The 14th AAAP (August 2010) will take place in Pintung, Taiwan, so we are designing a roundtable meeting or an assembly to gather delegates from AAAP Animal Science Congress whom are interested on goat raising.

As a representative for IGA in Taiwan I always ask younger experts who are concerned with goat raising to be a members of IGA. We were blessed that IGA’s Past-President, Prof. Christopher Lu, visited Taiwan last year and made contact with several IGA members, and encouraged our endeavors for development and promotion of goat activities.

No better state of things is expected in the next year or two since Taiwan was hit by the global economic downturn in Taiwan. All the while, staggeringly high price for grain, are an obstacle for goat farmers, especially those with full intensive dairy production systems, so our current situation is quite difficult.

The population of dairy goats in 2008/Dec is 64,484 head at 412 herds average head in a herd is 157 head. The dairy goat number of this year (2009/Jun) show a decrease of 2.8% as compared with the preceding year, while goat milk yield is increase of 2.02%. The goat milk yield in year 2008 is 17,801 t.

The population of meat goats in December 2008 was 165,039 heads at 2,984 herds, with an average herd of 57 head. Meat goats in June 2009 were 165,319 heads at 2,848, with an average herd of 58 head. The major goat breed in Taiwan is Nubian. Other goat breeds include Alpine, Saanen , Toggenburg, and some Boer.

a. What are the strengths?
Goat milk is in high demand in Taiwan, and both goat milk and meat are strengths. The goat milk yield in 2008 was 17,801 t about 5.64% of cow milk, 315,559 t/y, but the price of goat milk is 175% that of cow’s milk. This high price is one benefit of goat raising in Taiwan. On the other hand 933 t of goat milk powder was imported in 2008, which is 6,531 t of goat milk, so domestic production of goat milk is kept at about 73% of total demand in Taiwan.

The total demand of goat meat in Taiwan was 30,856 t in 2008. The domestic production of goat meat was 3,331 t in 2008, so self-sufficiency is only 11%. In 2008, among 27,525 t of imported goat meat, 21,216 t of mutton is included. Most people fancy goat meat but not mutton demonstrating that there is a goat meat crisis in Taiwan.

b. What are the challenges?
The goat breeding system is not enough for Taiwan. There are only 31 registered pure breed goat herds, or 0.95% of a total 3,260 herds.

The total accumulative registered breeding stock of total breeds is 5026 head, and registration of each breed in this year (2009/Dec) are Nubian 438, Alpine 401, Saanen 160, Boer 38 and Toggenburg 14 head respectively. Even though total registered heads (1,051) have increased by 69% in 2009, when compared with in 2008, it is not enough to improve breeding stock as there was continued import the breeding stock, keep to use and then exhaustion.

If there is this vicious circle, then we cannot elevate and improve our goat raising. Therefore we must increase the stock farm’s ability to raise registered pure breed Alpine, Saanen, Nubian, Toggenburg and Boer. A Central Performance Testing Station needs to be created to provide a place to compete with one other goat raiser for best growth performance and the promotion of mutual breed stock.