₦airaland Forum

Tackling nutritional deficiency in ruminants using salt block Licks year-round

Always ensure your animals have a salt lick available, especially during the dry season when pasture quality drops and grasses lose most of their nutrients.

Salt licks supply important minerals that cattle, sheep, and goats cannot get enough of from grazing alone. These minerals make them thirsty for more water especially in dry season where most ruminants detest staying hydrated and more importantly help animals stay strong, healthy and more productive throughout the year.

Using a salt lick boosts appetite, supports better digestion, improves fertility, strengthens bones and helps build a stronger immune system.

For cattle:
Salt licks keep the rumen working properly by supporting the microbes that digest feed. This prevents mineral shortages and encourages animals to eat more, resulting in better weight gain and increased milk output.

For sheep:
Sheep are more sensitive to mineral deficiencies, so they benefit a lot from salt licks. However, they need a formulation that is low in copper because they cannot tolerate excess copper.

For goats:
Goats rely on salt licks to maintain good immunity, reproduce well and keep their hooves, skin and coat in good condition.

Placing a salt lick where the animals feed or rest can help avoid issues like stunted growth, weak bones, low milk yield, eating soil or stones and slow breeding.

Overall, salt licks are a simple and affordable way to improve the health and performance of your herd or flock throughout the year.

Hybrid rigor:
If you know - you know 🧑‍🌾
keep learning, keep pushing.

Ghana celebrated farmers day yesterday.
How interesting? Naija which way?
Abeg joor...urgent 2k savings job on duty call.

Sukkyy2010:
You're doing well I like your thread, please don't stop and never be discouraged by few engagement that you earn with this. There many like who are following through but won't react or comment.

My question as an enthusiast is, how do you keep the cost of feeding economical with quality.

Keeping goat-feeding costs low while maintaining good nutritional quality is absolutely possible, but it requires a strategy, not just cheap ingredients. Below is a practical, farm-tested guide you can apply;

1- prioritize browsing & forage (your cheapest feed)

Goats are natural browsers, not grazers like cattle. If you manage forage well, you can reduce concentrate feed usage by 40–70%.

2- use by-products or kitchen wastes

Commercial goat feeds are expensive because they include maize/soy cake. Instead, use cheaper by-products in the form of kitchen waste with good nutrient value, these reduce feed cost by 50–80% while still supplying energy and moderate protein, etc.

- cassava peel meal (sun-dried)
- brewers grain (wet or dried)
- palm kernel cake (PKC)
- Cowpea husks
- maize bran (very economical)
- Tridax
. Cabbages
. African Palm grass
. Bitter leaves (occasionally)
. Pawpaw leaves (occasionally)
. sun-wilt plantain peels
. sun-wilt Banana leaves
. Carrot leaves
- Cassava leaves (sun-dried first to remove cyanide)
. Lettuce
. Spinach
- mango leaves
. Ewedu leaves (occasionally)
. Water leaf
. Stubborn grass (occasionally)
. Carrots leaves (occasionally)
. Watermelon (occasionally)
. Banana peel
. Plantain peel
- groundnut hays
. Yam peels
. Sweet potato peels or vines
- beans husks
- okra leaves
- Chopped fresh maize leaves & stems
- guinea corn chaff
- vegetable stalks
- ugu vines
- banana / plantain leaves
- banana tree stem ( chopped or sliced)
- chopped watermelon rind
-chopped pineapple peels ( moderation)
- wet & pressed soya paste ( residues from soy milk making)
- chopped cucumbers (moderation or mix with grasses, hay or other browse rather than feeding it alone)
- Elephant grass + legumes etc.. Or level-up by growing pasture grass and feed them to your livestock like; alfalfa/Lucerne, biacharia, super napier, lablab, Bermuda, etc. and you can also make silage not only from these pasture grasses, but also from; maize, sorghum, etc.

And moreover you can provide a more advanced but affordable homemade protein sources from;

dry BSF larvae / BSF meal
Azolla from Azolla farming & cultivation
Poultry blood meal (properly cooked and dried)

dried Azolla + BSF alone can raise your feed protein cheaply without ever buying fishmeal or soy meal..

Or practice selective supplementation but a bit expensive though.. like Instead of feeding concentrates every day, you can feed:

-Concentrate 3–4 times weekly
-Free forage and browse daily ( the above-mentioned list of foliage & kitchen wastes)
-Mineral lick always available

Or mix your own ration (the best way to save money)

A basic diy low-cost high-quality goat concentrate mix could be:
E.g

100 kg Budget Ration (good quality)
40 kg maize bran ( meet those women selling pap)
20 kg PKC or cassava peel meal
15 kg brewers grain or sweet potato peels
10 kg BSF meal / blood meal
3 kg wheat offal
1 kg mineral-salt mix
Crude Protein should be approx 16 to 18% suitable for goats of all ages.

But this is the open secret to my daily goat feeding routine;

morning: free browsing 3–5 hours
afternoon: chopped forage
evening (selectively): small concentrate portion only for pregnant/lactating goats and kids

There you go...if you are planning of doing goat farming on a commercial scale that will be all from my side.

my brain don dey overheat, make I go sip canned beer..

That was 1990...maize spacing on a commercial level naa your mate?

7. Aggression:


For a long time on my farm, I used to think goats were gentle creatures that only needed good feed, clean water and enough space to thrive. But over the years, I’ve learned that one of the biggest challenges in goat farming is aggression - subtle, persistent and sometimes shockingly intense. And the funny thing is, the aggression often comes from exactly where you least expect it; from inside the same goat family.

I’ve watched a mother goat turn against her own pregnant daughter without hesitation. I’ve seen siblings lock horns or heads, kids push each other out of the way for feed and older goats chase younger ones just to show who is “boss.” It took me time to understand that goats are naturally hierarchical animals. They fight, they bully and they defend their feeding rights with a kind of hunger that feels endless because truthfully, an average goat is an insatiable eater. If you bring out ten rations, they will still act like they have been starved for days.

With time, I realized I had to find ways to control this aggression, not only for peace on my farm, but to prevent stress-related issues, injuries, aborted pregnancies and unequal feed distribution. Here are the lessons I’ve slowly learned, written from my own experience and ongoing journey:

I learned the importance of separating goat families even close ones.

At first, separating a mother goat from her grown daughter felt strange and unnecessary to me. After all, they had lived together since birth. But I soon discovered that a mother goat does not care about family bonds when dominance is involved.
I’ve watched a heavily pregnant daughter get attacked so fiercely by her own mother that she spent days limping and refusing to feed properly. The instinct to defend food, territory or position in the herd overpowers maternal affection.

Always try and separate;

- Pregnant goats from aggressive goats, including their own mothers.
- Daughters from dominant mothers once they reach maturity.
- Younger goats from older ones during feeding.

This simple adjustment reduced injuries and kept weak goats from being bullied to the point of stress and weight loss.

- Better still provide multiple feeding points.

One thing about goats is this: no matter how much you give them, one goat will always act like the whole ration belongs to it.
I used to put all the feed in one big trough, and every time, the dominant goats would chase the others away. The timid ones stayed hungry.

Now I spread feed and foliage in different corners so each goat has a chance.
This has drastically reduced fighting. The goats no longer compete for a single pile, and the bullies cannot control all the feeding spots at once.

- Always feed the aggressive goats first.

I learned this trick after losing patience with one particular doe who head-butted everything in sight during feeding time.

Feeding the dominant ones first calms them.
They stop bullying while they are busy eating and it gives the smaller goats time to settle into their own spots.

- Always give kids their own feeding space.

Kids may look innocent, but from as early as a few weeks old, they start showing tiny signs of dominance - pushing, jumping, standing on the feed tray and even head-butting weaker mates.

Kids will always want the whole ration for themselves, even if it’s too much for their tiny stomachs.

So now I monitor all the kids together that are less than 2-3 months old

Separate kids during feeding.
Feed them earlier or later than adults.

This makes a big difference. Kids grow smoother and their aggressive behavior reduces because they don’t need to fight for space or food.

I also ensure I reduce stress triggers

I noticed aggression increased when goats were:

- overcrowded
- hot
- hungry for too long
- bored
- mixed with unfamiliar groups

So I make sure the pen is not tight, there is good ventilation and feeding times are consistent. Even adding roughage like hay or browse reduces aggression because goats stay busy chewing instead of fighting.

The Silent bullies:

Some goats don’t fight loudly; they simply block others from reaching feed, stare them down or follow them slowly until they leave.
I’ve learned to watch these behaviors closely.
Sometimes separation is the only solution before things escalate. Now, whenever I'm around and I see a goat repeatedly chasing another forcing it away from feed or pushing it into corners, I step in immediately.
Sometimes rearranging the group or moving one goat into a different pen brings peace.

Aggression in goat farming taught me patience. It taught me observation. And it taught me that, as much as goats live in groups, they don’t always live in harmony - especially when food and dominance are involved.

Goats may be family, but dominance always outweighs bloodline. A mother will attack a pregnant daughter, a kid will fight a sibling for crumbs and a seemingly gentle goat will suddenly become a warrior at feeding time.

My job as a goat farmer is to create a peaceful system that reduces this natural aggression - through separation, proper feeding, possible male castration, ear-tagging, management and understanding the unique personality of each goat.

🌽 MAIZE SPACING RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Rain-fed (smallholder) farming

Row spacing: 75 cm

Plant spacing within the row: 25–30 cm

Plant population: ~53,000–66,000 plants per hectare

2. High-input / Commercial farming

Row spacing: 70–75 cm

Plant spacing within the row: 20–25 cm

Plant population: 60,000–75,000 plants per hectare

3. Dry areas / Low rainfall

Wider spacing to reduce competition for water

Row spacing: 90 cm

Plant spacing: 30–40 cm

Plant population: ~35,000–45,000 plants per hectare

4. If using hybrid maize

Hybrids generally perform best at higher densities

Stay around 65,000–75,000 plants per hectare

---

🌱 Tips for Best Results

Plant one seed per hole for hybrids, 2 seeds then thin to 1 for OPVs.

Ensure good seed–soil contact.

Fertilizer should be band-placed 5 cm beside and 5 cm below the seed.

Avoid too close spacing—it increases disease pressure.

6. Inbreeding is one thing I’ve learned to avoid on my goat farm. It happens when closely related goats like father and daughter, mother and son or even brother and sister start mating with each other. I later realized this reduces the herd’s genetic strength and can cause all kinds of problems I don’t want anywhere near my goat farm.

Inbreeding Risks: What To Expect

From what my vet taught me, inbreeding can lead to:

- Genetic defects showing up in kids
- Fertility dropping
- A weak immune system
- Slow or stunted growth
- Higher kid mortality
- Poor parasite resistance
- Low productivity
- More inherited health issues

Once you see these things happening repeatedly, just know something is off in the bloodline.

Signs to Watch Out For

Should inbreeding problems start to creep in, what to look out for:

- Odd physical shapes or deformities
- Kids that grow too slowly
- Females failing to conceive
- Sudden or frequent sickness
- Strange or weak behavior

When goats start looking like that, it’s like the herd is quietly telling you, “Our genetics need help.”

How to Manage the Male Goats to Avoid Inbreeding problems: Over time, I realized that controlling the males is the real secret. Here’s what I intend to now do:

Castrate some of the males:
Not every male is meant to be a breeding buck. Castrating a few reduces stress, fights, and unwanted mating.

Sell or trade extra males:
Instead of keeping too many male goats, sell off or exchange them with other goat farmers. That way, my herd gets new bloodlines from time to time.

Raise some males for meat:
Not every male will be useful for breeding, but they can still bring money as meat goats.

Pick only the best males for breeding:
choose one or two strong, smart, healthy males and let them do the work. The rest get castrated or sold.

Rotate my breeding buck:
Every 1–2 years, bring in a new male so the bloodline stays fresh and strong.


At the end of the day, I learned that I don’t need to sell all my male kids, I just need to manage them wisely.
That’s how I keep my herd healthy, avoid inbreeding and make sure the farm keeps growing stronger year after year.

5. Health and Watchful Eyes

goats may not talk, but their body language says everything. When one suddenly gets quiet, separates itself from the herd, stops chewing cud or refuses to eat, just know something’s wrong. I don’t wait, I call my vet sharp-sharp. It’s better to spend small money on treatment than lose the whole animal to negligence. Goats are tough but very sensitive animals; once sickness sets in, it can spread fast or weaken the goat beyond recovery if you hesitate.

So far, the most common health problems I’ve faced are; diarrhea, bloating, fever, lice and worm infestations. Diarrhea can happen when goats eat too much fresh grass, spoilt feed or drink dirty water. Once I notice loose stool, I isolate the goat, stop green feed and give clean water with electrolytes or charcoal mixture to stabilize the stomach.

Bloating is another silent killer. Once you see a goat’s belly swelling abnormally and it’s not pregnant, act fast because the goat will stop eating, grind its teeth or look uncomfortable. I’ve learned to always keep some homemade anti-bloat medicine (like vegetable oil mixed with baking soda or commercial anti-bloat mixtures from the vet shop) on standby. Sometimes, gentle movement and massage help the trapped gas escape.

Worms are also a serious hidden problem. Deworming your goats every 2–3 months using recommended dewormers (like Albendazole or Levamisole) helps prevent loss of weight and rough coat. I also spray or dust them occasionally to control lice and ticks, parasites that cause constant itching and anemia.

I sometimes give them salt lick blocks (the animal salt sold in vet shops) are available in their pen. It helps improve appetite, strengthens bones, and supplies trace minerals goats naturally crave.

Another thing I’ve learned: cleanliness is medicine. I clean the goat house often to avoid flies and odor buildup. Dry bedding prevents foot rot and coughs. And never leave wet feed overnight, some goats hate stale food.

Lastly, goats can be mischievous and may continue to wander off and If you leave your kitchen or store open, just know you’re inviting trouble. They can chew papers, carton, yam and even pepper soup ingredients. just mount a solid barricade or fence to restrict their movement, especially around kitchen or food storage area.

- Watch your goats daily, they communicate through behavior.
- Keep basic drugs handy: anti-bloat, dewormer, antibiotics and charcoal
- Provide clean water, mineral lick and cool dry shade.
- Always call your vet early, prevention is cheaper than cure.

4. Shelter and Cleanliness

A goat that sleeps well stays well. Their house doesn’t have to be fancy, but it must be dry and airy. I learned the hard way that wet and urinated smelling floors bring sickness, always try to air out the urinated floor and keep it clean because damp bedding could deteriorate the health of the young goats to say the least.
Now, I keep their pen clean, dry and raised above the ground. Every morning, I sweep out droppings before feeding time. The goats already know the routine, they even move aside when I’m cleaning like they understand it’s house chores hour and doing this could prevent the incidence of foot and mouth disease in goats (especially during the raining season) and pls avoid overcrowding these animals in one tight space too and if you have got new goats, do not fully integrate them with the old ones. Isolate the new goats first for some few weeks and observe their furs and skins and check for any sign of growing pest infestation and egg lice, mites and ticks and treat accordingly and always provide fresh foliage and clean water for them.

3. Feeding and Fun Moments

goats are fascinating herbivore animals, they love to eat and play at the same time. I feed mine with grass, leaves, kitchen waste, pap seller's residues, etc and sometimes peels from sweet potato, yam, cassava and fruits will do. But it is always advisable to mix different leaves with vegetable stems or ugwu vines or most importantly, feed them dry hays or grass always to prevent bloating and improves digestion. It is easy to get these from roadside akara sellers or visit the women or aboki selling vegetables in the market to get these vegetable stalks or vines for free.

You should see how they jump around fighting for who gets the best edibles first 😂.
One funny thing, if you ever see a goat standing on a block, getting a part of its body stretched in a calm and relaxing way or climbing a heap of sand, just know they’re happy and healthy.

That got me thinking 🤔, I should focus on raising smart, active and energetic goats on my farm, not the dull ones. The black goat I have doesn’t even run when people approach her and she seems unbothered even if a knife is at her neck as long as there’s food in front of her, she keeps eating!

She’s also quite dull, she got pregnant again barely two weeks after giving birth and now refuses to breastfeed her newborn kids 🤦. On top of that, she doesn’t mind sharing the same male goat with the white female goat nearby.

The white goat, on the other hand, is the total opposite. She’s a smart, lively and caring mother and her kids are just like her. Before she got pregnant, she would never allow the same male goat that mated with the black one to mount her. Instead, she’d wander off to find a different male outside the area. I’ll definitely be keeping her and her offspring.

2. Call your vet to check your goats

Once you’ve bought your goats, invite a vet to examine them for any signs of illness. If necessary, they can give them the right medications or vaccines to protect your investment.

From my experience, the most common health problems I’ve encountered so far are diarrhea and bloating, vomiting.

To be cont'd.

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