3 minute read
Housing options for goat welfare
By Dr Gosia Zobel, AgResearch Senior Scientist, Animal Behaviour and Welfare
How goats are housed is an important consideration for their welfare. In recent years, we have asked many research questions around what natural behaviours are important to goats, and then examined housing options that can promote these. These studies have provided some valuable insights.
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When we house goats, there are some common trends . First, we usually use soft bedding . In North America, and many parts of Europe, bedding is often straw, and in New Zealand we tend to use wood shavings . Second, while the feed offered differs greatly between regions, the method of delivery is often at ground level, for ease of access with equipment and tractors . If, however, we look at the natural environment of goats, we know that they favour rugged, rocky mountain terrain, typically with many different vegetation sources . Goats’ hooves are built for such areas, wearing down gradually on hard rocks; in fact, a milking herd I studied in the Swiss Alps had not had their hooves looked at in almost half a year – and they looked perfectly trimmed . Goats’ preference to browse for their food, often stretching above head level, also reflect these mountainous origins . Our research has been testing some of these ideas to see if we can incorporate opportunities for natural behaviours in indoor housing environments . In one study, my colleagues and I provided goats with a choice of four different flooring options: wood shavings, plastic slats, metal mesh and rubber mats . While previous research with dairy calves suggested that wood shavings would be the crowd favourite – the goats (as goats typically do) proved this theory wrong . Indeed, goats spent most of their lying time on rubber mats, followed closely by plastic slats . They stayed away from the metal, and the does in our study mainly used the wood shavings to urinate and defecate on . In fact, almost 90 per cent of their urination events were in that area of the pen with wood shavings . Unsurprisingly, this behaviour resulted in dramatically higher bacteria counts in that bedding compared to the other options . This raised the question of whether we should incorporate a choice of flooring zones into our goat housing? If we give the goats some hard, dry surfaces for lying, and some bedded areas for defecation, this will allow them to choose where they sleep, keeping them cleaner, and maybe even decrease mastitis . When it comes to feeders, we drew on our knowledge that goats are mainly browsers and not grazers like sheep and cows . My colleagues and I designed feeders of three different heights . One required a typical floor-level feeding stance, a second presented feed at head level, and a third gave the goats a step up and encouraged them to feed with their muzzle oriented upwards . When given the option, goats actually competed for access to the third option – they were quite motivated to eat from an elevated feeder . This was confirmed when we measured intake . The goats consumed twice as much from this feeder as the floor-level one, even though the feed was identical . Although our goats were nonlactating, it is interesting to consider how this increased feed intake could influence milk production in milking does . Some farmers are already exploring these types of feeding designs in their goat housing . We know that farmers care about the health and welfare of their goats and that is why we are doing this kind of research . By actively exploring and testing alternative housing options, particularly those that give the goats a choice, this presents opportunities to promote the best possible welfare .
*AgResearch is a Crown Research Institute focused on agricultural research for New Zealand.
