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Feather and down production
This section deals with the production and harvesting of fine feathers and down for use in the garment and household linen industries as opposed to the processing of coarse feathers for feather meal. The most valuable product is the down, which is obtained from the breast area of the goose, followed by the fine feathers. Most commercial products contain a blend of both down and feathers; the higher the proportion of down, the higher the value of the product.
To obtain feathers and down at the time of slaughter, the normal process is to first scald the geese in hot water (60-68degC) for 1-3 minutes. The coarse feathers of the wing and tail are then removed by hand with the remainder of the feathers and down removed either by a plucking machine or by hand. The feathers are then dried and this is normally done in large commercial tumble dryers. For small amounts, the feathers are spread and stirred frequently to facilitate their drying.
On a small scale, geese can be plucked dry without scalding and, although it takes longer, it does yield dry down and feathers. Irrespective of the plucking process, the sorting of the down and feathers can be done by weight in air currents.
The harvesting of feathers from live geese can be seen as an important source of income from geese being bred for the production of meat and from those in breeder flocks. However, it is painful and should not be done if farming to organic principles, keeping high animal welfare standards.
Geese as weeders
Geese are effective weeders because they like grasses but do not like many broadleaf plants. At least in modern times, the use of geese as weeders began in the United States in the 1950s when geese were used to weed cotton fields.
Since then geese have been used to weed a wide range of crops including asparagus, potatoes, fruit shrubs, nursery stock, tobacco, nut trees, grapes, fruit trees, beets, sugar beets, beans, hops, various ornamental flowers, onions and strawberries.
In addition, geese can provide a second source of income in plantations by making use of the forage that grows under the principal plantation crop.
Geese will work continuously from dawn to dark, seven days a week, nipping as new growth appears. They can get close to crop plants without damaging the roots. You can use them to weed areas that are too wet for cultivation, too.
If you teach goslings to eat the type of weeds that grow in your fields, by offering them the plants you want them to focus on while they’re still in the brooder, they will be more inclined to hunt down those weeds later As with any young animal in training, mistakes will occur, since initially they will eat everything green.
This small loss will be worthwhile as the geese figure out what tastes good and what you familiarized them with. Since most adult geese are happy to take young ones under their wing, you can place an adult with the goslings to help them figure things out faster.
The number of geese needed per hectare for weeding depends on the level of weed growth and the crop. For a hectare of cotton, 5-6 geese are adequate.
In addition to weeding traditional crops, geese can also be used to clean up the forage on dikes and in ditches that are difficult to access with equipment.
In fact, it has been shown that white Chinese geese, if properly managed, will readily consume and control floating water hyacinth in drainage ditches.
The management of geese as weeders is simple because young growing geese are used.
Generally, any reluctance by geese to eat the weeds is an avoidable problem. First, farmers should not provide palatable or lush grass to young geese before putting them in a weeding programme otherwise the birds will reject the low quality weeds. Also, geese kept for weeding are normally kept on a programme of restricted feed with any grain being given in the evening.
The level of feed restriction will depend on the amount of forage material available in the area to be weeded.
Birds must, however, be watched because very hungry geese will eat whatever is available and, under extreme conditions, they could damage the crop they are supposed to weed.
As with any extensive management system, shade and water must be provided. The geese can be kept within the area to be weeded either through direct supervision or by enclosing the area with a relatively low (70-90 cm) traditional fence or an electric fence.
The enthusiasm for weeding crops declined during the 1970s with the use of herbicides. However, there is still a place today for the goose as a weeder, especially for the farmers who does not want to use herbicides.
In addition, using geese for weeding has a positive effect on the environment due to the reduced use of chemical weed-killers and because their droppings provide a nitrogen fertiliser.
Although the objective is different from weeding, another low-cost goose production system is to utilise harvest waste. In some European countries it is a popular practice as a complementary feeding programme since it uses material which is both low-cost and which would otherwise be wasted. After being harvested, the by-products of many crops can be used for this purpose.
These include cereals, vegetables (especially carrots) and salad crops where the waste portion of the crops is particularly palatable to geese.
For more information on goose production see the publication by Buckland and Guy. References and Further Reading Buckland, R. and Guy, G. (2002). Goose Production. FAO Animal Production and Health Paper 154. FAO, Rome. FAO’s DAD-IS: Information system for the Global Strategy