Which Livestock Should You Keep in Ghana?

Start with the land you have, not the animal you like

The question we hear most often from poultry keepers is which animal to add next. The answer depends less on the animal than on the half-acre behind the house. Count the shade, the grazing, the water and the cash you can put into feed, and only then look at the animals. A goat that needs browse will starve on a plot that has been scraped bare by the chickens, and a rabbit hutch placed in full afternoon sun will cook its occupants in March.

Halaal Farms hatches day-old chicks and sells poultry, so we are not in the business of recommending goats or cattle. We do know the poultry side of a compound well, and most families who add a second animal already have a flock. The poultry house, the feed store and the water supply are often the first things a new animal will share, so it pays to look at them before you buy.

Keep one question in mind as you read: which of these can you feed for twelve months, not just the good months?

Five questions to answer before you pick a species

Write down the answers to these five questions before you talk to a seller. They will rule out most options quickly.

1. Land. How much space can you give the animals, and is it shaded, drained and fenced?
2. Labour. Who will feed, water, clean and check the animals every day, including on the days you are away?
3. Feed. What can you grow, buy or gather in each season, and at what cost per month?
4. Capital. How much can you spend on the animals, the housing and the first six months of feed, without borrowing?
5. Market. Who will buy the animals or the meat, how often, and at what size?

Land and feed usually decide the question. Labour and market decide how well you do with the answer. Capital limits how fast you can grow. A farmer who scores badly on land and feed should consider a smaller species or a poultry-based option before anything larger.

Goats: the most common first large animal

Goats are the animal many smallholders in Ghana choose first. The West African Dwarf goat is the common local type in the forest and coastal zones. It is small, hardy and able to live on browse and mixed forage, and it often kids twins. Goats can breed through the year, so a small herd can grow without waiting for a particular season. Sahel-type goats are larger and common in the north, where they are kept on open grazing and move with the seasons.

Goats are browsers, not grazers. They prefer leaves, shrub shoots and tree pods to grass, and they will climb, jump and push through fences that would hold a cow. A goat pen needs to be dry, raised off wet ground, with a roof that sheds rain and a fence strong enough to keep out dogs and thieves. Keep feed and water in places the goats cannot reach from their pen, and separate the goat feed from anything medicated, because some poultry medicines are unsafe for goats.

The main risks are internal parasites in the wet season, footrot in muddy pens, and pneumonia in the cold harmattan nights. Keep the pen dry, rotate grazing where you can, and follow your vet's or agric extension officer's advice for worming and vaccination. Ask the local market what size and condition of goat sells best before you buy, because buyers in Accra and Kumasi do not always want the same animal.

Sheep: hardy, grazing animals that suit open ground

Sheep are a sensible choice where there is grass and a little browse. The Djallonké, or West African Dwarf sheep, is the local type most often kept by smallholders. It is small, hardy and adapted to the humid zones, and it does well on a mixed diet of grass, crop residues and some supplementary feed. Sheep tend to graze closer to the ground than goats, which means they can take down a lawn of grass quickly and need more open pasture in the rains.

In wet conditions, sheep pick up worms more easily than goats do, because they graze low and their pens get muddy. A sheep pen should be dry and raised, with a slatted or well-drained floor, and the grazing should be moved often so the worm larvae do not build up on one patch. Ask your vet or agric extension officer to set up a worming schedule that fits your site, rather than copying one from another farm.

Sheep also follow a demand pattern that is different from goats. Rams and lambs are often sought around Eid al-Adha, while households buy meat through the year for funerals, naming ceremonies and family gatherings. Check your local market before you commit, because demand is strong in some towns and thin in others.

Cattle: large money, large land and a long commitment

Cattle are the biggest animal most Ghanaian smallholders will consider, and they need the most of everything: land, water, labour, capital and veterinary support. In the north, the Zebu and Sanga types are common, and they are kept by herders who move with the rains. In parts of the forest and transitional zones, where tsetse flies carry trypanosomiasis, trypanotolerant breeds such as the N'Dama do better than most other cattle. Choose the breed for the zone you live in, and ask the Veterinary Services Directorate what disease risks apply to your district.

Cattle take a long time to repay their cost. A calf needs months of milk and grazing before it can be sold, and the herd grows slowly. Feed and water are the main running costs, and dry-season grazing can become the most expensive part of the year. Land is also a serious issue. Check who owns the grazing around your compound and whether the district assembly or the local chief has rules on moving animals through fields. Conflicts over grazing routes are common in parts of Ghana, and they can cost a herd more than any disease.

Cattle suit a farmer with a large plot, dependable water, a labour plan and a vet within reach. They are a poor first animal for a family with a backyard, and they are a poor match for a farmer who has never kept livestock before.

Rabbits and grasscutters: small space, fast cycles, heat as the enemy

Rabbits and grasscutters fit a small plot, and both breed quickly. A doe can kindle several times a year, and a grasscutter unit built around a buck and a few does can produce a steady supply of animals for the kitchen and the chop bar. Both reward careful housing, because both are harmed by heat, damp and poor hygiene. A rabbit hutch in an open, sunny yard can overheat in the dry season, and a grasscutter pen with a soft earth floor will be dug under by an animal that wants to escape.

Grasscutters are wild animals that have been farmed, and their keeping is regulated. Check with the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission about permits before you buy breeding stock, and ask what records they expect you to keep. Our grasscutter guide sets out the pens, feeding and the first-year calendar in more detail.

For rabbits, our rabbit farming guide covers hutch design and the heat problem. Keep the hutch raised, shaded and ventilated, and do not let it stand in the path of the afternoon sun. Introduce new feed slowly, because a sudden change of diet can upset the gut of a rabbit or a grasscutter within a day.

Snails and guinea fowl: side enterprises that fit a poultry yard

Snails and guinea fowl fit more easily beside a poultry house than most larger animals. Giant African land snails need a shaded, moist pen with good drainage, daily greens and a steady source of calcium, and they take a long time to reach market size. Our snail farming guide covers the pen and the season, and it is worth reading before you commit to a large order of breeders.

Guinea fowl are the closest animal to our own business. They are hardy foragers, and northern families have kept them for generations. They are also demanding when they are young. Keets are fragile in their first weeks and need warm, dry brooding, which is why we sell day-old keets from our hatchery as a starting point, with guinea keets from GH₵17 at the time of writing. Check current stock and prices with us before you plan a brood. Our guinea fowl guide explains the brooding and the housing, and the breeds page lists the other birds we hatch.

Guinea fowl can fly, and they will roost in trees and on roofs if the house does not stop them. A fenced run with a roost and a closed shelter at night keeps them safer and easier to count.

Feed bills by season: the rains, the dry spell and the harmattan

Ghana has a rainy season, a dry spell and a harmattan, and each one changes the feed bill. The rains bring grass and browse in plenty, and most animals can live on forage for a few months. The dry spell cuts the grazing back quickly, and the animals start to draw on stored feed, crop residues and bought concentrate. The harmattan brings cold, dusty nights in the north and the middle belt, and young animals need shelter and extra feed to hold their weight.

The table below shows the usual pattern. Your local figures will differ, so use it to plan the feed store, not as a forecast.

Work out the feed bill for twelve months, not six. Many farmers who start well run out of money in the dry spell, because the first months were cheap and the bad months were not priced in.

Festive demand and what buyers actually ask for

Demand for livestock in Ghana moves with the calendar. Eid al-Adha brings strong demand for rams and goats across Muslim communities, and buyers look for animals in good condition at a specific size. Christmas and Easter lift demand for meat in many homes, and funerals and naming ceremonies create steady sales through the year. Each occasion has its own buyer, and each buyer has a preferred size, colour or condition.

The best way to learn this is to ask. Speak to butchers, chop bar owners, household buyers and the animal traders at the nearest market. Ask what they buy, when they buy it, what they pay, and what they reject. Write the answers down, and check them again after the next festive season. Avoid relying on a single year, because prices and demand both change, and the local rate of the moment is what matters for your decision.

Do not assume that a buyer in one town will pay the same as a buyer in another. Transport costs, competition from other farmers and the number of households nearby all change the price you can get, so the market for your animal is local. Check current rates before you breed, and treat any figure you hear as a starting point to verify.

Mixing species on one compound without causing trouble

Many compounds keep poultry alongside one or two other animals. The mix works when the feed is separate, the water is separate, the housing is secure and the manure has somewhere to go. Goats will eat chicken mash if they can reach it. Chickens will take the young grass that a rabbit or a grasscutter needs. Dogs and rats will go wherever the food is, and a shared store draws both.

Keep the species apart in the places that matter most: the feed store, the drinker and the night shelter. Use separate sealed bins, separate troughs and separate pens. Our guide to keeping chickens and goats together goes through the feed and fencing problems in detail, and it is the right next step if goats are on your shortlist.

Think about manure as a resource, not a waste product. Goat and sheep manure, rabbit droppings and poultry litter each have a use in a crop plot, and a compound that uses its manure well saves on fertiliser. Our guide to using poultry manure as fertiliser covers the poultry side, and the same principles apply to the other animals.

A decision table you can score for your own compound

Use the table below as a starting point. Score each option from one to five on each row, using your own land, labour and feed, then add up the columns. The highest total is not automatically the right choice, but it shows where your constraints point. A low score on feed or labour is a warning that no amount of enthusiasm will fix.

The table is qualitative on purpose. Prices, grants and permit fees change, and the figures that matter for your business are the ones you collect locally.

Where to start: a small trial that teaches you something

Start with one species and a small group. For many compounds that means a few does or ewes, or a pair of rabbits, or a small grasscutter unit with the right permits. Keep records from the first day, so you can see what each animal eats, gains, costs and returns. Our livestock record-keeping guide sets out the simple records that make a trial teach you something.

Give the trial a full year before you judge it. The first year reveals the dry-spell feed bill, the harmattan losses and the festive sales that a single season cannot show. If the numbers work, add a second group. If they do not, you have spent less than you would have on a larger herd, and you know what to change.

If you already keep poultry, you have a head start. The housing, the feed routine and the daily check are familiar, and the poultry income can carry the first months of the new animal. Our poultry profit guide shows how to set the two enterprises side by side, and the day-old chicks page is the place to start if the flock is the next step.

Checklist before you buy any animal

Work through this list before you commit money to stock. Most regrets come from something on it that was skipped.

• Write the answers to the five questions on paper, including your feed budget for twelve months.
• Score the options in the decision table, and drop any that score poorly on feed or labour.
• Speak to at least two local buyers and write down what they want and what they pay.
• Confirm the permits for grasscutters and any movement or health rules for cattle and small ruminants with the right office.
• Check the housing for shade, drainage, ventilation and a fence strong enough for the animal.
• Store feed for the dry spell before it starts, and plan for the harmattan nights.
• Find a vet or an agric extension officer you can call, and agree a basic health plan.
• Choose a record system and start it on the day the first animal arrives.

When you are ready to add birds to the compound, our partner page explains how larger farms work with us, and the order form is there for the poultry side. For anything you want to ask before you order, call +233 24 915 1503.

Questions farmers ask