The Sheep and Goat industry in Israel

In Israel there are about 2,400 farmers raising small ruminants (sheep and goats), keeping a total of about 520,000 animals. These farmers can be grouped into three different sectors – the intensive, the semi-intensive (in the northern part of the country) and the extensive Bedouin farmers in the arid south of the country.

The number of Goats is about 90,000, kept under different levels of intensification, 30,000 under very intensive production, and 60,000 under extensive or semi-intensive husbandry.

Table 1: Number of sheep and goat breeders, and number of heads according to the sectors.

During recent years there has been a continuous increase in the interest in goat raising, as a part of a demand for more organic and/or un-industrialized products and agro-tourism. The sheep and goat milk production is under quota, which is adjusted annually according to the local market demands. The price is negotiated and agreed upon between the milk producers and the dairies in a joint committee under the Milk Dairy Board.

Fig. 1: Sheep and goat milk production (thousands of litters) during the years 2000 - 2008.

As shown in fig. 1, sheep milk production has not increased in the years 2000-2008, with a slight decrease in recent years, whereas there has been a continuous increase of goat milk production from 3 million litters annually produced in the year 2000 up to 10 million in the year 2008.

Due to the world finance crisis during 2008 a decrease in market consumption was recorded, excess of collected milk in the dairies put producers under pressure and reduced milk prices during 2009. The National Dairy Board together with the Goat Breeders Association (AZIZZA) are investing money and efforts in order to promote the Goat dairy products in the local market and are also looking for export alternatives.

During the years 2007 – 2009, a dramatic fluctuation in world grain prices influenced the farmer’s income and also the uncertainty in consumption prediction.

Table 2: Milk and meat produced by sheep and goats during 2007 and 2008 (thousands of tons).

In the Small Ruminants industry, there are 150 farms that market within the quota, 85 goat farmers and 65 sheep farmers. In the goat farms, 80% of the income is generated by milk and the rest by meat marketing. In the sheep farms only 30% of the income is from milk and the remaining 70% are from meat marketing. Most of the goat farms run herds that produce 50,000 – 200,000 liters annually and there are 12 farms that produce above 200,000 liters annually. There are also about 30 farms classified as “closed farms” which process their own milk, some organic and others conventionally, combined with agro-tourism activities.

There is a continuous effort supported by the government (the Ministry of Agriculture), the milk processing industry and the Dairy Board, in order to improve milk quality. The 2008 values are presented in table 3. Milk quality improvement is one of the goat sector goals for the coming next years.

Table 3: Goat milk quality – fat content (%), protein content (%), Bacteria count (thousands in ml) and Somatic Cells Count (thousands in ml) in 2008.

Management aspects:
During recent years Goat farmers upgraded their milking facilities, and introduced computerized systems for advanced automatic data recording and herd management. The professional management improved, and the average animal’s performance varies between 400 liters per goat with traditional management, up to an average of 900 liters annually on the computerized farms. The government supports introduction of such equipment as a national interest of saving manpower, improving efficiency of dairy farms, and for improvement of the quality of milk for public health.

Nutritional aspects:
In order to improve animals’ performances and farmers’ time management there is an increasing trend of outsourcing the preparation of the animals’ ration as TMR – Total Mixed Ration. TMR is prepared in a large feed center and delivered either fresh on a daily basis or as a packed mixture delivered once every two weeks.

Animals with high genetic potential from abroad:
In order to improve local milk production animals with high genetic value, mainly from France and the US, were introduced by the local farmers in recent years. A group of farmers and a veterinary doctor participated in an AI course in France in order to have the option to improve the use of the high genetic value animals.