₦airaland Forum

It’s been 1 year and 7 months since I started, and I can confidently say that goat farming is one of the easiest types of livestock farming.

Goats can eat grass, leaves, kitchen scraps, and almost anything edible that also keeps them playful and active.

The goat market is usually a lively place where farmers bring goats of all sizes and ages to sell. You’ll find butchers buying for meat, people buying goats to rear at home, restaurant buyers, and goat traders all doing business there.

When you’re just starting out, pay close attention when you visit the market. Look for goats that are active, healthy, and alert or if it’s a pregnant goat, make sure she still looks strong and lively. Go for the one that seems full of energy, always moving, bleating loudly, and acting like it could run off the moment it’s set free that’s usually a good sign.

1. Avoid keeping quiet and Inactive goats

Such goats are better off sold for meat or to someone who doesn’t know much about goat farming, there’s a reason for that.

Starting with one or two pregnant goats can really boost your farming progress. Goats carry their babies for about seven months, and many give birth to two or three kids at once.

In my own case, the two female goats I started with each gave birth to one female kid first, and then to two kids each in later births, all within just 1 year and 7 months. Now, the first two female kids have grown and are pregnant themselves, bringing my total number of pregnant goats to three.

The white female goat was the one I bought myself after searching the market for already pregnant goats which were either scarce or too expensive. I sent a relative to buy the black female goat that was available at the time, but honestly, she turned out to be the dullest and laziest goat I’ve ever owned. Worse, she’s now passing her bad habits to her kids. So, I’ve decided to sell her off by Christmas 2025.

Just kicked off a small nursery setup 🌱

Mixed some loamy soil with cured manure and sowed 5 pepper seeds and 3 papaya seeds today.

With dry season farming around the corner, I’ll be watering and nurturing them till they mature, got some plans for these beauties 😎

Hoping to harvest the peppers for my own use when prices shoot up during the dry season 🔥🌶️

bassdow:
Okay

What I often do is bury them underground prior to planting e.g 3 to 4 weeks to next planting, I bury the raw manure underneath the soil. Basically just spreading them over the soil and covering with at least 2-inches of soil.

You’re correct. Once you add the manure, just make sure it’s well-rotted and not fresh. If you give the soil at least 2 weeks and above before planting, you’re good to go

bassdow:
what's essence of partially covering it, rather than leaving it fully open

Here are some few reasons I could think of:
Preservation of nutrients (nitrogen and potassium are better preserved while open fully under sun makes them vaporize quickly)
partial covering kills pathogens better and reduces odor & flies and most importantly, manure becomes richer and safer hence the speedy fermentation.

Great farming ideas and businesses all had their humble beginnings and this is mine in the making. By next year’s farming season, I pray to transform my efforts into a larger phase where I will be able to farm in both the wet and dry seasons and with a solid farming calendar suited to my location.

it practically took me 77 days to grow a local yellow maize seeds with my homemade organic liquid fertilizer from a 15ft by 8ft garden to harvest ready after following my own organic inputs chart & fertilizer schedule.
I was able to get 42 bunch of maize..

All 100% grown on heavy clay soil type🤳
Naa God get power🙏
Mission accomplished and unto the next phase of my farming endeavors

day 73

It rained heavily last night after almost 2 weeks of drought, I applied banana peels tea this morning and according to my organic compost/fertilization chart for maize, I was to spray a sieved wood ash liquid mix with Neem/ dogoyaro leave compost to control fungal incidence but I just left out that part since everything looks health so far

RainMoreDFARMS:
May God give you the strength to expand

Amen broda🙏

RainMoreDFARMS:
I planted maize 2 weeks ago, hoping there would be rain before August ending, it germinateed and eventually, everything dried up.
.
May God see us through in this region

Amen ooh 🙏 my broda. I started this so-called ‘fruitless’ adventure on June 28, and it has been full of challenges. The animals kept disturbing, trying to ruin everything and eat up the plants. On top of that, I was gardening on heavy clay soil and during the peak of the rains, I could only pray that my work wouldn’t be washed away by the waterlogged mud. Some maize even had to be straightened up and anchored to some few others for support afterwards. What some folks on NL thought was a hopeless effort is finally beginning to show promise, today marks day 69. At least I now know what to do and expect on one full plot of fertile land next time lol

RainMoreDFARMS:
Which part of the country are you, seems youre enjoying steady rainfall in your area.

The months of July and August, it rained just twice (slight showering) here in Ogun State

Abuja NG. day 68 pic attached

Day 67

I can't count all the developing corn kernels I' m seeing right now and I have four stands with double kernels forming on each..I will be applying some banana peels compost tea to further boost kernels development tomorr and will also defoliate all bottom dry leaves and some disease ones too..

my backyard neighbor who happens to be a tenant don dey joke about me giving her a taste of my maize garden, something wey never mature well or dey ready for harvesting.

A few months ago, I applied for a training program funded by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE). The program is the Rural Employment Promotion (REP) initiative, under the Fish Production and Feed Formulation Training Scheme (FPFFTS) with a focus on Fish Production, specifically in the Abuja chapter.

Today, I received an email confirming that I have been shortlisted. I’m curious to see how it goes, as my main interest is the potential access to loan credits that could help grow my investments. The certification, of course, will also look impressive on the wall of my agro office.

Right now, I’m harnessing every resource I can from; personal savings, trainings, business name registration and with agribusiness feasibility plan to shape my agro start-up into a strong and stable venture with a focus on both crop and livestock production.

There will be another round of training by NDE, should you are interested I will let y'all know when the time comes

day 63
they said I was on a fruitless adventure, another person said earlier on that all am doing was just a grand exercise of futility but here I am - thanking God🙏 alive and kicking
Plot twist: I’ve actually run out of my 7-day fermented banana peels tea 🤦‍♂️… brb, off to buy some real bananas 👀😂

day 56
going the organic route has its own advantages: it encourages the emerging of natural predators as their presence is a sign of a healthy and balanced farm ecosystem with natural pest control allies at work.

this orb-weaver spider helps reduce pest pressure by catching moths, grasshoppers, leafhoppers, aphids and other insects that could otherwise harm my maize

If I had used chemicals as in commercial pesticides on my plants, these orb-weaver $piders would have been wiped out, thus making my IPM program less effective.

day 54

I’m getting to the stage where I need to shift focus towards more organic potassium-based inputs, such as wood ash slurry and banana peel compost tea, in the next 2-3 days

Day 48
just finished spraying fish emulsion compost to boost flowering and pollination. This maize farm is thriving on 100% heavy clay soil, which was the main motivation for starting this thread

I'm thinking of farming bell pepper or watermelon in 60 grower bags after this, perhaps by Sept.
and I will be using chemical fertilizers & some branded foliar sprays👌
and I may need shade net too

day 42

pheeew! (still having goats trouble) I'm at the stage where tassels and silk development could begin to form in less than two weeks from now, I now organic-fertilize twice a week...

How do you plough with keke, pls dm me with full explaination or post here

Day 39

Had goat trouble again today. One broke through the wire mesh and destroyed 7 tall maize plants. I quickly fixed it by tying everything up with copper wire for now.

Just so you know – my backyard soil is heavy clay, yet I planted maize there. Around late July to early August, there was too much rain that nearly wiped out the plants because no ridges or raised beds were made to prevent waterlogging. On top of that, I’ve been dealing with animal issues too. Still, I’m pushing through because I’m testing how well my homemade liquid fertilizer works on clay soil.

Truth is, anyone can throw a few seeds in the ground and they might grow. But if you want real results, proper farming practices should always be your priority

For home gardeners, this mix might seem weird, but it works well to get rid of pests. You might want to add cinnamon into the mix to tackle a wide range of pests.

However, once I start farming commercially which I will soon by God's willing - I’ll definitely be using chemical pesticides instead.

updated from day 28 to Day 31.

Lost about 19 maize stands last week after heavy rain—they weren’t well rooted as no ridges were made to prevent them from getting waterlogged thus damping off.
Yesterday, I sprayed a fermented homemade mix diluted with water to wade off fall armyworms and to prevent early shoot borer and aphids incidence - just finished applying homemade liquid fertilizer.

Day 20: thank God I was quick to notice and haven't gone out early today, two of my goats got creative this morning, stepped all four legs on a slanted tire and jumped over the wire mesh fencing to feast like mad - they both destroyed 25% of my cultivation...so I re-blocked that entrance well and gave the maize plants some compost tea...tomorr I will do side-dressing lightly round base with dried poultry manure, then spray with the usual gar-chilli mix afterwards.

Day 14

homemade pesticide mixed with water n filtered thru a sieve to create a spray mix to start out my weekly pest regimen..hand-plucked some weeds out today

Day 10: I applied compost tea yesterday at a 1:3 ratio, which I feared might be too strong, but luckily it rained a few hours later. The maize plants look fine today. Hoping for sunshine, though the sky looks cloudy. I plan to start early weekly pest treatment on day 14,
God willing.

It's been 6 days so far:

They 've started to emerge scantily and it's been non-stop raining in the last two days now, looking forward to plenty sunshine today

Toluwarnih:
Nice project, following. What chemicals did you use in curing the manure please

zero chemicals just let it ferment for 2-3 wks spread under sun but partially covered with 'banner sheet'

planted yellow maize seeds at my 8ft x 15ft backyard after treating the soil with some cured manure and it's been 4 days so far.

PriceActionZ:
Do you want to sell something or mentorship class? just let us know and stop beating about the bush sir.

I sound like person wey wan sell course ney? Wetin me know naa for me alone...never liked teaching in any aspect anyway...and no sir I'm not here to sell anything, ain't gat the time and energy for that bro..and I'm not a newbie here

BTCproMax:
Make I tell you one thing you nor know—most traders go broke not because of bad strategy, but because of bad habits!
Small profit Dem no want take... until Dem return am to broker again.
The market no hard, na me and you dey use our hand wipe our account 😭

https://twitter.com/OEgbru/status/1899758038153609342?t=kNSn8i_GNXNZ-uDZiD2_aQ&s=19
..

true talk bro...

Donsheddy:
They dont know...
Na to press out money be the koko...
All the ict and grammatical traders ive been opportuned to meet are not profitable na only to dey blow big big grammar....
But whenever im conversing with any of them i keep mute and allow them talk and act like i just downloaded mt4 for the first time

you never meet some well-versed ICT dudes like me...like I said before, there are levels to trading ICT concepts.. what's even too much about the grammar self...nothing too much especially when coming from a retail-trading background..