Veterinary Feed Directive

Veterinary Feed Directive

livestock

The Veterinary Feed Directive becomes law on January 1. It means that livestock producers will need a prescription for medications in food and water.  This means that if you  use medications, but don't have veterinarian you need to get one by the end of the year..  A veterinarian in Prairie Farmer says the law is Good For Everyone.  

Quick Start Guide to Raising Goats in Zimbabwe

Quick Start Guide to Raising Goats in Zimbabwe

livestock

Earlier this year I interviewed Hopewell Chin'ono, an emerging farmer and journalist, about goat farming in ZImbabwe. My first question for him was why goats.

You see the reason I asked that question is because I had not seriously considered commercial goat farming. Growing up we had a few goats on our farm, but they were more pets than anything else.

In our interview with Hopewell, he talked about importing $600+ full-blood Boer goats from South Africa, and investing a significant amount of money into his goat operation. It got me intrigued and thinking perhaps I had been mistakenly overlooked goat farming. So I decided to do some research.

I spent last few months since that interview reading books, magazines, articles and listening to talks and discussions on goat farming. I discovered that there is a lot of potential in the underserved, and largely underdeveloped goat market.

You can read my interview with Hopewell here and also check out his Facebook page for goat videos and updates from his farm.


So why goats?

There are a number of reasons to consider raising goat. There is an increased demand for goat meat for export. Zimtrade did a market study and found that there is an increasing demand for goat meat regionally (Angola and DRC) and internationally (Middle East). This demand they state can provide an alternative source of export income making up for Zimbabwe's declining beef exports.

But they are other reasons besides the export market for goat farming.Goats are useful and versatile animals They can provide meat, milk and milk products, fibre and manure.

Around the world, goat farmers are renting out their goats for clearing land instead of using heavy equipment or pesticides. Rent-a-goat services are popping up in places like Australia and the United States. The University of Arkansas recently wrote a report on the business of using goats for clearing invasive species and land. The report is entitled "Using Goats for Brush Control as a Business Strategy". This could be a service local goat farmers could look into providing.

Emerging farmers in dry, low rainfall areas can also benefit from goat farming. In these dry, rural areas where limited grains and vegetables grow goat farming can be explored. Hopewell raises his goats on his family's rural village farm in Murewa.

Let's get started

We are going to cover all aspects of goat farming including choosing goat breeds, housing, feeding, caring and marketing your goats.

Choosing Your Goats

Choosing the right breed is important task and is one of the first decisions you make.There are a number of factors you need to consider when selecting your goat breed or breeds.

First you need to decide if you want your goats to provide meat, dairy or wool. Then you need to make sure your decisions matches with the available market.

You can talk to other farmers on online farmer groups and read up on goats to help you start make a decision.

Other attributes to consider when choosing your goat breeds are the breed's mothering abilities, adaptability, affordability, growth rate, carcass characteristics, milk quality, and milk quantity.

When you are ready to buy your goat you need to research and find a good breeder. When picking a breeder choose a farmer that has good records (e.g. birth weight, kidding). Go with an experienced farmer or worker to observe and inspect the goats before you purchase them.You should make an effort to avoid any animals that have any health problems. These will spread the disease to the rest of your herd. 

If you are looking for exotic breeds such as Boer goats or Kalahari reds you may have to import them from South Africa to get the best prices. When you are importing the goats from South Africa make sure you select a breeder with good records. If you are choosing high-grade breeds it might be useful to choose registered goats. Obtain the necessary paperwork for importing your goats from the government vet doctor. When you transport your goats from South Africa make sure that you give them enough time to adapt to your farm before breeding them.

While exotic breeds such as Boer goats can run as high as $600 or more per goat, most indigenous goats cost around $30-50 each when purchased locally. You need to get does (female goats) they produce kids and milk, and you also need good quality bucks for them to breed with to produce fast growing, healthy kids.

You should not purchase just a single goat. Goats are herd animals and do not do well alone. Also, profitable goat farming requires economies of scale. So you do need to invest in more than just a couple of goats.

Meat Goats

Meat goats are bred for meat production. They typicallyt require a larger space than do milk goats. They are usually large in frame and are bred for muscle and carcass development.

Here are some of the meat goat breeds well suited for Zimbabwe:

Boer Goats: originally from the Eastern Cape, South Africa. They get their name from the Afrikaans word for farmer. Boer goats are the most highly productive meat breed and considered superior to most breeds. They have good bone structure, large body size, heavy weight and are fast growing. These hardy animals are adaptable to a wide range of pastures. They have long hanging ears, backward-curved horns, white bodies, and coloured heads. You can find Boer goat breeders on the SA Boer Goat Breeders' Association page.

Kalahari Red Goats: these goats were originally bred from indigenous goat stock. They are highly adaptable to harsh conditions and are hardier than Boer goats. They are totally red in colour. They are slightly lighter in body weight than Boer goats. They have excellent mothering and milk capabilities.

African Pigmy: originally bred from African and Caribbean goats. These dwarfed goats thrive in hot climates. Though they are not dairy goats they do produce milk.

Dairy Goats

The key difference between meat and dairy goats is that dairy goats have udders. These goats are built and bred for milk production. 

Goat milk is a great substitute for cow milk especially for people with cow allergies. Goat milk can also be used for goat products such as cheese, yoghurt, beauty products and buttermilk.

The factors to consider when selecting your dairy goats are good udders, butterfat content and the quantity of milk they produce.

Dairy goats need to be routinely milked. You should establish a milking routine and stay calm during milking so that your goat doesn't knock over the milk bucket. Milking goats takes time and practice.

Here are some examples of milk goats for Zimbabwe:

Saanen: originally bred in Switzerland. These goats are white in colour with short hair and horns and upright ears. They are large, big boned animals. They are also great milk producers and can produce up to 7 litres per day. Their milk, however, is low in butterfat. Butterfat (milk fat) affects the texture of the goat's milk.

Toggenburg: originally bred in Switzerland. Toggenburg goats are adaptable to both temperate and tropical climate though they do better in cooler climates. They are a medium size, sturdy breed that ranges in colour from fawn to dark chocolate brown. Their milk is high in butterfat content. They can produce up to 5 litres of milk per day.

Nubian: these are dual purpose goats. These goats are often referred to as the " Jersey" of the dairy goats for their milk quality. They are a cross breed between African and Indian goats.  Their milk is creamy and high in butterfat.

Nigerian Dwarf: this is a miniature dairy breed originally from Nigeria.  They have been used to develop a number of other small breeds.

Alpine: excellent dairy goats. Their milk has good butterfat content making it ideal for cheesemaking. 

Fibre Goats

Fibre goats are bred primarily for their fibre. A common breed of goat for fibre is the Angora goat.

Angora: originally bred in the Angora region in Asia. They are pure white goats that are raised for their fleece. Their fleece is known commercially as mohair. Mohair is one of the world's most exclusive natural fibres. They are delicate creatures and require a lot of maintenance and nutrition.

Indigenous Goats

These goats are well adapted to harsh environments. They are bred mainly for meat. You can improve the quality of your indigenous goat flock by cross-breeding them with quality breeds like Boer goats. The advantage of indigenous goats is affordability and availability.

Housing Your Goats

Before you bring home your goats you need to have a shelter available for them to live in, as well as a fenced off paddock. The structure of the shelter does not need to be anything fancy, but must be adequate to keep your goats protected, dry and safe. It should also have good ventilation. You can build a new structure or convert an unused existing structure such as a shed or chicken run.

The goat housing keeps your goats safe from the elements (rain and wind) and also safe from theft, especially at night. You need to take animal security seriously when raising goats, especially expensive goats. Stock theft can be a big problem in a lot of farming areas. It is for us in Ruwa. Some security measures you can put in place are livestock guardian dogs, security lights and/or security guards.

Your goat housing should be fitted with feeding, watering and mineral troughs. 

Within the goat house, you need to provide stalls for breeding, weaning, storing hay and for quarantining sick animals. You will need to provide separate stalls for bucks, does with kids, does and castrated males. Bucks (male goats) should be at least 400ft away from does (female goats). This is to prevent inbreeding and breeding out of season. Make sure that your stalls are not overcrowded and each goat has adequate space.The floors in the housing can be dirt or concrete. Concrete floors are good for easy cleaning of manure and when disinfecting.

Provide access to the outdoors in a fenced off pasture area. The outdoor space should have a good quality fence such as diamond mesh fencing. The fence must be at least 1.5 m high because goats like to climb. A fence that is too short or with large holes won't work. They will either jump over it or stick their heads through the holes. Fencing should be budgeted for because it can be a significant part of your farming costs.

Feeding Your Goats

Goats require good nutrition to stay healthy. They are browsers and grazers and can usually sustain themselves on forages such as shrubs, leaves, sapling, pine trees, woody plants, rye grass pastures and weeds. While they browse and graze, goat prefer browsing trees over grazing pastures.

You need to rotate your goats when they are grazing. They can quickly deplete a pasture if grazing is not well managed. Shift them to a new pasture as soon as they exhaust the area they are on. Replenish your pasture by improving the soil and planting new grass seed. The Grasslands Research Institute in Marondera is a good source of grass seed for your goats.

Hay: hay such as lucerne (also known as alfalfa) is a good source of supplemental feed for your goats especially in the dry season. It is relatively inexpensive to grow or buy. It also helps prevents goats overgrazing the pasture and keep them healthy. Hay helps fill in any deficiencies in your goats' diets. Do use it in moderation though.

Store your hay in a dry place out of the reach of goats. If left alone goats can gorge and overfeed themselves to death. When feeding your goats put the hay in a hay rack or manger to limit waste and contamination.

Grains: Goats also need grains as supplements. You can buy commercial grains including maize grain, oats and sorghum in mash or pellet form. These grains help ensure your goats get adequate nutrients such as protein, minerals, vitamins and trace minerals.

Sweet Feed: hay pellets with molasses are a treat for your goats. Sweet feed helps your goats stay healthy, and improves milk production in milk goats.

Salt and minerals: provide your goats with salt and minerals in loose or block form. Salt encourages water consumption which is very important for goats.

Water: provide your goats with access to water in a shaded area. Put the water in a water trough. The water must be kept clean and changed regularly.

The nutrition cycle of your goats will change depending on their stage in production. Lactating goats should be fed high-quality hay and a grain ration to support their health and milk production. Good feed is critical especially close to kidding and post kidding. 

Weaning goats are weaned at about 2-3 months when they should be slowly transitioned to a creep feed ration.

Goats require structure and routine when feeding. The routine helps them anticipate what comes next. Provide them with a fixed schedule daily and monitor their eating weekly. 

Caring for Goats

The best way to care for your goats is to provide them with good feed like we discussed above and also practice preventative care.

Preventative care measures include: vaccinating your goats, managing ticks, lice and flies by dipping, and practising rotational grazing, cleaning stalls regularly, maintain good hygiene, dose and deworm goats regularly, isolate any sick animals. 

To manage your goats without overwhelming yourself set up a working facility to handle labour intensive tasks such as catching, sorting, hoofing, dehorning, shearing and castrating. There is equipment on the market that can help facilitate these tasks. 

Another important task for managing your goat farm is keeping good records. The records you keep should include your goat's birth date, birth weight, sire and dam, milk records (if relevant), treatment records, service dates etc. 

Record keeping will help with a lot of tasks including managing breeding and kidding. It also helps prevent in-breeding. In-bred kids typically have poor health and need to be culled. Tattoo your goats for easy identification and monitoring for better record keeping. Ear tags can be a temporary measure before tatooing them.

If you want to grow your goat herd you will need to breed your goat. Most commercial goat farmers have a set breeding season and schedule instead of year-round breeding. Time your breeding season with the market and availability of feed. When you are ready to breed select does that are ready in terms of season, age (around 6 months with good nutrition) and size. Coordinated breeding can reduce your work load.

Does have a gestation period of 150 days (5 months). Some goat breeds produce multiple kids. During gestation (pregnancy) you need to provide your goats with  adequate feed. When goats are kidding (giving birth) they need a quiet place and good management to avoid abortions. 

At the end of the season decide which goats to cull based on performance. Do not breed the same doe again too soon after kidding, or you can wear her out. Limit breeding does to no more than 3 times in 2 years.

Good management will increase your goats' survival rate and keep your goats healthy.

Common Problems and Diseases

Goats are prone to more internal parasites than any other herd animal. Some of the more common infections you may find in goats are pneumonia, tetanus, botulism, heart water, coccidiosis, worms, scabies, live fluke disease, arthritis and mastitis. 

Monitor your goats regularly for any signs of illness. Some signs of illness include a goat standing apart from the other goats, looking listless and dull, coughing, diarrhoea, high or low body temperatures.

If you notice any of these signs of illneess isolate the sick goat. Get some advice from an animal health advisor, extension agent or veterinarian on how to treat your sick goat (s) based on its symptoms. Make sure you explain fully the symptoms if they are unable to see the animal in person.

It is important to develop a good relationship with an experienced goat veterinarian. This person can help you with vaccinating your goats, selecting goats, and also provide you with documentation for your goats.

You should also maintain medical supplies on farm (a vet kit). This kit should include things such as ear tag applicator, gloves, mask, gauze swabs, knapsack, digital thermometer, hoof trimmers, antiseptic soap, syringes and blades. Companies that specialise in animal health such as Fivet and Farm and City are good places to visit for buying these supplies.

Marketing Your Goats

You need to have determined if there is a market for your goats. Determine when in the year the prices are the best for slaughter animals. Decide which goat market you want to target: slaughter market, meat market, value-added market or breeding market.

Timing is important for selling your goats at the prime selling stage and time. Your goats need to have reached market weight for their breed in time for slaughter time. Use a calendar to keep track of important dates. Religious holidays and observances such as Eid, Easter and Christmas are important for selling goats. Prices during these times are higher than other times of the year.

The Muslim community is a good target market for live goats and goat meat (chevon). You should look into halaal (humane) on-farm or off-farm slaughter if you are considering supplying this community.

If you have a critical number of goats you can set up and sell at auction on or offline. In-person auctions require coordination with the police and the government vet service to clear the animals. You can also sell using an online auction platform like the Remote Livestock Marketing System (RLMS).

Another market opportunity is to sell breeding stock to other farmers. You can use online and print classifieds, farmer magazine ads and social media to market your breeding goats.

The market for goat milk and goat products such as cheese is still a small, niche market so requires some legwork to find a consistent buyer. It also requires some promotion to educate consumers and stimulate demand.

Composted manure is good for citrus farming. You can sell your composted goat manure for a little bit of money to citrus farmers.

You can coordinate with other goat farmers to aggregate your goat meat to provide a consistent supply of goat meat to butcheries and supermarkets. It will also help you meet large volume orders. The market infrastructure for goats is still largely underdeveloped.

Budget

Your budget for goat farming includes variable and fixed costs. These include housing and equipment, goats, supplemental feed, labour, fencing, insurance and transportation.

Conclusion

Goat farming can require a lot of hands-on work to manage a commercial operation well. The hard work pays off in the form of meat, milk or fibre. There is also a need to continue to better coordinate and formalize this industry.

Let us know in the comments if you are a goat farmer and what your experience has been raising goats.

Further Reading

• Storey's Guide to Raising Dairy Goats, 4th Edition: Breeds, Care, Dairying, Marketing 
• Raising Meat Goats In A Commercial Operation

image sources: Hopewells' Goat Farm ZW; Dairy Goats Kenya

How to Raise Rabbits for Profit in Zimbabwe

How to Raise Rabbits for Profit in Zimbabwe

livestock

You wouldn't know it but rabbits make a great complementary enterprise for your farm. Rabbits can be raised commercially for meat, fur and compost. They can also be raised year round providing you with a continuous cash flow. They are fairly easy to manage and are space efficient. This makes rabbit farming a good addition to your existing production especially on a small farm. 

The downside of raising rabbits though is that not a lot of people eat rabbit meat on a regular basis, so the market is still relatively small.

What you'll learn:

• Choosing rabbit breeds
• Housing your rabbits
• Feeding your rabbits
• Rabbit health
• Marketing and processing your rabbits

Why rabbits?

Rabbits don't require a lot of space, making them ideal for small farms.

They are fast producing. Rabbits reach maturity in a little as 70 days.  They also produce a large number of kittens multiple times a year.

They are efficient converters of feed to protein. Making them a good alternative to some larger livestock.

Rabbits are have a number of uses including:

Meat: Rabbit meat is high-quality meat high in protein with very low fat and cholesterol.

Fibre: Some rabbits (e.g Angora and chinchilla) are raised for fibre (fur). Their skin and fur is used to make handbags and shoes.  These rabbits must be kept well groomed to prevent tangles. 

Manure: Rabbits can nurture your crops.  Rabbit manure is a great organic fertiliser and the best manure. It's a cold manure that does not burn crops when applied directly. Rabbit manure contains nitrogen (N). It can be also be used for vermicomposting (worm composting) or worm bait production.

Urine: rabbit urine can be used a pesticide in organic farming. Mix with water at a ratio of 1:30 for insecticide and liquid fertiliser.

Selecting Rabbit Breeds

There are over 30+ varieties of rabbits. Choose your breed  based on your goals and uses. Rabbits vary by size, colour and uses. Rabbit breeds can be small, medium (New Zealand White) or very large (Flemish Giant).

Talk with other farmers to determine which are the best rabbits in your area, and understand the potential diseases.

Carefully pick good quality, healthy rabbits from a reliable breeder. Don't buy rabbits with dry scabs, ear mites, sores on feet or wet noses. You will be tossing good money after bad. If you are raising rabbits for meat it will take about 12 weeks to get to the optimal market weight.

The  varieties that are common  are: New Zealand White, California White, Angora, Chincilla and Rex.  The most popular varieties for commercial meat production are the New Zealand White and the California White. 

• New Zealand White: one of the most popular commercial rabbit breeds.  It comes in white and red. It is a hardy rabbit with good growth and high production. Good mothering abilities.

• California White: also a popular commercial meat breed. It has a blocky body and is white in colour except its ears. Good meat to bone ratio.

• Angora: medium size breed. It is raised primarily for fur.

• Chincilla: it is greyish-silver in colour. It is a good breed for fur.

• Rex: rex means kind. It has short fur. It is raised mainly for fur.

• Flemish Giant: this is a heavy breed, that takes a long time to reach maturity. 

Rabbit Housing & Equipment

Before you bring home your rabbits you need to have their housing ready. Rabbit housing vary by size, materials and budget. Rabbits can also be kept in hutches indoors or outdoors.

Site selection for your hutches is important for outdoor rabbit production. When selecting the site for your rabbits make sure it is in a shaded area with east-west orientation. Rabbits will not tolerate heat. They are comfortable at a temperature range between 18-24 degrees C.

High temperatures can prove fatal, so make sure that your hutches are well ventilated and placed in a cool area. If your hutches are outdoors, paint them white to avoid overheating. If they are indoors avoid ammonia build up. 

Your rabbit housing needs to be safe, sanitary and efficient  to protect your rabbits from the elements and from predators. 

Modern hutches are made from metal wire mesh  for easy sanitation and good ventilation. You can purchase a pre-built hutch or have one made. Your hutch should be large enough to fit a doe and her litter without restricting movement. The hutch door should be large enough for easy animal management. 

There should be a porous pit below the cages with a layer of sand or gravel and drainage tile. 

Equipment:

You don't need a lot of equipment for your rabbitry. Equipment for your hutch includes feeders, watering systems, and nest boxes. 

You can use manual or automatic waterers for providing your rabbits with water. 

Use a feed trough to keep your feed clean and limit waste. A metal feeder is the most efficient feeder. If your rabbit cages are outdoors keep the feed trough inside the cage. Yo can be keep feeders outside the cage in an indoor hutch for easy refilling.

Nesting boxes: Pregnant does need nesting boxes for privacy and warmth when kindling (giving birth). Nesting boxes are enclosed except for the top.


You may also need to add lighting during the winter.

Rabbit Feeding

Livestock including rabbits need to be fed regularly. Feed is a major component (75% ) of the cost of raising rabbits. 

Commercial Pellets: feed your rabbits commercially formulated pellets. Pellets are nutrient rich and provide all the nutrients your rabbit needs, but they can be expensive. You can purchase rabbit feed from National Foods. Don't overfeed your rabbits or they may become obese and not reproduce easily.

You can supplement commercial pellets with hay, grains and greens.

Vegetables: Rabbits love carrots, lettuce, cabbages, rutabaga, weeds (dandelions). Dandelions and clover. Don't give them too much green though or it can cause runny tummies.

Hay: dry forage is another good source of feed for your rabbits. It is inexpensive to buy or grow hay (alfafa). Hay is a important source of feed because it provides roughage which keeps the rabbit's digestive system moving. 

Fodder: You can feed your rabbits fresh fodder produced using hydroponic farming. 

Grains: grains such as hay, alfalfa or wheat are good supplemental feeds.

Feeding routine: feed your rabbits once daily in the late afternoon or evening, which is their natural time for rabbits to eat. Follow the manufacturer's directions for pellet feeding.

Lactating (feeding) rabbits should be fed more. They need a high protein diet of about 350- 380g of feed a day.  To put this into context, other non-lactating mature rabbits need about 120g per day.

Water: It is also beneficial to supply your rabbits with plenty of fresh water. Water is key to growth. Add a block of salt to the feeding on occasion, it causes the rabbits to get dehydrated and forces them to drink more water.

Breeding Your Rabbits

If you decide to start raising your own rabbits start on a small-scale start with at least a buck and three or four does. This will help you get used to rabbit farming.

Key terms:  Doe (female rabbit), buck (male rabbit) , kittens (baby rabbits)

A doe can have four litters a year, with each litter producing 6 to 8 kittens.

Keep your male and female rabbits separate except when breeding. Rabbits are usually ready to start breeding between 6-8 months. This stage differs depending on the rabbit breed. Small breeds reach sexual maturity at between 5-6 months, medium breeds between 6 1/2 to 7 months and large breeds at 8 months or more. 

When your rabbits are ready to mate set a servicing date. Move the  female rabbit (doe)  to male rabbit (buck)'s cage.  Does are territorial of their cages so do not bring the buck to the doe. 

Mating will occur at once. Once mating is complete the buck falls off, sideways or backwards. Return the doe to her cage. One buck can service 8 to 10 does. Limit mating to 2-3 times a week.

Check at day 14 that the doe is pregnant. The does abdomen should be palpated.  If the doe is not pregnant you can mate her again with the same or a different buck.

The gestation period of a rabbit is about 28-31 days. Which means you will have a new litter of kittens (baby rabbits) in a month!  Place a nesting box in the hutch at day 28 of the pregnancy. The nesting box gives the doe privacy, and provides protection and warmth for the litter. The box should be large enough for the doe and her litter. Add dry bedding to the nesting box. 

Signs that a doe is ready to give birth include doe pulling out her hair. The doe usually kindles (gives birth) at night. Observe and count the kittens. Remove and discard any dead kittens. 

Kittens are born with their eyes closed and no fur.  Their eyes open at 10-12 days. The doe breastfeed the kittens until they are about 5 weeks, when they are weaned off and started on hay. You need to provide your doe with extra feed when she is lactating.

Keep a breeding record for each rabbit. A breeding record shows when the doe is ready to kindle (give birth).

Does can be bred again after kindling (giving birth) for up to 4 times a year. Check the condition of rabbit before mating again and avoid burn-out or overbreeding. 

Males and females can be housed together in a colony until 3 months. The bunnies be moved at 3 months to avoid fighting and inbreeding.

Caring For Rabbits

Keep good records of buck and doe breeding and weaner records. Tattoo or tag your rabbits for easy identification. Record keeping is important for managing your rabbits. Without good records, you know won't know if you are doing well or not.

Record the mating dates to prepare for placing nesting boxes and kindling. Other things to record include breeding, culling, kindling, mortality and marketing. Attach the records on a hutch card outside the hutch. 

Clean rabbit cages at least once per week.  Provide clean hay bedding. Keep flies out of your hutches by using a fly traps. Remove and manage manure.

Groom and check teeth and nails. Monitor the behaviour of your rabbits for any signs of illness.

Health & Common Diseases Affecting Rabbits

Rabbits are susceptible to a number of diseases. Disease can cause a drastic decrease in your rabbit production.  Prevention through good sanitation, proper ventilation and regular monitoring are the best methods of limiting disease.

It is a good idea to establish a relationship with a good veterinarian who specializes in small animals to periodically check your rabbits for various diseases.

Some Common ailments:

1. Cold and sniffles: sneezing, runny rose. Remove and isolate the sick rabbits.
2. Ear canker: scabs in the inside of the ear cause by ear mites. Apply oil every 3-4 days.
3. Sore hooks: hind feet infected. Use warm soapy water. Provide clean bedding.
4. Sore eyes: caused by dampness and draft. Sign is weepy eyes.
5. Mastitis: inflammation of the mammary glands. Can be treated with antibiotics. If you use antibiotics to treat make sure you give withdrawal period before slaughtering. 
6. Enteritis: sign is diarrhea, caused by an intestinal infection.
7. Coccidiosis: a parasitic disease. Ask your vet for recommendations.

Monitor  your rabbit behavior to identify signs of illness. Isolate any sick rabbits from the rest of the herd until the animals are better. 

Practice biosecurity measures to keep your rabbits healthy.

Biosecurity measures to practice:

• Isolate new rabbits
• Quarantine sick rabbits and properly discard any dead rabbits
• Provide routine medical care
• Limit number of visitors, as they can introduce diseases to your rabbit
• Clean cages regularly; remove waste regularly
• Keep water clean
• Control flies with fly traps

Processing Your Rabbits

Rabbits such as the California white rabbit are ready for processing at 10-12 weeks. Your can process your rabbits on your own farm or deliver them to an abattoir for processing.

If you are transporting your rabbits to an abattoir put them in shipping crates with bedding. It is important to provide the rabbits you are transporting with adequate space and good ventilation. 

If you are processing your rabbits on your own farm, stun them first. You also need a clean place to slaughter them.You can read more about butchering rabbits in Polyface's guide to butchering rabbits. 

Marketing your Rabbits

The average consumer is not in the market looking for rabbit meat. Rabbits are currently a niche market. Most suppliers sell directly to family and friends. 

To increase the number of rabbit buyers you will need to educate consumers. One way to educate consumers is by braaing rabbit meat for sale and sampling. 

You may need to look into processing your rabbit meat into more familiar products like sausages. 

Two examples of companies processing rabbit meat into a number of products are Rabbit Republic in Kenya and Coniglio Meat Farm in South Africa. 

Coniglio sells whole rabbits and also processes rabbit meat into a number of products including burgers, sausages, fillets and frozen whole rabbits. 

The Rabbit Republic processes rabbit meat into sausages, kebabs and samosas for the Kenyan market. 

Look into grocery stores, fine dining restaurants, and hotels to sell your dressed rabbits. You can also advertise that you have rabbit meat available. To export you will need large quantities of rabbits.

Financials

Depending on your market, rabbits can sell for about $8. Your main costs are your initial costs of housing, equipment and breeding stock. Ongoing costs are feed, medical care and labour.

Conclusion

Rabbit meat is still much more expensive than chicken meat. Consumers will usually opt for chicken over rabbit because of price.  It is a good add on to your farming enterprise, but requires identifying a market before you get started. 

Further Reading


The Rabbit-Raising Problem Solver: Your Questions Answered about Housing, Feeding, Behavior, Health Care, Breeding, and Kindling

Fertilizing with Organic Biosolids

Fertilizing with Organic Biosolids

livestock manure

We used to call it manure.  One of my clients had saved a field for manure spreading.  He will till the field to incorporate the manure and then plant soybeans.  Manure Spreading Video The fertilizer is organic, but he uses pesticides and fungicides.

How Fly Farming Could Be the Next Big Thing in Animal Feed Production

How Fly Farming Could Be the Next Big Thing in Animal Feed Production

Animal Feed livestock

Animal farmers are currently facing rising feed costs.

 The cost of animal feed is a significant portion of your budget as a livestock farmer.  In times of drought,  we are currently experiencing in Zimbabwe, they are shortages of grains (maize and soy) used in livestock feed.

Input suppliers, therefore, need to import maize and soy at high prices to make up for the shortfall. This makes feed expensive and out of the reach of most current and would-be livestock farmers.

 However, feeding your animals (such as chickens and fish) doesn't need to be expensive.


Enter insect farming for feed...

Insects are one way that animal feed can be more accessible and affordable for emerging farmers. Around the world, farmers and researchers are looking at insect farming as a way to supplement or replace grains and fishmeal in animal feed.

Insects can be produced year-round especially in our temperate climate. They require less land and 90% less water than grains to produce a sustainable and cheaper protein. Bugs and insect larvae are also what chickens naturally eat, just watch any road runner{pasture-raised chickens} they are likely scratching for fly larvae or bugs.

Farming Black Soldier Flies

Seven years ago, South African entrepreneur and author Jason Drew, decided to recycle food waste from local restaurants and companies to commercially breed black soldier flies. He built a complex in Stellenbosch, South Africa that breeds one million black soldier flies. {source}

The flies breed and lay eggs which hatch into larvae. The larvae are fed slaughterhouse blood until they reach an optimal size for harvesting. They are then separated from the waste which is dried and ground into high protein feed for chicken and fish farmers. The process of learning to breed black soldier flies commercially took Jason Drew a lot of trial and error. After about 5years of research and trials his company, Agriprotein released its Magmeal, a maggot-based animal feed for the local and export market.

Locally, Zimbabwe Earthworm Farms founder Ephraim Whingwiri recently shared that his company had begun breeding maggots, drying and mixing them with maize meal to produce livestock feed for the local market.

I first learned about black soldier fly farming when I visited Growing Power Farm in Milwaukee. They had just started breeding flies in a hoop house and hadn't yet started using it for supplemental poultry feed.

Are you animal farming? How are you making ends meet with rising feed costs? What are your thoughts on breeding black larvae flies for livestock feed?

I have to admit that it does make my turn my stomach, but I can also see the value of  a cheaper and resource efficient feed.

Hope you can join us on Facebook to discuss.

Happy farming!

{Photo source: Flickr)


About the Author

Eleanor Musarurwa Manske is the co-founder and editor of Emerging Farmer.

The Quick Start Guide to Raising Broiler Chickens in Zimbabwe

The Quick Start Guide to Raising Broiler Chickens in Zimbabwe

livestock

Oh, chicken farming. We do love raising our broiler chickens.

From urban backyard farmers to medium and large-scale commercial farmers people are raising broiler chickens. Broilers are fast growing (they go from chick to market ready in just 6 weeks), giving them a quick return on investment.

However according to the Zimbabwe Poultry Association broiler chicken farming has come under a lot of pressure in the past year.

They found that producers face challenges of rising feed costs, a flood of imports, rising energy costs and falling consumer demand. Sales of day-old chicks saw a 4% decrease in 2015 from 2014 figures.

While it is certainly a challenge to raise broilers at the moment, it can still be done profitably but only if it's done properly. The key is to get fully prepared.

Here is what you need to get started.



You'll learn

• How and where to buy chicks
• Building a suitable chicken house
• Feeding broiler chickens
• Health and disease prevention
• Processing your chickens
• Marketing your chickens

What is a Broiler Chicken?

Very simply put broilers are chickens that a bred for meat in 5-7 week cycles. There are two  main types of white hybrid broiler breeds raised locally: the Cobb 500 (imported from the UK) and Hubbard (imported from France). These are fast growing chickens primarily raised in chicken houses.

Building Your Chicken Coop

Before you bring home your chicks you need to set up your chicken housing (also known as a coop or run). Take out a pencil, some graph paper or a math book and look around your farm. What other birds are you farming? Are you raising pigs? Where is your soil well-drained.

Set up your site away from other farm animals (like pigs and other poultry). If you are raising chickens for a contractor like Irvine's they will require you to locate your chicken runs, at least, a kilometre away from other on-farm birds and pigs.

Once you have chosen your housing site. The next step is to build or if you already have a structure, to renovate that structure. A good structure reduces disease and keeps your chickens safe from predators.

A good structure does not necessary mean an expensive structure, just a well designed one. In warm climates such as ours, most mid-size commercial chicken farmers use open-sided runs of various sizes. Large scale operations typically use climate controls.

Here is an example of an open sided chicken house:

Image: via Farmers SA

Chicken house design considerations:

Floors: Lay a flat, concrete floor for easy cleaning and to reduce dust which affects the chickens breathing.

Orientation: The house should be oriented away from direct sunlight.

Roof: Your roof should be waterproof, high pitch and insulated. Insulation prevents heat loss in the winter and minimizes heat build-up in the summer. The high pitch helps with ventilation.

Walls: Build short side brick walls with wire mesh and curtains (see green curtains in the image above). Curtains should open from the top to bottom and not close too tight.

Bricks are a good option for building your coop. Avoid using corrugated metal to build your coop. Jan Grobbelaar states in "Why Poultry Farms Fail" that "corrugated chicken houses become ovens in the summer". This is not a comfortable environment for chickens, and can lead to heat stress and high mortality rates.

Space: Your chicken house must have enough space for your chickens. A stocking density of 10-12 birds per square meter is typically recommended to avoid overcrowding.

Examine and close any leaks and holes in the roof and floors. Make sure there are no holes for rodents, pests and predators to enter your run or that allow floor drafts.

Clear trash and weeds around the house to reduce pests, and add perimeter fencing.

Where to buy chicken house equipment: You can contact us to order farm bricks, hard commons or cement bricks for your chicken coop. We provide delivery in and around Harare.

Now that your first chicken run is properly set up. You need to buy your poultry tools.

Tools and Resources for Raising Chickens

• Water tank: a convenient clean water source near the chicken house
• Fans: for ventilation
• Brooder Box: get a carpenter to make you a brooder for spot brooding.
• Gas or Electric Poultry Brooder: for heating and keeping chicks warm. You need 1 per 100 chicks
• Baby Chick Feeders: 3 feed trays per 100 chicks
• Chicken Feeders: spread out evenly and adjusted to chicken height
• Chick Founts or automatic waterers: 3 per 100 chicks
• Tube Feeders: 3 per 100 chicks
• Drinkers: bell and nipple drinkers for water
• Litter: white wood shavings or wheat straw are good options
• Work suits: for people working in chicken runs
• Gumboots: to protect your feet
• Detergents and disinfectants: to clean houses
• Thermometer: to measure temperature in house
• Scale: to weigh your birds

Some places to buy poultry tools and supplies: Poltek; James North

Biosecurity

Once your chicken run is set up and equipped its time to consider biosecurity.

When we hear the word biosecurity some emerging farmers get intimidated. Biosecurity is not scary or just for large-scale operations.

We all need to implement biosecurity measures at our own scale to protect our investment and reduce the risk of disease spreading and wiping out our flock.

Biosecurity measures you can take:

• Place a footbath with disinfectant at the front of the door of your coop
• Encourage proper hand-washing and provide farm workers with hand sanitizers
• Provide protective clothing (overalls) for farm workers
• Set aside gumboots for the chicken runs
• Don't allow or limit visitors to chicken house{fight the urge to show off your birds}
• Provide visitors with boot covers
• Clean and disinfect your coops (walls, ceiling, and equipment)
• Set up semi-automated drinkers and tubular feeders
• Set up brooder 
• Provide deep, clean bedding 
• Keep litter clean
• Park away from poultry houses
• Fence perimeter
• Provide signage
• Visit sick flock last
• Control any pests (using flycatchers, rodent traps and securing holes)
• Build concrete floors to limit dust 

Chick Pre-Arrival Checklist: 

Before you bring home your vaccinated chicks make sure that you are prepared. It is important to give your chick a good start. The first few days of a chick's life are critical.

Here is a chick pre-arrival checklist, to help you get started right:

Selecting a Hatchery and Buying Your Chicks

Ask other farmers who have successfully raised broilers to recommend a good commercial hatchery in your area. A commercial hatchery generally has good quality chicks. 

Decide on the number of chicks you want for your first run and place your order. Make a note of your scheduled date of pick-up. Select chicks that are vaccinated, disease-free and not deformed. Starting with good quality chicks is important for your poultry survival rate. Double check your chick quality yourself before you leave. Note the number and weight of your chicks for your records.

Where you can buy chicks: Drummond Farms (Bulawayo); Masvingo Chicks;  Surrey Huku; Hukuru Chicks/ Charles Stewart

Brooding Your Chick

Why brood chicks?

Baby chicks need artificial brooding (heating) for the first days of their lives. They are unable to maintain their own body temperature without external support. In the natural setting the hen keeps the chicks warm.

Build a brooder: You need to build a brooder for your chicks. A brooder is a box where new chicks live during their early days. You can find a carpenter to make you a simple wooden brooder with high sides. Cover the brooder with wire mesh to protect your birds and keep them from flying out.  Cover the floor of your brooder with wood shavings or straw.The size of your brooder depends on the size of your flock.

First chick feeding: place your chicks in the brooder as soon as possible on arrival and close the door. Give your chicks broiler starter feed (crumbles) on the floor in a chick feed tray either immediately or within 3 hours of arrival. Also, give them warm water with a sweetener (sugar) for first few hours, to replenish chicks especially if they have travelled long distances.  Water helps them with feed consumption and reduces dehydration.

 Leave them for one hour to adjust to their new environment.

Check chicks every 4 to 6 hours for the first 24 hours.

Heat the Brooder: You need to have some sort of heat source for your birds, such as this infra-red lamp. A simple light bulb is not adequate to keep your chicks warm.  For the first 7 to 10 days of a chick's life they need to be kept warm (brooded). Heat is important  for preventing heat loss and death. Make sure that you select a heat source that doesn't cause a fire. Check on your chickens during the evening.

Chick Behavior: Chick behavior is important to monitor to determine chick comfort levels. Your chicks should be evenly spaced out in the brooder and have easy access to feed and water.

You can use a thermometer and visual clues to for signs of discomfort. If  your chicks are too loud it's a sign that they are too hot. If they are huddled  and sleeping in the feeders they are likely too cold. An even spread is a sign of comfort.

Adjust temperature and pay attention to any floor drafts. A good temperature is important for your chick growth and health.

Lighting: Chicks are attracted to light. They don't eat or drink in the dark. Lighting stimulates early feed intake in the first 7 days of  your chicks' lives. Provide chicks with even and continuous lighting in the early days. Recommended lighting is 23 hours on and 1 hour off. An option for frequent power outages is a solar powered henlight.

Lighting can be gradually reduced as chicks grow.

Ventilation: ventilation brings in fresh air and removes heat. The open sides of your run provide air flow into the coop and remove gases. Opening and closing coop curtains can help with ventilation when there is the wind. Make sure you have only ventilation but no cold drafts in the floor. In hot periods ventilation can be supplemented with evenly spread fans.

Weighing chicks: At day 7, weigh a sample of your chicks to see how they are growing. Your chicks' seven-day body weight is correlated with their market age weight. The target is for the seventh-day weight to be about four times their arrival weight.To weigh your chicks, get10 chicks weigh them to get their total weight and divide that number by 10. This will give you an idea of the average weight of your chicks.

Chicken Coop

Once the brooding stage is complete chicks need to be transitioned into the general chicken coop. This must be done carefully and gradually. Continue to maintain good spacing, feed, and water to continue growth.

Ventilation: Increase ventilation in the general coop to prevent build up of gases. Extreme heat causes chickens to have heat stress. When it's too hot chicks pant to try breathe better, but it is not always sufficient. You can help them manage heat stress with air, water, more space and not feed them when it's too hot.

Litter: Use good chicken litter like wood shavings or wheat straw on the coop floor. These materials absorb water well and are comfortable for your birds. Spread the litter evenly to a depth of  about 7.5 to 10cm.

Rake the litter weekly and top up litter over wet litter to keep birds comfortable.  Letting your manure build up causes your chicks to have health problems. Cleanliness is key to good chicken farming. Joel Salatin in "You Can Farm" states that a properly managed livestock housing facility does not smell. Smelling, he says, is a sign of mismanagement.

Feeding Your Broiler Chickens

Feed:Your broilers need high-quality feed to efficiently convert it into meat, and to meet their target market weight. Commercial feed makes up about 60% of your chicken farming budget. This is a significant portion of your costs.

Pay attention to how you mix your feed, and follow the supplier guidelines.

How to feed broilers: poultry feed comes in starter, grower and finisher forms. Broilers need different energy, protein and mineral  requirements depending on their stage of growth.
Follow the recommended feed schedules to provide your chickens with the right amount of nutrients at the appropriate growth stage.  If you attempt to reduce their feed intake from what is suggested you will reduce your profits as your chickens won't grow as much.

When to feed chickens: Provide feed in the early morning, evening and night. Adjust feeders to chicken height to ensure minimum spillage. Make sure that your feeders are filled regularly, but not overfilled.

Storing feed: If you are storing your feed long term place it in a cool, dry place to reduce spoilage due to mold and vitamin loss.

Water

Water is a critical and often overlooked part of chicken farming. Your broilers need clean water to digest food and rehydrate. They drink twice as much water as food consumed especially during hot periods.

Make sure have a good source of clean water that is easily accessible. Keep you water tank in a cool spot, or paint it white to keep it from overheating. Clean out drinkers and nipples regularly, they get dirty quickly.

Some places to buy feed and water tanks: National Foods, Profeeds, and Novatek. Check the classifieds and auction sites for water tanks. 

Health & Disease Prevention

The biosecurity measures described above are a good way to prevent or limit disease. Clean housing, feed, and ventilation are important in chicken farming. However, even when you follow good guidelines your birds can fall ill.

Broilers grow fast and sometimes their growth outstrips their bodily functions and they need help.

Some measure you can take to help:

Vaccinations: Check with your hatchery  for the vaccinations they have administered and for a recommended vaccine schedule. Chicks need to be vaccinated against common diseases like gumboro and Newcastle's disease. The vaccines are put in the water. Do not vaccinate sick birds.

It's important to recognize common diseases and make necessary adjustments to housing temperatures, spacing, biosecurity, water, and feed.

Here are 4 common diseases to watch out for:

• Infectious Bursal Disease (gumburo)
• Newcastle Disease
• Infectious Bronchitis
• Coccidiosis

Some signs that you birds are sick: weight loss, swelling, scaly legs, excessive scratching, sneezing, wheezing and coughing, blood in droppings and greenish watery droppings. Check with your extension agent or poultry vet. Fivet has some good advice on poultry diseases.

Isolate any sick chickens. Remove dead chickens immediately from the coop, and dispose of them properly. Wash hands after handling dead birds. Poultry disease when it spreads can wipe out your entire investment.

Make sure birds are getting adequate food and water. If you have high early mortality rates, check your transport and your hatchery and contact a poultry vet for proper diagnosis.

Your target is to keep our mortality rates at 1-2%. Vaccines can reduce risk, but good hygiene is much more important. Treatment only increases production costs  and is not always effective especially when overused.

Where to get vaccines: Fivet

Pre-processing

You need to manage the final stage of your growing operation so that your birds are transferred to your abattoir in optimum condition.

Step 1:  two to four days before you plan to process your chickens for slaughter return to 23 hours of lighting.  

Step 2:  withdraw feed 8-10 hours before processing and reduce lighting intensity. 

Step 3: raise drinkers above head height before catching birds.

Step 4: when transport is ready, birds should be captured and held with both their legs to minimize distress.  Leave farm as soon as chickens are loaded on to transportation.

Once your chicken flock has been removed. Remove and compost all litter from the shed and fully clean and disinfect chicken houses before your next batch. Allow 2-3 weeks between you bring in your next batch.

Marketing and Sales

Financial viability will be dependent on selling your chickens as soon as they reach market size. One of the mistakes newbie farmers make is to grow first, and market later. This is a costly mistake with broilers because it increases your feed costs. Before you buy your chicks you should be brainstorming and exploring where you are going to sell them.

Here are some options for where to sell your broilers:

Selling to Abbatoirs: You can sell your live chickens to an abattoir or directly to a butchery. Two examples of poultry abattoirs are Koala Park Butchery & Abbatoir and Surrey. 

Direct Live or Slaughter Bird Sales: You can sell your live birds or dressed chickens directly to individuals or traders. You need to qualify your buyers before you sell to them especially on credit to make sure you get paid.

Contract Farming: Surrey, Drummond and Irvine's do contract farming.  Ask other farmers about their experience before picking a contractor.  When you are ready, contact the contractor you are interested in working with directly for their contract requirements.

Fully read and understand the contract terms. In a typical arrangement, you are responsible for the poultry housing, tools, labor, and litter. This can require a significant capital investment. The contractor will provide you with day old chicks, feed, transport, vaccines, medication and cleaning supplies. Assess the pros and cons for your specific situation.

Budget & Recordkeeping

One super easy way to estimate your costs is the use Profeeds' calculator.

This is an awesome tool that calculates all the costs that you will incur when raising your batch of broilers.

Some of your costs will include:

• Day old chicks
• Stockfeed (starter, grower and finisher)
• Litter
• Energy bills  (heating and lighting)
• Labour
• Processing fees
• Transport

It is important to keep good records throughout your growing cycle. Good record keeping even if it's just writing everything down in an exercise book is the key to profitability and recognizing and correcting problems.

Next steps:

Consider joining the Zimbabwe Poultry Association: this is the group that lobbies on behalf of chicken farmers and poultry related companies.

It keeps members updated on developments (market prices; feed costs etc) in the industry. It's not enough to grumble about illegal imports. Collective action can help educate consumers and government about the health and economic impact of imported expired chickens on domestic industry.

Let's stop "winging" it! Read up, get educated, take a practical training course and then get started.

Contact us and sign up to our email list to receive this Emerging Farmer's Quick Start Guide to Raising Broilers in Zimbabwe as a pdf.

Images: Poltek/ Amazon