Find in Library

A survey study was conducted in central Kerala to investigate the socioeconomic status of farmers, feeding and housing management of Malabari goats. The current study revealed that majority of the farmers in central Kerala was above 50 years of age. Females predominated in goat rearing with an overall average of 55.24 per cent while males were only 44.76 per cent. An overall average of 52.38 per cent belonged to joint family and 47.62 belonged to nuclear family. Majority of the farmers in central Kerala had less than 25 cents of land. Overall average flock size was 8.07±1.41. The central Kerala farmers preferred to rear their goats in separate sheds. Wood was the most popular housing and flooring material and raised slatted floors were common in these parts. Most of the farmers of central Kerala depended on green fodder as the primary source of roughage to their goats while some preferred straw or hay while concentrate part of the ration was constituted by commercial livestock feed and brans