© 2007 AID AFRICA UK Registered Charity Number 1116336
Our goatman expressed the need for more expertise, so we engaged our local veterinary officer to prepare a two-week course to train staff in effective goat welfare and dairy management. This training - including feeding, milking, health care, breeding, record keeping and group dynamics has revolutionised the understanding of these men and given each a new perspective regarding the value of the project and their part in it.
We need to generate more milk and thereby increase our impact on the community. So we heard about, and sought, Saanen females - a non-African breed that apparently has the highest milk yield and quality but doesn’t fare well in the African climate. The plan is to establish a breeding programme to acquire 75% saanen breeding stock. However nothing is simple in Malawi. There were a few saanens in Lilongwe, a days’ journey away at the main Agricultural College, but they had none available.
Then we heard that there were possibly some about an hour and a half away, imported by an NGO, but tucked away deep in the bush with volunteers. I went over to see them, and was confronted by some of the scruffiest goats I’d ever seen! Disaster had struck when their only buck had been bitten by a snake and died, but one of the does was pregnant, and we’ve hopefully set up stud arrangements with her male offspring.
