A survey covering 55 goat farmers was conducted to describe and understand the production systems and to identify the constraints to milk production of dual purpose Etawah goats in East Java. It was found that goat keeping was considered as the secondary occupation although for many it was an important source of income. Most farmers kept goats as a saving account; goats were sold when cash was needed. Therefore high growth rate of kids and high prolificacy was an important objective of goat keeping.

Dual purpose Etawah was preferred to Kacang goats as the sale prices were higher. Although 72% of farmers knew that Etawah goats could produce surplus milk for human consumption, only 28% of them milked their goat regularly, as they felt the growth of the kids might be affected. The average flock size was 8.7 of which about 3 goats were above 3 years old. They were kept in elevated pens with slatted floors. Feeds consisted mainly of a mixture of shrubs, leaves, green forage and other leguminous trees. Crop residues, waste product from soybean tofu, rice bran and sometimes molasses were also fed to the goats. The crude protein varied from 15 to 25% on a dry matter basis indicating that protein was not a limiting factor in the production systems.

The average yearly production was 2.7 kids per doe. When milk was sold the price for goats milk was higher than cows milk.

Dual purpose Etawah goats were introduced by the local Governments in East Java decades ago to improve production of indigenous Kacang goats and to introduce goat milk for human consumption. Etawah goats are expected to produce milk in excess of the requirement of the kids. In East Java dual purpose Etawah goats are now increasingly kept by small farmers. More recently the local Governments have given priority to development of poor villages by promoting goat keeping schemes with emphasis on the landless farmers. While the goats were expected to produce milk for human consumption few of them are milked regularly.

Goats have the advantage of being easily sold at any time when cash is needed. On the other hand, it makes the development of goat keeping in a given area unpredictable for meat and milk production, as the goats which were sold may not be immediately replaced. The development of goat production depends also on the quantity and quality of available feed. In some areas where Etawah goats were introduced farmers no longer keep them as they believe that Etawah only performs well on leaves from Leucaena spp. The production of leucaena species has decreased due to the insect (sylhet) which decimated it and now Kacang goats are prefered, as the smaller body size of this breed was more suitable for the feed available; some farmers even changed to keep sheep.

In another area, which used to be the centre for dual purpose Etawah goats, Friesian cows were introduced. This situtation discouraged the development of goat milk production for human consumption and, therefore, farmers changed to keep dual purpose Etawah goats for kid production. The popularity of Etawah goats and their high milk yield has been largely due to the high growth rate of their kids so that the goats are in high demand. As a result, dual purpose Etawah goats have been distributed in East Java for kid production, rather than for milk production.

In order to describe and understand the production systems, and to identify the constraints to milk production of dual purpose Etawah goats, a survey covering 55 goat farmers in two areas where dual purpose Etawah goats are kept, namely the regency of Lumajang and Ponorogo, was conducted.

All farmers interviewed were men of ages between 20 and 67 years. The average number of family members (ie: all people living in the same house) was 5.2 persons ranging between 2 and 12. The average number of children living with them was 2.5 ranging from zero to 6. Apart from the children, there were also other relatives who lived in the same house, and contributed to goat keeping activities.

Fifty-four percent of the farmers had only attended elementary school, 40% had also secondary or further school education, only 5% of them never attended school. The knowledge of goat keeping seemed to be acquired from their parents through learning by helping them. Only 5% of farmers interviewed had undertaken training in goat management; 29% of farmers participated in extension programs on goat keeping which were conducted occasionally either in the villages or outside.

Forty-seven percent of farmers interviewed were crop farmers, and 5% worked as farm labourers. Twenty-seven percent of the farmers had other sources of regular income, some of them were teachers, traders, building or forestry workers. While goat keeping was considered by 98% of the farmers as the secondary occupation, for many it was a main source of income.

Seventy-six percent of the farmers had access to land and 90% of these owned the land. However, only 68% of the farmers who owned the land worked on their own land. The rest of them had other jobs, and either their sons, relatives, or hired people worked on their land. Twenty-four percent of the farmers surveyed were landless. Seventy-seven percent of the landless farmers earned a regular salary and for only one landless farmer was goat keeping the only source of income. The average size of land holding was 0.4 ha. Only 17% of farmers interviewed owned more than 1 ha.

In Lumajang, 81% of the farmers grew rainfed cash crops. Coffee was the main crop. Coffee was intercropped with kaliandra, banana, cassava, maize, gliricidia, or cloves. The intercropped plants were utilized for goat feeds. On the other hand, in Ponorogo 80% of farmers had irrigated land. The common cropping pattern in a year was paddy-paddy-soybean or paddy-maize-soybean. Rice bran, soybean haulm, green maize residues and waste product from soybean tofu were utilized for goat feeds plus other forages.

Out of the farmers interviewed, 74% of them kept goats as a kind of saving account. The goats were not sold when the kids reached a given weight, but when cash was needed for school fees, buying food, etc. Nevertheless, 54% of farmers considered goats as their main source of income. Therefore, the farmers were attempting to produce as many kids as possible, although only about 7% of them were actively selecting superior animals for size or prolificacy. Out of the farmers interviewed 25% kept goats also as a kind of prestige. Goats were also considered to provide social security in bad crop years. Out of the farmers interviewed 25% kept goats also as a kind of prestige. Eighteen percent of the farmers kept chicken for home consumption.

The reasons why farmers preferred to keep dual purpose Etawah goats rather than other types (eg: Kacang goats) in the area of study was that most of them (84%) considered that Etawah goats could be sold at a higher price and thus higher profit compared to Kacang goats. It was interesting to note that 28% of farmers did not know that dual prupose Etawah goats could be milked for human consumption. Of the 72% who knew that goat milk was as good as cow's milk, only 28% of them actually milked their goats regularly to sell to their neighbours or occasionally for family consumption. The reason why the farmers did not milk their goat was that they were afraid that the growth of the kids might be affected. In other words milk production was considered sufficient only to ensure that the kids were growing as rapidly as possible.

The average number of goats kept per household was 8.7 ranging from 2 to 28 and on average 3 goats were above 3 years old ranging from 2 to 10. As many as 42% of the farmers wanted to keep more than 10 adult goats in order to gain more profit thus these farmers were economically oriented. The remaining farmers (58%) had the capacity only to keep between 3 and 7 adult goats due to their limitations of space, labour and feeds. However, 83% of all farmers felt that they had not yet achieved their desired maximum capacity due to lack of capital. In terms of space, labour and feeds there is therefore scope for further development of dual purpose Etawah goats in the area.

The feeding system in Lumajang was quite similar among the farmers. It consisted mainly of a mixture of shrubs and leaves from banana, cassava, jackfruit, coffee and other trees including the leguminous: kaliandra, leucaena and gliricidia. Also green forages from elephant grass and maize were fed. Water and salt were given once daily. It was observed that 69% of farmers provided forages twice a day at around 06.00 and 17.00 hours. Rice bran was sometimes given when it was available and mainly at kidding time. The rest of the farmers in Lumajang offered forages three times daily at around 06.00, 12.00 and 17.00 hours and provided no rice bran.

In Ponorogo the feeding systems were much more varied. Out of 29 farmers surveyed 69% provided feeds which consisted of tree leaves, palm leaves and guava leaves. Leaves from corn cobs, banana pseudostems, natural grass, elephant grass, leucaena and other legumes were also fed and generally given once a day between 14.00 to 17.00 hours. Concentrate which consisted of tofu waste, rice bran, and sometimes molasses was provided once daily. Water and salt were also provided.

The litter size was 1.6 at first parity and increased up to 2.4 at fourth parity. The average kidding interval ranged from 7 to 9 months with pregnancy duration of 5.2 month. The average yearly production from the data collected was 2.7 kids per doe. The kids were naturally weaned when they were 3.5 months old ranging from 2 to 5month. The average liveweight at weaning that was measured during the survey was 15.8±4.3 kg and the average liveweight of the mature female (3-4 parity) was 46.0±7.0 kg. These weights were similar to the data obtained with dual purpose Etawah goats which were entirely fed leaves from leucaena for 6 months in a year in an upland area of East Java (Trianti and Udo 1986).

Farmers who did not have males, borrowed from their neighbours. The males were brought into females exhibiting oestrus or the females were taken to the males.In order to prevent diseases the goats were regularly washed, provided with sufficient feed and the sheds were kept clean.

Goats were confined in almost all cases. Eighty-nine percent of farmers in two areas of study were using slatted floors, elevated to about 0.5 m above the ground. This type of housing is recommended (eg: Martawidjaja 1992) as the pens can easily be cleaned. The correct separation of slats (between 15 to 25 mm) ensured that the faeces fell through easily and together with urine could be accumulated under the floor for several months to be used as manure for the fields. The rest of the farmers were using a deep litter floor system which was observed to give less clean pens, as urine, faeces and refused feeds were accumulated and wet. The goats were standing on it and laid down on top of the accumulated manure. Indeed, much more manure accumulated for fertilizer using this system than in the slatted floors due to feed wastage.

Sixteen percent of the farmers sold their manure, while 84% used it on their own land or rented land.

Sixty-two percent of the farms were using bamboo-wood for goat pens. Tile roofs were used by 56% of farmers mostly in Ponorogo; bamboo roofs by 31% of farmers mostly in Lumajang: and tin roofs by 11% of farmers in both areas.

For 33% of goat farms only the farmer himself was involved in the goat management including collecting of forages, feeding, cleaning the sheds and general management of the goats. For 67% of farms the family was involved in many of the activities. It was felt that the hardest work was collecting forages, in which 46% of the wives were involved. Similar observations were made by Arjani and Arga (1994).

Almost all farmers said the kids were sold when cash was needed to pay school fees, living expenses or for Islamic festivities. Relatively few (only 7%) sold goats deliberately to reduce the population. The price of young goats at approximetly 3 month varied from Rp 30,000 to Rp 100,000 and at mature weight from Rp 100,000 to Rp 300,000 except for superior breeding animals which were sometimes sold for up to Rp 500,000 (1 USD = Rp.2,000). In almost all the cases, the buyers came to the farmers to buy the goats.

Only 7% of farmers surveyed sold milk either regularly or occasionally. For the regular costumers milk was delivered from home to home, but for the occasional milk consumers they came to the farmers. The average milk extracted by farmers during the survey was 360 ml/d/doe and varied from 100 to 1,350 ml. The minimum amount of milk extracted in this survey was lower than the production capacity (200 ml/d/doe with the liveweight of 23 kg) of the local (Kacang) goats with improved feeds demonstrated by Sitorus (1994). This indicates that the dual purpose Etawah goats have potential to produce more milk on the better feeds generally provided for them. The price of milk varied between Rp 1,000 and Rp 2,500 per litre with the milk fat content ranging from 4.2 to 6.4%.

From this survey several important conclusion can be reached:

* Farmers on the whole gave priority to maintain a rapid growth rate of the kids. They were reluctant to extract milk from the goats in case it would adversely affect the growth rates of the kids. One reason for this appeared to be the large demand for the dual purpose kids as they could readily be sold at very favourable prices.

* Presently there is no established demand for goat milk; on the other hand, when it is available and sold the goat milk commanded a higher price than cow's milk.

* The feeds available in the areas examined appeared to be adequate even to support a substantially higher goat population than the one already there as farmers felt that they had not reached the optimal flock size largely due to lack of capital.

* While goat keeping was an important source of income, it was generally a secondary occupation as the largest proportion of both landless and landowning farmers had other sources of regular income.

* There is a good foundation for an increase in milk production for sale in the areas, as there is sufficient feed, labour and space to increase the number of goats. The importance of milk as a source of income will no doubt increase when the present high demand and price for goat kids decrease. A development of milk collection through milk cooperative should then be encouraged by local Governments and village leaders.

* A system of partial suckling in which the kids have access to high quality feeds but are separated from the does during part of the day may be a possibility but would probably be too labour consuming for the farmers. Another solution would be to wean the kids at about 2 months of age and provide high quality feeds ad libitum which would be more practical for the farmers.

The author wishes to thank the International Foundation for Science for their support in this project, Dr E R Ørskov for his supervision and my colleagues: Cahyaningsih, Hari Sutrisno, Andriyanto and Nur Supriyadi for their assistance.

(Received 1 June 1996)