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Perspectives for Buck Kids in Dairy Goat Farming
To start milk production, dairy goats need to give birth at least once. While most female kids are reared to become the next generation of dairy goats, only a small proportion of male kids (buck kids) are reared with reproduction aims. The market for buck kid meat, especially within Northern Europea...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8554305/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34722689 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.662102 |
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author | Meijer, Ellen Goerlich, Vivian C. van den Brom, René Giersberg, Mona F. Arndt, Saskia S. Rodenburg, T. Bas |
author_facet | Meijer, Ellen Goerlich, Vivian C. van den Brom, René Giersberg, Mona F. Arndt, Saskia S. Rodenburg, T. Bas |
author_sort | Meijer, Ellen |
collection | PubMed |
description | To start milk production, dairy goats need to give birth at least once. While most female kids are reared to become the next generation of dairy goats, only a small proportion of male kids (buck kids) are reared with reproduction aims. The market for buck kid meat, especially within Northern European countries, is currently relatively small compared to the number of bucks born. Therefore, the purposes for buck kids are limited and a substantial proportion of buck kid meat is used for pet food. Due to the limited economic value of buck kids, farmers are faced with a dilemma. Although raising bucks costs more money than it yields, the birth of kids is a prerequisite for production of milk and should be seen as an investment for business-wise healthy dairy goat farming. In that perspective, dairy goat farmers have an ethical responsibility toward buck kids, as well. In this paper, we compare various scenarios of dealing with the issue of surplus male animals. We provide recommendations for the rearing of buck kids based on the sector‘s experience and current practice in the Netherlands. Reducing the number of surplus (male) offspring, e.g., by an optimized prolonged lactation management and/or by artificial insemination with sex-sorted semen, could alleviate the issue of low value buck kids. Killing surplus animals before or directly after birth, on the other hand, is met with increasing societal scrutiny. Initiatives to propagate a market for buck kid meat for human consumption are important to enable a suitable and sustainable production system. To maintain the health and welfare of goat kids, amongst other factors, sufficient and good quality colostrum, milk, and an appropriate diet as they grow older, needs to be provided. One option to assure the safeguarding of health and welfare of all goat kids are quality assurance schemes for milk production. These schemes make dairy farmers accountable for the health and welfare of all kids in the rearing period, including the provision of colostrum and adequate care for newborn buck kids. We conclude that the combination of reducing the number of surplus kids, increasing the demand for goat products, and quality assurance schemes that may help to safeguard the welfare of buck kids. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8554305 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-85543052021-10-30 Perspectives for Buck Kids in Dairy Goat Farming Meijer, Ellen Goerlich, Vivian C. van den Brom, René Giersberg, Mona F. Arndt, Saskia S. Rodenburg, T. Bas Front Vet Sci Veterinary Science To start milk production, dairy goats need to give birth at least once. While most female kids are reared to become the next generation of dairy goats, only a small proportion of male kids (buck kids) are reared with reproduction aims. The market for buck kid meat, especially within Northern European countries, is currently relatively small compared to the number of bucks born. Therefore, the purposes for buck kids are limited and a substantial proportion of buck kid meat is used for pet food. Due to the limited economic value of buck kids, farmers are faced with a dilemma. Although raising bucks costs more money than it yields, the birth of kids is a prerequisite for production of milk and should be seen as an investment for business-wise healthy dairy goat farming. In that perspective, dairy goat farmers have an ethical responsibility toward buck kids, as well. In this paper, we compare various scenarios of dealing with the issue of surplus male animals. We provide recommendations for the rearing of buck kids based on the sector‘s experience and current practice in the Netherlands. Reducing the number of surplus (male) offspring, e.g., by an optimized prolonged lactation management and/or by artificial insemination with sex-sorted semen, could alleviate the issue of low value buck kids. Killing surplus animals before or directly after birth, on the other hand, is met with increasing societal scrutiny. Initiatives to propagate a market for buck kid meat for human consumption are important to enable a suitable and sustainable production system. To maintain the health and welfare of goat kids, amongst other factors, sufficient and good quality colostrum, milk, and an appropriate diet as they grow older, needs to be provided. One option to assure the safeguarding of health and welfare of all goat kids are quality assurance schemes for milk production. These schemes make dairy farmers accountable for the health and welfare of all kids in the rearing period, including the provision of colostrum and adequate care for newborn buck kids. We conclude that the combination of reducing the number of surplus kids, increasing the demand for goat products, and quality assurance schemes that may help to safeguard the welfare of buck kids. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-10-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8554305/ /pubmed/34722689 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.662102 Text en Copyright © 2021 Meijer, Goerlich, Brom, Giersberg, Arndt and Rodenburg. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Veterinary Science Meijer, Ellen Goerlich, Vivian C. van den Brom, René Giersberg, Mona F. Arndt, Saskia S. Rodenburg, T. Bas Perspectives for Buck Kids in Dairy Goat Farming |
title | Perspectives for Buck Kids in Dairy Goat Farming |
title_full | Perspectives for Buck Kids in Dairy Goat Farming |
title_fullStr | Perspectives for Buck Kids in Dairy Goat Farming |
title_full_unstemmed | Perspectives for Buck Kids in Dairy Goat Farming |
title_short | Perspectives for Buck Kids in Dairy Goat Farming |
title_sort | perspectives for buck kids in dairy goat farming |
topic | Veterinary Science |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8554305/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34722689 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.662102 |
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