Knowledge of reasons for keeping animals is a prerequisite for deriving operational breeding goals. Table 4 summarizes reasons of keeping goats and the ranking of these purposes by owners. The most frequently reported reason for keeping goat was cash income generation followed by milk and meat production for home use. This implies that sale of goats to generate cash constitute the primary purpose among the other benefits of keeping goats in the area. This was also observed in similar studies, who reported that cash income as the most important reason in goat farming. However, the purpose of keeping goats in rural areas of South Africa is mainly for traditional purposes and meat consumption .Huge ruminant animals such as goats are kept and a vast area of land is cultivated. Overall cropland holding of small-scale and large-scale farmers was observed to be 4.10 and 86.90 hectares, respectively. This indicates that there is huge crop residue production in the area, a considerable source of goat feed. Normally, crop residues are grazed or stockpiled for animal feeding.In some cases,bato buckets the stored residues are sold during the critical period of feed scarcity.
Sorghum crop residues are by far the most abundant feed resource in the area. The different feed resources reported in the area were natural pasture, browse species, crop residue and crop aftermath. Private grazing land was not common in the area. It was reported that communal grazing was the most abundant feed source for goat in the area though grazing drastically reduces in the dry season.Indigenous browse species are available feed resources for goats mainly in the dry season and the drought periods . Crop residue and crop aftermath grazing were the other vital feed resources of goat during crop harvesting and after harvesting has occurred. Animals feed on the residue in two ways. The harvested crop residue is stacked near to homestead and fed to selected group of animals in the dry season. Otherwise, standing residue is left for grazing. However, the expansion of cropland, increase in livestock population and area enclosure are negatively affecting feed resource in the area. Water resource is pertinent and vital for the subsistent life of livestock and livestock owners. In the study area, river, pond and borehole form the major source of water for domestic use and livestock watering. Indeed, water points are limited and large number of animals watered at the same water points leading to high chances of spreading diseases and land degradation.
There were only two government constructed water points. Besides, private water points were very few.Distance to water points varied with season and was invariably longer during the dry season. This posed challenges to breeders and sometimes limited access to water. A large proportion of the respondents travel 6 – 10 km to water their animals in the dry season. While in the wet season 67.33% of the total respondents watered their animals at a distance of less than 1 km. Shorter watering frequencies were used to water animals in the area. The proportions of the respondents that watered their goats once a day and twice in a day were 82% and18%,dutch bucket hydroponic respectively. Watering with more than a day frequency is not reported. Based on personal observations and interviewed households’ information, goats were housed with sheep in nights. None of the respondents had provision for accommodating different age groups. Only sick ones and newly born kids/lambs were retained alone in sheds. Sheds were constructed of locally available materials.Sheds were not permanent as animals migrate from place to place in search of feed and water. However, farmers in urban areas used permanent houses separated from or attached to their homesteads. Diseases are a major constraint to the improvement of livestock industry in the tropics as they decrease production and increase the morbidity and mortality. The most commonly prevailing diseases which hamper goat production in the study area are presented in Table 5. Respondents indicated that diseases affect all age groups of goats and mortalities from disease are high. More than half of the sampled respondents were able to separate between the different diseases.