There are many barns in Slovenia that were not originally built for keeping goats, as they were mostly converted from old cattle stables. As part of the CRP project V4-2012 entitled “Development of sustainable barn construction concepts”, a survey was carried out in which 19 goat barns in Slovenia were surveyed using a questionnaire. These farms have goats that are included in breeding programmes and registered in the Central database for small ruminants in Slovenia. As part of the survey, the internal and external characteristics of the barns and the work processes in the barns were analysed. It was found that most of the goat barns are of older construction, which means that they are not optimally suited for goat husbandry. The most common form of housing is in a barn with access to pasture, although a few farms still have tied animals. The barns are built from a variety of materials, including concrete, brick, stone and wood, and the mangers are usually made of wood. The space available for goats without offspring meets the prescribed standards, while the space available for goats with offspring is often too small to meet the standards. Lighting and ventilation in the barns are usually provided by windows. Many farms still rely heavily on manual labour. On some farms, the animals are supplied with water manually, and on most of them manure is also removed manually. In dairy goat farming, milking is mostly done by machine, either into a bucket or into a pipeline system in the milking parlour, whereas milking on one of the surveyed farm is still done manually. It is no longer viable to convert existing old barns, so it makes sense to consider appropriate new-build goat barns that will provide welfare for the animals and the breeder.
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