Year: 2017 | Month: April | Volume 7 | Issue 2
Characteristics of Geese Production and Management in the Valley of Kashmir
Abstract:
The study was conducted in geese-rearing districts of Kashmir valley, India with the aim of studying various characteristics of geese production and management. Geese-rearing was recorded to be the primary occupation of 6.56% of farmers. Out of the total, 23.73% rearers were landless and kept geese as a subsidiary source of income. Three diverse production-systems viz. backyard (56.45%), semi-intensive (33.87%) and extensive-system (9.68%), were being practiced. Different types of houses included separate-sheds (50.00%), separate pen/cage (26.67%) and pen underneath the farmers’ house/veranda (23.33%) with only 76.47% farmers using litter-material. Feed was offered in a large bowl, on floor and on a polythene-sheet by 8.62%, 29.31% and 62.07% farmers respectively. Types of incubation nests included grass-nest placed on floor (57.41%), basket-nest (27.78% farmers) and colony-nests (57.41%). Average number of eggs set for incubation was 9.531±0.282 and age of eggs kept for incubation averaged to 24.167±1.923 days. 88.24% farmers practiced custom of placing an iron-sickle underneath the straw-bedding of the nest. Goslings were allowed to go into the water after 10.878±1.497 days of hatching.. Eggs were mostly kept for incubation while geese were sold as well as consumed by the family. In villages geese were being marketed at the farmer’s door-step and in city, middlemen played a role in the marketing. It was concluded that geese-farming promises a good future in an area where water-bodies are available in plenty and rearing is carried out on a large scale adopting an extensive-rearing and free foraging feeding system.
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