Effect of Geographical Differences on Production Performance of Goat in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has a subtropical monsoon climate characterized by wide seasonal variations in rainfall, temperature and humidity which is suitable for goat rearing. The study was conducted to know the goat farm management and rearing system, feeding practices and productive performance in different geographical area of Bangladesh for the period of six months. The experiment was carried out during January to June in 2019. In this study data were collected from a total of 210 goat farmers in 28 different villages of north-western, north Bengal, south-western, and southern region of Bangladesh. It was observed that the feeding and management has great impact on goat production. Most of the farmers (80.5%) reared goats in semi-intensive system while, 12.2% farmers used free range system (extensive). The production rate and breeding performance was higher in semi-intensive system than that of extensive system. The main feeds for goats were green grass, tree leaves and main water source was pond though some farmers supplied concentrate feeds to their goats. The majority of goat farmers (83%) used village buck to bred their does and most of the farmers (89%) paid service charge to the buck keeper’s while, most of them did not keep own buck for natural service. The kidding rate was higher in northern region than that of southern region. In contrast kid mortality was higher in southern region (21%) than that of other region. The northern region was free from salinity, which was favorable for goat rearing. In this region the average number of goat (4.13 ± 0.45), doe (1.17 ± 0.26), buck (0.76 ± 0.01) and kids (2.21 ± 0.22) was higher than that of any other region. The southern region was showed low kidding rate and high kid mortality. The average number of goat (2.57 ± 0.28), doe (0.75 ± 0.11), buck (0.52 ± 0.11) and kids (1.38 ± 0.16) was lower in southern region than that of any other region. It was observed that the variation on production performance of goat in different geographical area of Bangladesh due to topography and salinity. Moreover, it was indicated that the northern region of Bangladesh has the highest performance of goat production both in intensive and semi-intensive farming.