Managing goat kid mortality in your flock

KID mortality is one of the major production challenges that face most goat producers. A lot of goat producers incur very high levels of pre-weaning kid mortality and this reduces the productivity of their enterprises. While it may not be possible to completely eradicate kid mortality because causative factors are many, it is possible to reduce the level of kid mortality, and this is what goat producers should aim for. There are several factors which contribute to kid mortality and these factors are mainly management related although there has been a relationship noticed between some biological factors such as sex twining and kid mortality.

Generally, kid mortality is higher in twins than in single births. While the aspect of twining is a biological factor, the actual contribution to kid mortality is nutritional. The twin goat kids may be born unthrifty due to inadequate nutrition during the term of the pregnancy. Unthrifty kids are generally predisposed to a lot of mortality causative factors.

In fact, studies have shown that mortality tends to be higher in kids that are unthrifty than the lively and bubbly ones. Unthrifty refers to the goat kid that has a general sickly disposition and does not show the vitality that is normally exhibited by goat kids. Within a few days of being born, healthy goat kids show a lot of life exuberance that is so fulfilling and as a goat farmer you may spend a lot of time just watching the kids jumping around.

One of my goat kids has so much life, each time I park my vehicle, it is out and about, you would see it in no time on top of the vehicle bonnet, jumping around and enjoying itself. This is not characteristic with unthrifty kids as they tend to be weak and devoid of energy and generally tired as it were.

These are the kids that will struggle to survive beyond the three to four months weaning age. The kid will demand more care and attention which can be draining to a farmer who is inevitably committed to a whole lot of other production issues. While the reasons for unthrifty kids may be varied, it is accurate to indicate that poor nutrition of the pregnant doe is the major contributing factor.

Goat farmers need to make sure that their pregnant does are well fed especially in the last trimester of the pregnancy when the nutrition demand becomes higher. You may consider supplementing your pregnant doe if there is not enough feed in the veld. A well-fed pregnant doe will produce a healthy and fast-growing kid which you may not recognise just in three weeks after birth because of how fast it has grown.

In the absence of other external factors and diseases such a healthy kid will certainly grow to maturity. Other than nutrition, there are some important variables to kid mortality such as the general hygiene of the goat housing, vaccination against diseases such as pulpy kidney and predation.

A good goat housing should not expose a young kid to adverse weather conditions such as excessive heat, cold, wind drafts and wet conditions.

The kid should be in cool or warm housing depending on the season and the housing should also be dry not damp. Another important management factor which a keen goat producer should exercise, is observation especially when the kid is nursing from the dam. Some does will not allow kids to nurse long enough to get sufficient milk and as such the kid is almost always hungry.

There is that doe which can hardly stand for thirty seconds while the kid is nursing, you may consider holding it still to allow the kid to nurse until it is satisfied. This may be a cumbersome task if you have many kids that need that kind of help, but it may be the difference between raising the kid to maturity and losing it before weaning.

An effective goat producer should target to incur less than five percent kid mortality on his/her flock. Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.

● Mhlupheki Dube is a livestock specialist and farmer. He writes in his own capacity. Feedback mazikelana@gmail.com / cell 0772851275.