Appropriate housing is a necessity for goat farming. It is important that goats are adequately sheltered to protect them from adverse environmental and harsh conditions.
Goat keepers can lose up to 50% of their kids due to diseases and complications caused by poor and unhygienic housing.
The shelter is also necessary to protect goats, especially kids, from predators, like dogs, wild animals and thieves. Mature goats suffer reduced productivity due to bad weather.
The goat farming system also matters, for example, goats under a semi-zero grazing system require a different house from those that are purely free-range grazing.
While a simple covered shelter can do for goats under free-range, the one for those under semi-zero grazing should have amenities, such as feeding troughs, feeding area and resting area.
Also, the larger the herd, the larger the house. The resources available also matter. Farmers with more capital may afford more creative goat shelters.
However, goat houses can be built using cheap materials, which are locally available, like cast-off wood and timber.
Different groups of goats have special housing requirements.
These are:
Breeding males: The house should be able to keep them at bay.
Pregnant does (in the last stage of pregnancy): These require exclusion from the rest of the goats.
Kids: It should be short and easy for them to access.
Sick goats: This is like a sick bay for the animal where they are kept until they heal.
