Why to castrate goat?

As a student of Veterinary physiology I have never understand the reason behind castration. To run a successful goat farm you must have to sell your goats (males and females except replacement stock) by the time they prepare for castration. Anybody can understand the simple endocrinological principle of growth and weight gain.  Testis act as an endocrine gland which secretes steroid hormones called as androgens. Main androgen is testosterone. It starts secreted in the blood at the age of 3-4 months in male goats (for reference; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22444750). This is also considers as the best time to castrate the male goats.

Testosterone is an anabolic hormone which builds muscles in the body. It increases nitrogen retention and improves weight gain. In short, we can say testosterone helps in lean meat production with minimal fat content. It has been observed repeatedly at the farms that a non-castrated buck outweighs the castrated bucks by 15 to 25%.

Function of testosterone in male goats;

  1.              It produces thick hair coat with erect craig;
  2.         Testosterone increases 50% muscle mass as compare to female
  3.         Testosterone increases bone matrix and causes calcium retention
  4.         It increases rate of bone growth – height of the animal increases more than female of same age.
  5.         It increases total basal metabolic rate by 15% – which means it helps in utilizing nutrients more efficiently than castrated goat of same age.
  6.         It increases total red blood cells in the blood which carries large amount of oxygen to the growing tissues.
  7.         It helps in retaining water in the body and contributes 10% more water in non castrated bucks than castrated.

However, basic reason behind castration was to check indiscriminate breeding in the flock and to keep animal calm if you have to keep them in a flock after puberty. But question is that why to keep animal after puberty if you don’t want to keep them for breeding. Farmers must know the fact that after puberty (6-8month of age) body weight gain and growth start decreasing and FCR (feed conversion ration decreases. In this condition you feed more and gain less.

So you should sold out your kids at early age of 6 to 8 month (before breeding stage) and keep yourself away from this brutal technique which is not so worthy as it seems.

Advantage of non castrated males

 

  1.     Higher weight gain than castrated male
  2.         More lean meat (less fatty which is desirable for market) than castrated
  3.         Zero chances of infection because you prevent castration injuries
  4.         Overall cost of production decreases
  5.         No need to take any training for castration
  6.     Make your farming ethical