Goats

Goats will clear brush, give milk, and raise meat kids on land too rough for cattle. They also escape through fences, get wormy, and holler when they’re alone. Plan for those three things and goats are easy.

Before you get goats

• Never keep one goat. They’re herd animals; a lone goat is stressed and noisy. Start with at least two, such as two does, or a doe and a wether.
• Fence first. Fencing is a goat keeper’s biggest expense, and it has to keep goats in and predators out ¹. Two systems work: woven wire with electric offset wires, or multi-strand, high-tensile electric ¹. Goats test every gap.
• Buy healthy animals from a reputable breeder, and isolate any newcomer for at least 30 days before it meets the herd. Don’t lend, borrow, or board goats or equipment ¹.
• Provide a dry, draft-free shelter, especially for kidding, plus shade and a way to catch and restrain goats for hoof trimming and treatments ¹.

Feeding

Goats are browsers: given the choice, they’d rather eat leaves, brush, and weeds than lawn grass. Pasture and browse should supply most of their nutrition ¹. A rough guide is 1,000 pounds of grazing animal per 1 to 2 acres, depending on rainfall, season, and how much hay and grain you feed ¹.

Supplement with hay in winter and grain where it’s needed: late pregnancy, early lactation, poor pasture, or drought. Always provide free-choice goat minerals, and make feed changes gradually. Sudden switches to rich feed or grain cause enterotoxemia, acidosis, and bloat ¹.

A healthy goat

Know what normal looks like ¹:

• Rectal temperature 102–104 °F; heart 60–90 beats a minute; breathing 15–30 a minute; chewing cud regularly.
• Head up, ears up, tail up, bright eyes, good coat, good appetite, curious, and keeping up with the herd.

A goat standing off alone, hunched, not chewing cud, or off its feed is sick.

Vaccines

The core vaccine is CD-T, against the clostridial bacteria behind enterotoxemia (“overeating disease”) and tetanus ¹:

• Does: 1–2 months before kidding, so antibodies pass to the kids in colostrum. Two shots the first time an animal is vaccinated.
• Kids: at about 8 and 12 weeks, or earlier if the doe wasn’t vaccinated. If she wasn’t, give tetanus antitoxin at castration or disbudding.
• Bucks and wethers: once a year.

Worms and FAMACHA

Internal parasites are the number-one health problem in goats, and the worst is the barber pole worm, a blood-sucking stomach worm that causes anemia ¹. After decades of overuse, worms have developed resistance to every class of dewormer, so the goal is control, not eradication ¹:

• Don’t overstock or overgraze; rest pastures; let goats browse up off the ground.
• Deworm selectively, only the goats that need it, and find out which drugs still work on your farm.
• Keep and breed from goats that resist worms.

The FAMACHA system makes “who needs it” a quick check: roll down the lower eyelid and compare its color to the card ¹.

Breeding and kidding

Goats are seasonal breeders, most fertile in fall, with a 21-day heat cycle. Pregnancy lasts about five months, and twins or triplets are common ¹. Most does kid without help. Check her if there’s no progress an hour after the water bag breaks, and get experienced help if you’ve been trying to assist for 30 minutes. Make sure every kid gets colostrum within 24 hours ¹.

Routine care

• Disbud kids at 1–2 weeks if you want hornless goats; band castration at 1–7 days for bucklings you won’t breed ¹.
• Trim hooves as needed; how often depends on the goat and the ground ¹.
• Predators: good fences, and a livestock guardian dog, donkey, or llama ¹.

Try it

Before buying goats, walk your fence line and fix every gap a goat could squeeze through, then add an electric offset wire. Buy two goats from the same healthy herd, ask the seller about their CD-T vaccinations and deworming history, and learn to read a FAMACHA eyelid the first week you have them.