by
Roger Buckland
and
Gérard Guy
The objective of this publication is to provide the reader with a guide to sustainable goose production systems that are based on the natural physiological and behavioural advantages of the goose.
The goose is ideally suited to sustainable animal production practices because:
it can consume and digest large amounts of high fibre feedstuffs;
its behavioural patterns make it easy to manage;
it has a rapid growth rate, the fastest of avian species used for meat;
its feathers and fatty liver are valuable additional products.
Since geese are selective with respect to what plants they eat, they can be used to weed a large variety of crops. In addition, their patterns of behaviour make them not only easy to manage as a flock but also mean that they can be very effective guard animals.
