should concentrate on sheep farming as compare to the goat & other livestock farming.