The objective of this review was to identify the general condition of goose feeding by breeders in Kars province. For this survey villages in Kars, where goose breeding was carried out intensively, were identified and family enterprises that bred geese were interviewed face to face. A total of 64 questionnaires were obtained out of these interviews. As a result, it was determined that the number of eggs obtained from those stock which were fed on barley and forage before laying eggs was higher than the number of those which were fed on barley and bread (P<0.01); however, feed which was fed during the laying period did not have a significant impact on the number of eggs that were laid (P>0.05). It was also determined that 36% of the breeders grazed their goslings from the age of 10 days and 53% of the breeders grazed their goslings in meadows until November. Most of the breeders (45%) applied additional feeding to the stock 30 days before slaughter, and mean slaughter weight of geese at the end of the growing period (November) was 4.84 kg. Geese production by conventional methods in Kars uses a more specific feeding program for goslings, while feeding mature geese was not given much attention, and they were only subjected to an additional feeding program based on barley just before slaughter to increase attain desired live weight. It was concluded that by eliminating these shortcomings could improve egg productivity, live weight and slaughter weight.

This paper concentrates on revealing the economic significance of geese commercially raised by community in Kars province, which is very famous for geese reproduction in Turkey. In the survey, the hatchery efficiency has been determined to be 65.9% while the mortality rate after hatching is 8.7%. The survey revealed that small businesses on goose breeding typically are not profitable. However, because women are mostly in charge of taking care of geese, demanding no wages in return, the labour cost is very low, increasing the business profitability of goose breeding in this area. Consequently, the results of the survey have indicated that in order to increase performance of goose breeding and to raise the level of profit, contemporary goose breeding facilities, including infrastructure, should be constructed, and those who deal with goose breeding need to be trained in the technical aspects of production.