Occurrences of goat mastitis and milking management in the Oodi agricultural region, Botswana

Abstract

Goat milk production contributes less to Botswana’s dairy sectors with a low annual production of 4 tonnes per year. The objectives of the study were to evaluate goat milk production practices and attributes of goat farmers in the Oodi agricultural region, Botswana. Ninety-one farmers were purposively selected based on milk production potential from a list of 170 farmers officially registered with the Oodi agriculture station. Farmers were visited to conduct face to face interviews and administer a questionnaire. The results showed that farmers milking average three goats constituted the highest (47%) share, and the majority (46%) of them had a daily yield of 1-2 L/day followed by those yielding 4 months) were the least adopted at 4%. A significantly (P< 0.05) high (62%) proportion of farmers adopted a 3-4 months lactation period while longer lactation periods (>4 months) were the least adopted at 4%. A significantly (P< 0.05) high proportion (58%) of the farmers were not informed on mastitis nor its management. From the 38 farmers informed on the diseases only, 76% were able to diagnose the disease. Most diagnosis was based on clinical observations (68) with the low utility of California Mastitis Test (CMT) (3%). Milk production was at subsistence scale and a secondary product from meat type breeds. With a commercial mindset, improved goat management and cooperative pooling and marketing of milk the current farming setup of using meat breed for milk could prove beneficial to both the meat and dairy sectors.