Introduction

　　Changhwa Animal Propagation Station is a branch of Livestock Research Institute, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan. The organization framework was shown in Fig1.

　　This station is located at Beitou town, Changhua County which is at the midland of Taiwan. The basic value of station is to help agricultural development and to make the geese industry forever. The station goal is to help geese farmers make money. This station is the unique place for the geese study in Taiwan. According to the agricultural statistics of 2012, there were about five million geese slaughtered in Taiwan. The White Roman geese breed occupies more than 97% those of market demand. The production value of geese meat and goose down are more than eight billion N.T. dollar. The major missions of the station are as follow:

1. Select and improve high weight and high egg geese breeder lines, respectively. 
2. Study the technique of environmental controlled house and nutrition requirement in geese. 
3. Develop the technique of frozen semen and to preserve animal diversity in geese.
4. Supply high quality gosling and provide skills to geese farmers.
5. Consult for the birds and swine industry around the central Taiwan.
6. Set up the national geese supply systems.
7. Solve the problems of animal residue in animal industry.

Introduction of geese industry in Taiwan

S.D. Wang, C.M. Wang, and S.C. Liao

      The geese industry in Taiwan develops steady. According to the data of Agricultural Statistics Yearbook (2012) and the Survey of Livestock Numbers on Farm in the 3rd Season, there were 760 geese farms and 1,750,649 birds totally. The numbers of geese was ranked third after chicken and duck throughout the whole poultry industry, and only 1.8% of the total (Fig. 1.) Feeding area keep mostly around the central and southern Taiwan, which the top three counties was Yunlin (42.3%), Pingtung (19.0%) and Chiayi (13.2%), respectively. The ratio of average feeding scales in geese farm was from 1,000 to 2,999 birds, which had 63.03% in farm number and 51.65% in geese numbers. The prices of meat-type geese in farm and retail of cities was 85.49 and 201.07 N.T.D. /kg, respectively.

       White Roman goose (Fig. 2) is the most popular breed, which occupied almost 97% of breeding population in Taiwan. The other breeds are White Chinese goose (Fig. 3) and Brown Chinese goose, which are fed in Hakka area. Unlike most domestic fowls, geese show an obvious seasonal pattern of reproductive activity under natural lighting conditions. In Taiwan, geese’s reproductive seasons start at the late of autumn and finish around June. The prices of gosling in farm have significant differences. For example, there was 60 N.T.D per gosling in Jan of 2013 and 110 N.T.D per gosling in late of Jun on the same year. The industrial types of geese in Taiwan have breeding geese farm, hatchery, meat-type feeding farm, slaughter and processing plant, and feather processing plant. The technique of environmental controlled house is an important method for purpose to regulate the laying season of geese in Taiwan. There have been more than 60 environmental controlled houses so far (Fig. 4). The age limits in breeding geese are about 3 to 5 years, and greater reproductive performances are from 2 to 3 years of age.

      The hatching duration of White Roman goose and Chinese goose are nearly 30 and 31 days, respectively. Nutritional contents in goose meat is high, as there are great sources of protein, calcium, phosphorous, iron, various vitamins, microelements and amino acids from it. The geese are usually raised between 13 to 14 weeks of age before sale. The feather will be separated and cleaned from the carcass. The feather down of goose is so high-priced that it be called as “soft gold” (Fig. 5).

　　Changhua Animal Propagation Station is located at 80 Tonung Road, Beitou town, Changhua County. The total land area is about 11.794 hectare; architectural area 3.598 hectare, forage grass area 7.951 hectare and swallow 0.2 hectare. The aim of us is to improve the geese industry in Taiwan. We have dedicated in developing and expanding new technologies or breeds for geese industry. Three species of goose, including Whit Roman geese, Brown Chinese geese, and White Chinese geese were breed and expanded. Black swan about 6 months of age is offered for sale. In 2009, the new line breeding “Peito White geese” selected from White Roman geese was born and registered. Another our business is black swan reproduction and to study the management of swan. Since about 20 years ago, we have been trying to set up a ventilated house management system to adjust geese reproduction season. This technique had been developed, improved, and then expanded to farmers. In recent years, a geese selection system - RFID had been studied and used, it will be expanding soon. The subjects of nutrition, feed, by-product, down, hybrid, and angel wing of geese have also been studying. We are also providing free consultant about nutrition, feed, reproduction, and management of geese and swan.