Document type article by Idele
Authors : Renée de Crémoux, Nicolas Ehrhardt
Preview: The practice of separating of female kids from their mothers and feeding them with artificial milk is a common one in dairy goat farming. It is mainly done for health, economic and practical reasons. However, with changes to the regulation of organic livestock farming and a desire among farmers to change their farming systems, some farmers have moved over to the practice of raising their female replacement kids with their mothers.
Since there is little information on the details of this method of rearing kids, a national telephone survey of farmers who follow this practice was conducted in 2021 by the Anses, in collaboration with Civam Haut-Bocage and OMACAP. The objectives of the survey were to describe the diversity of practice in rearing replacement kids with their mothers and to identify farmers' motivations and the perceived benefits and drawbacks of different aspects of the process.
Access the presentation in French here
Contact: marianne.berthelot(at)anses.fr
We would like to thank all the livestock farmers who participated in this survey, the technical networks who allowed us to identify the farmers, and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region for funding this study.
