Organic goat husbandry

Goat keeping is a little but developing sector in the German agriculture. Particularly organic goat keeping for milk production and landscape management has encroached in the last years.

Professional goat keeping is not developed well in Germany. Particularly in organic goat keeping are difficulties to fullfil standards, goals and expectations of consumers. Main problems are grazing systems and parasite prevention, high animal welfare without manipulation, indication of "good" milk, feeding and health and last but not least profitability.

The Thuenen-Institute of Organic Farming has developed organic goat systems with high animal welfare, grazing and efficient:

Which milk yields are possible under which feeding regimes?
How can we define and assess udder health and milk qualities?
How can we control parasites in grazing systems?
How do we need to construct and furnish stables for goats, particularly with horns?
How can we rear kids profitable and high animal welfare?

Udder health and milk quality

Dairy goats can have mastitis like cows, mostly sub-clinical. In comparison with cows, there were no clear definition and indicators to measure udder health and "good" milk qualities.

Kid rearing and fattening

Rearing kids from dairy goats is not easy. How can kids rearing be improved with mother suckling systems in comparison with bucket and automatic feeding systems? The other question is the fattening of kids. Which feeding regime is recommendable for animal welfare, high production performance and last but not least for profitability?

Better milk quality with less concentrate feeding

Objective of the project is an application of a pasture-based feeding system to increase the contents of essential fatty acids, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), vitamin E, xanthophylls and antioxidants in goat's milk and cheese.

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Institute of

OF Organic Farming

Organic goat husbandry

Udder health and milk quality

Kid rearing and fattening

Better milk quality with less concentrate feeding

Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute

Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries