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Training

Training on Goat Care

Most Ugandans have a basic working knowledge of goats and how to care for them.  However, this can lead to overconfidence with the improved breeds, so training is needed in specific areas.

• Any goat which is growing faster or producing more milk than local goats will need more and better feed.  more…

• Because of the danger of disease, the high-grade males need to be housed instead of grazing freely. This is not critical for the cross-bred offspring, but is still helpful.  more…

Training on Record Keeping

Probably the biggest challenge that this programme faces is the issue of record keeping. Records are not kept at all by keepers of local livestock. Some of the older people have very poor literacy skills, and many others have hardly practiced what they  learnt at school.

Consequently a major part of the training and support is concerned with record keeping - records of matings, and even more importantly records of births and ancestry.

more...

Training on the breeding plan

There is general awareness that breeding stock can be improved by cross-breeding local animals with introduced (‘exotic’) varieties. But few people understand the details of how to go about this and what to expect from the offspring. The following flash videos are based on the flip charts that we use for village training.

How an individual can breed 50% crosses

How improved stock is established in a whole village

Selective Breeding

Selective breeding is a very poorly understood concept in rural Uganda. This is especially true with regards to selecting good males for dairy animals. Coordination of breeding at village level is almost unknown. So right from the initial introduction of the programme, this topic is included in the training. It also features strongly in the follow-up of the breeders’ groups.

Diagramatic representation of selection, as used in the training

Record keeping training in Masaka District