Background:
The average size of goats per family among majority of goat farmers in India is around 4 to 10 goats and survey about size of goat house carried out by ICAR-CIRG in several field projects showed that majority of goat shelter’s area is ranging between 50 to 80 sq. ft. (Space big constraint, sometimes keeping the goats inside their house). The standing type iron/ plastic feeders (in both sides goats take feed) developed by the ICAR-CIRG holds very good for commercial goat farms where space is provided as per scientific norms. But not suited for small shelters prevailing under field conditions. (Large sized standing feeders occupy around 15 sq.ft. out of 50-80 sq. ft. house which is already overcrowded). Further standing type feeders with different height were developed breed specific (separate for small, medium & large breeds) Further, goats tend to sit and rest over the feeders which contaminate the feed and fodder:
Hence, to solve above problem, a single prototype of plastic based (along with iron frame) hanging type feeder is developed which can be hanged in one side of the house in different adjustable height so that same feeder can be used for any breed of different heights:
Technology Details:
The hanging type plastic feeders are designed and fabricated with 1.25-inch iron angle, 1.25-inch flat iron, half-cut one-foot width PVC water pipes. The length of the feeder is kept at five foot, width of the feeder tray is one foot and top portion width is 15 inches. The feeder is designed in such a way that no feed/ bhusa/ green will fall down outside the tray after conducting several trials so that feed/ fodder loss is kept at negligible. The width at top portion as well as distance between iron rods were standardized which holds the bhusa. In this feeder, bhusa doesn’t fall fully by itself like in two sided feeders (it will fall with pulling of bhusa while animal feeds upon it). The practical utility is that these plastic based (along with iron frame) hanging type feeders are:
• Suited for the field conditions where there is a space constraint by hanging in one side of the shelter, adequate space can be saved in already overcrowded shelter. • It is movable, can be shifted whenever required:
• Height adjustable so that same feeder can be used for different goat breeds by hanging it in different height as per requirement:
• Low cost and long life as compared to iron feeder where rusting is a big problem