How to Start a Goat Farm

The order of work

1. 1

   1. Decide your scale honestly

   Start with 10 to 20 does and one buck. Small enough to learn on, big enough to be worth the effort. You can expand from your own kids later.

2. 2

   2. Choose and prepare the site

   Well-drained land, above flood level, with reliable water and road access for feed in and animals out. Away from the house but close enough to check twice a day.

3. 3

   3. Build the shed

   Dry, ventilated, tall enough to walk into and clean. This is where your money should go first.

4. 4

   4. Plant fodder before buying goats

   Napier and fodder trees need months before first cutting. Planting them now means the feed is ready when the animals arrive.

5. 5

   5. Buy stock, in one batch if possible

   Local does plus one good Boer buck. One source, one batch — this limits disease risk sharply.

6. 6

   6. Quarantine everything that arrives

   Three to four weeks separate from any existing animals. Deworm on arrival.

7. 7

   7. Vaccinate and start records from day one

   PPR above all. A notebook with dates beats memory every time.

Getting the shed right

The shed does more for goat health than any medicine. Wet ground and stale air cause pneumonia, foot rot and worm reinfection — the three things that quietly destroy the economics of a small farm.

• Tall enough to stand and walk in, so cleaning actually happens. Around 5 feet minimum at the low side.
• Floor raised off the ground, or bedding you can genuinely keep dry.
• Air moving above the animals, with no draught at floor level.
• Roof overhang wide enough to keep monsoon rain off the bedding.
• Sloped floor with drainage so urine runs away rather than pooling.
• Separate pens for a sick animal, for kidding, and for new arrivals.
• Feed troughs and water raised off the floor, away from where dung falls.
• Enough space that goats are not pressed against each other.

Fodder comes before scale

Goat farming is a fodder business. A farm with twelve months of feed secured rarely fails; a farm with six months of feed and twice the animals usually does. Plant Napier and fodder trees first, then size the herd to what the land can feed — not the other way round.

• •Plant Napier or Super Napier for bulk cutting through the growing season.
• •Plant fodder trees along boundaries — ipil ipil, kutmero, khanyu, tanki, kimbu, moringa.
• •Plan for the December-to-April gap now, through silage or hay, not when it arrives.
• •Budget concentrate as a running cost. It is the largest one after stock.

Choosing your first animals

For most first-time farmers the best combination is local does — already adapted to your climate and feed — with one pure or high-percentage Boer buck to cross them. Every kid born is a fast-growing cross while the mothers keep the hardiness that makes the farm survivable.

Registration, subsidy and insurance

Nepal has subsidised agricultural loan programmes and a livestock insurance scheme with a government-supported premium, and local governments periodically run goat-farming training and grant programmes. The specifics change from year to year and differ by municipality, so the practical step is to visit the offices rather than rely on anything written online — including this page.

• Your ward or municipality office — registration, local grant and training programmes
• The district Veterinary / Livestock Service office — vaccination support and technical advice
• A commercial bank or agricultural bank — subsidised agri loan schemes
• An insurance company offering livestock cover — ask about the government premium subsidy

The first 90 days

• Quarantine new animals for 3–4 weeks and deworm on arrival
• Vaccinate against PPR
• Start a notebook: date, animal, weight, treatment
• Mark five animals and weigh them monthly
• Check eyelid colour monthly for anaemia
• Establish a twice-daily feeding and water-checking routine
• Get your vet's number written on the shed wall before you need it