Description of the breed of geese Danish Legard
Geese Danish Legard are loved by poultry farmers all over the world. They are quite unpretentious in food and are large in size. Adults weigh 7-8 kg. They feed mainly on grasses, sometimes with an admixture of additives useful for growth, but even without additional feeding, the growth and development rate of birds is strikingly high.
Geese Danish Legart
Features of "Danish Leharts"
The Legart breed of geese has excellent high-quality down, you can "pinch" it from the age of eleven months. The procedure should be done regularly every 6 weeks. From one bird during the year, you can get about 0.5 kg of fluff.
If you look at the photo, you will notice that outwardly the geese are different:
- a small elongated neck, which stands out well against the background of a small body;
- a fold in the abdominal region;
- blue eyes;
- reddish-orange beak and paws of the same color.
From birth to adulthood
At birth, Danish Legart geese have yellow plumage with dark blotches, with age, the color becomes ash-white. They have a very graceful gait, exquisite appearance and gentle disposition, for the latter quality the farmers especially love them.
One adult goose lays about 40 eggs per year, each weighing about 200 g. But such good egg production rates do not affect the brood: as a rule, chicks hatch from a maximum of half of the eggs. But those goslings who did manage to be born have excellent immunity, thanks to which they are not threatened with serious diseases and infections.
For full-fledged growth and development, birds of this breed need spacious pasture and additional feeding (not to be confused with enhanced feeding, which, on the contrary, they do not need).
At the age of two months, Legart geese already look adult and weigh about 6 kg, in a month they gain 1-2 kg. As a result, an individual can reach a weight of 9 kg of meat and other valuable products.
The photo shows that the anatomical features of an adult gander differ from those that nature has endowed geese with. Males are massive, heavy, with a square body, which cannot be said about females - they are elongated and slender. The birds raised for fattening are slightly different: they still have the same square body shape, but a short and heavy neck.
Breeding Danish geese
With the raising of birds of the breed in question, due to their almost ideal disposition, problems rarely arise. Judge for yourself:
- They are almost always in a balanced, calm state.
- It is almost impossible to induce an attack of aggression in them.
- They will never attack an outsider.
- There is little noise from them.
And this despite the fact that the rate of growth and weight gain is very high. Over the summer, the geese manage to acquire a good well-fed body, they retain the gained mass until the very winter slaughter.
To ensure good survival rates, the farmer must take proper care of the birds: carry out their timely vaccination and add all the necessary vitamins and trace elements to the feed.Thanks to these simple measures, you can significantly lower the death rate for many years.
Nine-month-old individuals are already considered sexually mature, and in geese, the first sexual contact occurs several weeks earlier than in geese. In mid-spring, egg-laying is already in full swing, but due to the insufficiently developed incubation instinct, it will be difficult to get good offspring without an incubator.
The growth of young animals within five months is fast, the goslings behave amicably, without cannibalism. At 6 months, the rate of weight gain decreases.
An indicator of proper care for Danish Legarts is considered to be the completely white plumage of an adult without extraneous black or grayish blotches. It is important to take into account that the characteristics of the breed are fully manifested during the second reproductive season, therefore, the presence of black marks in the first goslings is permissible.
Differences between Legarts and other breeds
All females of this breed have almost no maternal instinct, which makes their descriptions similar only to the Italic geese, but the young individuals of Legart are visually much larger and weigh more. In appearance, they rather resemble the Enden breed, but the latter are very aggressive, so it is impossible to confuse them with the well-bred Danes.
The characteristic features of the Danish Legard goose breed are:
- beak, the end of which is slightly lighter than the base,
- slowness and regularity,
- walking on bent legs.
Attractive appearance, peaceful nature and unpretentiousness are not all the advantages of these birds. Geese of the Datksiy Legard breed have very tasty and nutritious meat, the demand for which is very high.
Now you know everything about the Danish Legard geese breed and what makes the Danish Legard geese stand out among others.