Boer Goat - The Early Days / With this goat breeders "living it" opinion.
The earliest records show that goats were in existence in Western Uganda as early as AD 1200. It is recorded that these early goats were brought to Western Uganda and bred to European imports in an effort to produce a hardy, climate adaptable, meat goat that could produce multiple births with high survival rates. It takes generations for most living species to adapt completely to a sudden climate and / or environment change. At the beginning of the 20 th. century more intense efforts were given toward breeding a better meat goat. July 4th., 1959, the Boer Goat Breeders Association (of South Africa) was formed to regulate the breeding and selection resulting in better breed conformation, muscling, and a sound body structure.
In the late 1970's, the Boer goat was imported to Germany. In 1987 the Boer was imported to New Zealand, and in 1988 Australia received there first Boer Goat imports. The first Boer embryos to reach the North American Continent were implanted into recipient Does at Olds College in Canada. These goats were quarantined until 1993, then released into Canada and the United States. Since the late 1980's the Boer goat has been imported by New Zealand, Germany, Malaysia, Mexico, Australia, India, France, Indonesia, Denmark, British West Indies, Netherlands Antilles, and the United States.
Many consider the Boer goat to be among the hardiest and adaptable breeds available with the desirable traits demanded on todays marketplace.
How Hardy is the Boer Goat ?
In my opinion it takes decades and several generations for all living things to adapt to new and different environmental living conditions. We had 50 inches of rain this spring and summer, I had more than one email or phone call wanting to know what was wrong with there goats, they were dying. We are in cattle country, where goats have been purchased, placed on short grasses after several years of drought. The conditions were just wright for an outbreak of Barber Pole worms and we had just that. In pastures shorter than 5 inches and rainy humid conditions occur you will need to stay on your toes and watch the herd for parasites. In my medicine kit you will find more than one wormer for parasites and we use lespedeza and other tall legumes along with garlic to help with prevention. Boer goats have not adapted to the high humidity in many parts of the county, I know this because of the experience we had and the phone calls and emails I receive from people living in areas of high humidity and short pastures. It is said that 15% of the goats carry 80% of the worms, this means we need to cull, breed the hardiest, and cull some more. We used to practice worming every 60 days, again in 15 days to destroy eggs. We now look at specific animals on a daily basis to determine individual goats that need worming and most likely worm the entire herd 3 times per yr. this will allow us to recommend certain breeding animals for commercial production, goats with a high tolerance to parasites will grow and thrive in pasture and low maintenance environments much better than those which carry a higher parasite count. You will usually have less parasite problems in percentage goats, this is due to the crossing of animals with genetics that have been in this country for several generations. In all fairness there was also an outbreak of foot rot among cattle. The only way you are not going to have problems with livestock is not to own it. We will have to learn how to best adjust to raising the Boer goat, hopefully we will meat the goat somewhere in the middle of the carefree evolution. Until then you will need to be prepared to learn about new feeds, pastures, pens, breeding practices and be prepared to spend a lot of time and some money implementing them. I am in no way putting down the Boer Goat, or trying to discourage anyone from getting into the business, but when I read articles that makes it sound as if the Boer goat is trouble free, I wonder if the writer has actually bred purebred/ full blood Boer goats. It's really not the goats fault, place a domestic pig in the middle of the Sierra Desert and see how long it last ! Breeding goats can be a lot of fun and with a little luck rewarding, but not without spending some time and revenue. Breeders and or seed stock producers will need to put an emphasis on keeping the hardiest of goats.
Our Goal at Double G Boers
Our main focus is on the meat goat show wether business. We feel that a show wether should be a high quality meat goat regardless of where fashion takes the show arena. Therefore, by proper breeding techniques and culling our goal is to produce not only show wethers and club goats, but goats that are uniform, that will work in any environment. We not only focus on structure and uniformity but health, longevity, mothering ability. In short, we feel that a good club doe should also be a good producer.
Goat Production
The U.S. meat goat industry has shown much promise in the recent past. Markets as of late have fluctuated a great deal, depending on the location, and time of year. Much of this demand is due to the constant change of the ethnic population to the U. S., Canada, and Mexico. Government figures show that 63% to 64% of the worlds population consume goat meat. (These are government figures, the masses may not have been found yet! ). Much, but not all the goat meat consumed in the United States derive from population of Middle Eastern, Latin, Asian, African, Caribbean, and others. The other reason for goat meat demand is that it is healthy, however I believe this remains to be a small percentage of the goat meat consumer. People with digestive problems, high cholesterol, etc., are turning to goat as an alternative source for meat. Goat meat is much easier for the stomach to digest and has far less cholesterol than beef. Test show goat meat to be even leaner than chicken. (This must be true, I don't see the chicken industry showing goat meat on there protein / fat / cholesterol charts and the goat industry want miss a chance to compare chevron to our feathered friends. If goats could only fly..)
At the time of this article it is estimated that the U.S. imports 1.5 million pounds of goat meat every week, most of which comes from New Zealand and Australia (China must not have discovered Boer goats). It is estimated that if every goat in the U.S. were to be slaughtered in one day we would not have enough goat meat to last a month. The forecast shows that goat meat will be in higher demand for a long time to come.
Raising Meat Goats
The first thing you need to do is decide what type of market you want to be in. Breeding animals, wether business (club goats for 4-H and FFA ), commercial meat goats, or a combination. Each market is different and will require different animals, available time, breeding tactics, and budgets. I advise most people to start out easy in the goat business. I would highly recommend to spend time researching facilities needed, the effect of the local environment, available markets, pasture requirements, fencing, health issues, (especially parasites), genetics, goat breeding practices, and guard animals needed.
There are several different breeds and combinations of breeds (crosses) of meat goats in the U.S., we will focus on the Boer Breed. The Boer goat is especially important as a meat goat breed because of the size, muscling, growth rate, and availability. The combination of Genetic make up (frame size/growth rate), and there favorite hobby "EATING", makes a favorable meat goat both purebred and for crossing.
Full Blood / Purebred Registered Goats
For all practical purpose I am going to use the term full blood as I would purebred, many goat breeders visualize a purebred goat as a larger framed registered animal with ancestry originating from New Zealand or the U.S. goat industry.
Full blood meat goats are used as Breeding Animals, an entirely different industry from commercial meat goat production. This sounds a bit strange but to maximize genetics it is usually best to cross breed with outside genetics to build a hardier animal for commercial use.
When raising meat goats for commercial use most goat farmers prefer to use percentage does to take advantage of there milking ability. When you use a Boer buck with percentage or milk goat females you have the best of both worlds. Many 4-H and F.F.A. meat goat breeders prefer to breed a full blood buck to percentage does for show wether production. (We use both purebred and percentage does for wether production. We search for full blood females with clean front ends and large frames to produce show wethers. I have been told on several occasions that full blood or purebred Boer does want work to produce meat goats that compete in jr market shows, NOT TRUE, we have produced purebred goat wethers and does that will work and have on several occasions seen purebred goats win youth market goat shows, When breeding purebred goats for show wethers you need to use the larger framed females that are higher off the ground). One of the negatives in producing market wethers with two purebred parents is the high cost of two breeder quality animals. If you are planning on breeding very high quality full blood animals you will find that by breeding both a quality doe and buck the kids will be of higher quality than by trying to do it all with just the buck. In short you need quality does and bucks. Also keep in mind that your first cross with the purebred buck will be the best, producing vigor and uniformity. The second cross will not produce the uniformity for more on this subject read our section on Linecrossing, linebreeding, inbreeding, and crossbreeding goats.
Full Blood Show Goats
The well known breeders at the top of the industry usually demand thousands of dollars for there top show goats. Most of these animals are sold to other breeders, and or for breed show participants. If you do not have a desire to show goats, breed full blood and or purebred seed stock, or show wethers, it is not feasible to purchase these very expensive goats. In this segment of the goat industry most of the emphasis on breeding is in structure for full blood goat shows, they are pampered and treated like show animals not commercial breeding stock. This type of full blood goat is not to be confused with the full blood breeder who breeds for commercial herd sires, breeding stock, and hardiness, however there are exceptions to every rule, some large goat breeders maintain a large herd in a pasture environment producing such numbers that quality show animals are maintained in there herd as well.
There are many who have purchased the high end full blood goats with intentions of becoming breeders who have fallen short. There is room for only so many breeders at the top of the show industry, but everyone has the wright to try ! You need to be selling goats for more than market price to offset the higher cost of purchasing quality breeding goats. Keep in mind a $2,000.00 dollar doe will bring less than $50.00 at the commercial market. On the other hand if you intend on breeding show animals you will need to have show quality animals to work with. Many producers offset some of the cost by A.I. (Artificial Insemination), and or Embryo transplant. Embryo transplant is a process in where a superior female's eggs are flushed, fertilized with a superior breeding buck, creating several embryo's transplanted into low cost female goats resulting in the birth of several high quality kids, thus holding down the higher cost of buying an entire herd of superior females. Many feel that embryo transplant is not cost effective, this process can cost as much as $3,000.00, you can lower your cost by grouping with other breeders. You will eventually find a match between Buck and Doe that will produce a superior animal, but how long and if you do get this match will it repeat itself. I am not putting down the practice of embryo transplant, if you don't mind the expense or already have a program in place it can be a great tool. I think A. I. will replace embryo transplants in the future for most of us. I do take my hat off to those who pioneered Embryo Transplant, they have created some superior phenotype genetics for the Boer Goat Industry at a great deal of expense and hard work. Keep in mind that in most cases breeding full blood show animals the emphasis is on structure and less emphasis is usually given to health matters and mothering instincts, etc., etc., . I have purchased these goats, placed them in a working environment and buried them later, many have been pampered, over medicated, and very much over weight for a working environment. Others have performed well. This is another story we'll get to later. If you plan to sell high end breeding animals you should also be prepared to take on the breed show circuit to push your program. Very few breeders have sold there progeny without making the breed shows. Again, there are exceptions to every rule.
Make no mistake, I am not putting down the full blood show goat industry or its breeders, however, purchasing this high end seed stock for the wrong purpose can and will cause a negative impact on other segments of the goat industry. It is the buyer who ultimately decides how much to pay for a breeding goat and not the seller, so be sure you are purchasing the correct animal for the wright reason. It is hard to make money paying thousands of dollars for an animal unless you are in that segment of the business, which is a very high risk business. Keep in mind breeding is an art in itself, there are no overnight answers after purchasing original seedstock you must still follow the correct path of breeding to maintain uniformity and consistancy which takes time, and revenue.
Raising Show Wethers
We focus on breeding 4-H show goat wethers and does, it allows us to cross over into other markets. We sell does, show wethers, and occasionally a buck. The downfall to the show wether or club goat business is it's inconsistency in judging and difficulty finding well trained feeders for the goat industry. Goat wethers are judged by the human eye, different judges look for different strengths in an animal and there is room for more versatility in judging than with full bloods. Many times the trend is set by a major youth livestock show at the end of a show season, the judge picked a certain type of animal, breeders run out and try to tool up to produce the great winner of the big state show and guess what ?, the new season brings new judges looking for a different animal type. For our breeding program it's best to stay in the middle of the road with the doe herd,always improving, and keeping a variety of bucks on hand for practical breeding changes and maintaining uniformity of the herd with a senior herd sire of which most of the females are retained (this is callled linebreeding). If a state champion happens to be a black wether I will not go out and buy black seed stock to produce nothing but black wethers, same with a short wide, or tall and extra narrow frame, we stay in the middle and if we find a good Doe with a black face we might buy her but only if she fits our breeding program. We breed for a clean head, long neck, smooth rack shape, good rib spring, depth, bone, muscle, strong top, and last but not least meat on a sound carcass. As far as color goes I like it, it ads to eye appeal. Oh Yeah, don't forget vigor. Love to see a show goat walk into the ring with it's head high (vigor).
We do not cater to the full blood show goat segment of the business, however we have purchased breeding stock that have done well in the breed shows that have the ability to produce show animals for open breed shows. Our focus remains on the meat goat show wether business and therefore we use more percentage does than full bloods, we keep purebred animals to product purebred seedstock
With show wethers you have a very large marketing area via the internet and other forms of media. We have sold show wethers all the way across the U.S. We do appreciate every single customer who have purchased show wethers, does, and seed stock from us.
A good feeder is as important as good show wethers. Exercise, proper nutrition, and training is a must. Feeders can make or break a market wether breeder. Try and find an experienced wether feeder to represent your goats. If you can't find an experienced goat fitter, the next best thing is someone who has shown other 4-H and or FFA animals. Even young feeders with a love of animals and a true desire to do there best is a big plus for everyone involved. There are a lot worse things a young person could be doing than working with goats.
The show wether business also requires goats sometime be bred and kidded at times when the goats are not that excited about it. You are more likely to get 1 kidding per year instead of the two a commercial operation will receive, depends on the goats, weather conditions, and steps you are willing to take to get the goats to breed. Many times you will need to kid at at a time when weaning prevents you from recieving high market prices for your culls.
You want need to spend tens of thousands per animal that it might take to purchase a champion quality show buck for full blood shows, however you will need to purchase some quality animals to build your herd. Artificial insemination and or embryo transplant can be utilized for producing quality show wether sires and does, but usually not economically feasible for producing affordable meat goat show wethers in volume. You will need to focus more on stifle muscle, top shape, frame size, and overall muscling in producing show wethers than full bloods. The full blood breeder focuses more on breed character, some of which is also necessary in wether production. More about show wether production can be found on our Show Wether Tips Page. We make an effort to build animals that would work in any environment.
Purchasing Goats
Find someone to help you buy your goats, especially if your just entering into the meat goat business. Even if you have raised goats or other animals two heads are better than one. If you purchase animals from a public livestock auction try and talk with the farmer who raised the animals when he unloads the goats. Try and stay with younger animals, the older animals will usually be culls. You will have no background, pedigree, or registration papers (with rare exceptions) at a public auction. Many will tell you never buy at a public auction, but there are exceptions to every rule. Be careful, use common sense, talk with the person who raised the goats, and it is a good idea to quarantine animals from your herd regardless of where you purchase animals. The public auction is suited more for the commercial meat goat producer. The men and women running these sale barns play an important role in providing a source for selling your animals as well. As the goat industry spreads across the country there are more goats being sold at these public auctions. In some areas and sale barns there are not enough buyers resulting in a low market price. If you have enough volume you may find it beneficial to haul your goats to an area that has a good market for commercial goats rather than selling them at a loss. There are also public auctions for registered animals held by breed associations, education departments, and breeder co-ops. The large breeders will hold there own production sale, you can usually arrive a day ahead to inspect the animals being sold so get in there and put your hands on the animals and remember what you came to buy, don't get caught up in a bidding war and pay twice the price you intended on, listen to yourself not the promoters of the sale, ego and two dollars will buy you a soda "maybe". If you are at private sales and spending some serious money make sure there is a guarantee the animals will breed. Some breeder programs do a great deal of Embryo work and the does have been flushed, donor does may not fit your program if you are using natural breeding, again visit with the seller. Don't just buy goats to be buying goats. Know your blood lines, decide how you wish to build your herd, if your linebreeding do the sale animals have the genetic base, do you really need that buck or is it time to buy a doe to produce a linebred buck to maintain consistancey? Do you need a Boer buck for crossbreeding for commercial production, if so, how has he grown out? Will he make money? etc.etc.etc. !
Unless you know the person who you are buying from or have seen the animal and know it's breeding, I do not recommend you buy goats from a picture or other digital media. You need to put your hands on the goat. With a little experience you can take a feed bucket and a pair of clippers and perform magic with a goat. When buying genetics you need to know that the hip bone is wide (not fat placed on the bone), you need to feel the width and length of the loin, check the udder, see the animal track, etc. In short, you need to learn to look and buy structure not fat. If animals are sold that may not be fed a large or high performance ration and you know the genetic back ground you can usually get an animal bought for less money than one that is blooming. In order to do this you must know what to look for. The older the goat, the less eye appeal. I have seen old line bred bucks and does which look to be on earth for there last day produce outstanding offspring. I have also seen people buy well fitted goats via the media for thousands of dollars who received a hard education.
Registered goats are supposed to meet a certain criteria before qualifying for registration. Don't buy the goats thinking that registration papers will guarantee you quality. There are goats sold every day that would not meet the breed registration guidelines. I am writing this from personal experience not rumor. The truth of the matter is that some breeders don't know they have a problem. The last purchase I made via the media bought me goats with Pneumonia, bad udders, and one goat had bottle jaw. The breeder said he had been fighting tape worms all spring and summer, what he had was barber pole worm and I really don't think he knew what he was dealing with, many don't, after all I had to learn. We doctored and put the goats back on there feet, the others will go to a commercial sale at a loss. I have made it a point to keep my word and take goats that I purchase in this manner, however, I will never purchase another breeding goat without physically checking the animals, unless I know the person or persons buying for me are qualified to buy breeder quality seed stock.
In purchasing breeding goats look for good udders, check for a strong hock, (make sure the back end of the hind foot is not flat on the ground when the goat sets down it's hind foot to walk. If raising show goats you do not want to much of an over or under bite. A lot depends on what your intentions are with the animals you are purchasing, you can live with some over or under bite in the animal if used for commercial production, but try and buy your senior herd sire as correct as possible. You want a good body score or meat covering the ribs and other parts of the body. Look behind the ears for scars and knots. Check the gums and eyelids for good pink color (parasite count), and a straight jaw line. Also check to see that the jaw is not swollen underneath (bottle jaw). On bucks, especially breeder quality bucks make sure the scrotum does not have a large space between the two testicles, try and keep the space below 1/2 inch. You also want bucks that are sound on there back legs and square on the corners and stands wide front and back. For show wether production look for stifle muscle, height, long and clean front ends with a straight top with muscle expression. These are a few of the basics, we could go on and on about color pigmentation, etc., etc. Like most of us, do the best you can and learn as you go. I have yet to see the perfect animal and when you are completely satisfied with what you are breeding, it's probably time to quit.
Commercial Production
If your intention is to raise commercial meat goats you will find the full blood breeder who focuses on commercial seed stock a big plus by purchasing a quality buck. Find a breeder which has good genetics, remember you are not looking for a show buck, but a breeding animal to produce kids that will grow fast with an abundance of meat, strong libido, and a sound healthy carcass. If you are building a female herd you may want to place much of your interest in bucks that should produce females that twin and produce an ample supply of milk with strong mothering instincts that can thrive in pasture environments.
Take advantage of a breeders years of experience and up breeding. If I were raising commercial goats I would suggest a good full blood Boer buck, remember a buck can be half your herd. This is the fastest way to upgrade your herd as well. Most full blood bucks that would work for commercial production will run from $300.00 to $600.00 A good investment. A poor quality buck with a low purchase price will cost you profits in the end. Example: If you raise 100 commercial wethers per year at $1.40 lb. with a buck that produces kids who gain 1/4 lb a day verses 1/2 lb. per day this is a difference of around .35 per day per head. It doesn't take long for the quality buck to pay for itself. This is not counting the future benefits of superior genetics introduced into your goat herd.
Most commercial operations will use does crossed with meat goat and or milk breeds. Three or Four way crosses are often used with a meat goat buck. Pastures are a necessity to keep feed cost down. It is my opinion that much of a goats strength is in it's milking ability. Top market prices are usually between 60 to 80 lbs. therefore, a doe that can produce an abundance of milk, raise twins and breed twice a year would be my goal.
If you are planning on dry lotting (feed finishing off pasture) market goats, I would plan on some serious numbers. I personally can't see how this could work without raising one's own grain and keeping the feed cost to a very minimum, the feed conversion (amount of feed per lb of gain) would need to be lower than I can calculate. I would suggest working with meat goat associations, or finding someone who is making this work before entering into dry lot production.
Marketing Your Goats
Marketing would depend upon the type of goat farm you have. The internet is one very good source for marketing goats. Today you can purchase "Do it Yourself" websites very reasonable from on line companies such as GoDaddy.Com. A website without traffic is like a truck without fuel, after building a website you must have traffic. You can also purchase "Do It Yourself" optimization programs. Beware there are internet marketing companies who will promise you the world and deliver nothing. Anyway, we could talk about building websites and search engine traffic till the moon turns blue, if you have the time you just have to dig in, get started and build the thing or hire it done. If you hire your website built it would be an advantage to have someone do it that's also in the goat business. A goat producer would have a better understanding of your particular operation and how to best use technology to optimize your website. Goat producers are a very internet savvy group of people. There are websites on the internet where you can advertise your goats free of charge. Most newspapers also have a website that you can advertise on, there are many other ways to promote your goat farm via the internet such as email. The American Boer Goat Association offers free online classified advertising to members to promote there production and semen sales. Authorized email can be a very inexpensive way to reach many potential customers.
Business cards can be a very good inexpensive marketing tool. Newspapers, trade magazines, but one of the very best, if not the best, is Word Of Mouth. Direct mail, Trade Magazines, can all be utilized.
Today, many livestock sales that handle sheep will also buy and sell goats. Your local livestock sale barn can be one of your best avenues for marketing meat goats, public goat auctions play an important role in the chain of delivering Chevron (goat meat) from the pasture to the customer.
Inbreeding, Line Breeding, and Crossbreeding
Inbreeding is the breeding of two animals with close ancestors. An extreme example would be the mating of Mother-Son or Father-Daughter, less extreme would be brother-sister or any other combination where the resulting kid would have one or more ancestry on both sides. Inbreeding has a neutral value, depending on what genetics are used. It is neither good or bad until genetics are introduced. Good genetics will and can produce superior goat kids, bad traits can produce very poor kids. Inbreeding normally has a negative effect for most breeders, but can be a very useful tool at times.
One consequence of inbreeding is it tends to make goats more uniform. If good genetics went into the breeding, good genetics will most likely come out, vise versa with bad traits. If good goats are hiding weaknesses it will be discovered with inbreeding. As a result any inbreeding needs to be done while culling for excellence.
Linebreeding and inbreeding are very similar. Linebreeding is a form of inbreeding that concentrates on one given ancestor. The goal with linebreeding is to concentrate on the one excellent animal in an attempt to recreate it through the goat herd population. The most usual example of linebreeding is a half brother to half sister mating. Several combinations of cousin breedings are also linebreeding. Linebreeding is considered to be a more moderate version on inbreeding, as a result the benefits can be accomplished with less risk.
The advantage to both inbreeding and linebreeding is that both produce uniformity, with the goal to produce a more uniform, hardy, and predictable high quality herd. The apposite will occur if wise culling and selection is not practiced.
Crossbreeding is the other extreme of an approach to goat breeding. This is usually done by the crossing of two different breeds as to where linebreeding is done within the same breed. Crossbreeding usually produces a very uniform and superior animal the first cross, after which you will see different color combinations, body shapes, colors, etc., in short a very non uniform group of goats. Linecrossing is a step back from crossbreeding since you are breeding within the same breed type making it less extreme than crossbreeding. Linecrossing does produce much the same results as crossbreeding; initial uniformity but then increased variability. This is an advantage in some situations, a disadvantage in others.
The choice of Linebreeding, Crosssbreeding, or inbreeding is an individual choice that the herd owner must make. If the goal is an excellent herd with decreased variability and high predictability, the choice should be linebreeding, (or even inbreeding at first). The goats linebred or inbred are useful to other breeders due to there predictability. If the goal is to produce excellent individuals then linecrossing may be the answer. Linecrossing will not produce the same percentage of uniformity at first but will eventually increase through culling, while at the same time produce some outstanding kids.
If your goal is color and pattern, then linebreeding is probably the answer. Linebreeding allows the eventual establishment of predictability.
Consider the situation in which two bucks might be considered for purchase. One is linecrossed, the other linebred. If the quality and subjective areal of both bucks are similar it is usually the linebred buck who will produce more uniformity, this is due to the fact that the linebred buck is more genetically uniform, "What you see is what you get" ! In fact inbred or linebred animals usually outbreed themselves, especially if they are being uses for line crossing. On the other hand a linecrossed buck will produce some outstanding animals while injecting some hybrid vigor resulting in more animals that will not make the cut. They will produce some animals like themselves, but will not do this as uniformly as inbred or linebred animals.
When it is necessary to introduce new animals into the herd to improve some characteristics, or to broaden the genetic base, then it is more feasible to purchase a doe, this will eventually produce a son of hers that can be used as a herd sire resulting in linebreeding instead of linecrossing maintaining uniformity in the herd at the same time injecting a shot of new vigor.
The decision of what and how to breed will always be that of the breeder and owner. There is no wrong or wright, it simply is an individual choice of what is needed and the direction you are wanting to take your breeding program. Whatever the choice I would recommend to place a great deal of thought in the health, especially parasite resistance and longevity upon selection.
Parasites
Parasites and the treatment and prevention of parasites should be studied in depth by the goat producer we will touch on this subject.
NOTE: It has been determined that most wormer's should be given orally to be effective.
Since parasites cost the goat industry a tremendous amount of profit I will cover some of the simple basics in this section.
To be on the safe side take it for granted that your goat or goats have parasites. The goal should be to keep a low parasite count. Early detection of a heavy parasite count in goats is crucial. The simplest way to check for parasites is to check for pink coloring of the gums and the inside of the eyelids, as well as coloring just underneath the tail area. (Study the famacha system). White coloring in these areas usually indicate a level of anemia, the whiter the color the higher the parasite or worm count. Another sign of parasites is bottle jaw, swelling underneath the jaw and neck. When you see signs of bottle jaw I recommend treating the animal immediately. When you worm a goat with bottle jaw it is also beneficial to administer some type of drench and or electrolytes, this will help with recovery.
The most effective and accurate way to do a parasite count is by microscope. Identify the type of parasite and treat with the proper type of wormer. You do not want to over medicate for parasites, I recommend that in most cases to treat goats individually, a few goats will usually carry the majority of the parasites, by over medicating the entire herd you will build up immunity to wormers and create a much larger problem. I would highly recommend alternating different wormers to prevent immunity. (There is a current problem with immunity to wormers in many herds).
Prevention is the best cure. Some things that will help with parasite control is quarantine and treatment of new animals. Pasture rotation and not overcrowding. Plant pastures that will grow tall, many parasites are picked up by grazing short pastures, especially during the wet season or early morning dews. While no till farming is on the increase, I till after the sun has had a chance to work on the little pest. Burn of the top grasses when permissible would also help. Clean drinking water for your goats will also aid in controlling parasites and many other diseases.
I have experimented with spraying a garlic/water solution on the Bermuda grasses, I have no proof or documentation at this time this will help and until I do test under the microscope it's purely an experiment. Herbal farmers use garlic barium and water as a pesticide. The mixture is 1 oz. of pure garlic juice per gallon of water. I use a 3 point tractor sprayer and slightly cover the ground at about 5 mph. The odor only last for a few minutes. I am happy with the results I get with ridding of mosquitoes and gnats regardless of what happens with the parasites. If you try this Do not breath the garlic spray. I have read on the internet where milk goat producers use 5 oz. of pure garlic juice orally as a wormer, I have not tested or tried this treatment but I intend on doing so in the spring. I do plant lespedeza, and other tall pastures, to help aid in natural parasite control. We will continue to search for other grasses, legumes, herbs, to plant in our pastures to aid in prevention.
Keeping good body conditioning on your goats will definitely be an asset with parasites and other illness that might strike. An outbreak of Barber Pole worms (caused by unusually damp conditions) and you'll be glad your goats or sheep are in good condition. The Barber Pole Worm can wipe out an entire herd of poor conditioned goats before you can properly diagnose the problem.
KIdding Your Goats
Cold Weather - I tend to own goats that love to kid during the worst weather imaginable. In Oklahoma winter weather can often reach temperatures below freezing. If your nannies kid in weather below freezing and the new born kids are exposed make sure they are dried off and nurse before they get chilled. Once a new born is chilled and begins to shake they often loose there natural sucking instinct and will not nurse, when this occurs you must dry off the kid and get it warm enough that the natural sucking instinct occurs. Many breeders submerse the kid in a container of warm water, we have had very good luck by wrapping the kid in a heating pad and drying with a hair dryer, whatever works best for you is the way to go. Once the kid is warmed and starts it's natural sucking instincts return the new born goat kid to it's mother and help it nurse. We sometimes have to tie a nanny to get her to stand while nursing, especially a first time mom who doesn't know what's going on. Once the kid has nursed either move the pair to a warm location or expose to a heat lamp OR OTHER HEAT. Not to close with the heat lamp and as a general rule I will not leave a kid next to a heat lamp over 24 hrs.
A WORD TO THE WISE, HEAT LAMPS CAN BE VERY DANGEROUSE IN AN OPEN BARN WITH BEDDING AND STRAW EXPOSED, BE VERY CAREFUL, MANY TIMES WHEN A HEAT LAMP BULB EXPLODES THE GAS PRODUCES A SHORT FLASH OF FIRE. WE HAVE LOST A BARN AND SEVERAL ANIMALS IN YEARS PAST.
It's always a good idea to keep an eye on newborns to make sure there getting enough milk, especially the first milk (), which is a must. When all else fails you can purchase prepared cholosterum and milk replacer at a local farm store prepared especially for new born kids. We keep a dairy goat on hand and freeze her cholosterum and milk for emergencies. Be especially observant with older nannies who may be running out of steam and young first time nannies who may not milk. Some doe's simply do not have a mother instinct and if you are to save the kids you will have to supply the cholosterum and milk. Heavy milkers with one kid can sometime get mastitis if not milked out by hand. Another thing to watch for is an outbreak of sore mouth among kids, if the doe gets the sore mouth on her udder many times she will not let the kids nurse, if the doe is a heavy milker she can get mastitis which must be doctored very quickly or she will loose part or all of the udder. Nannies with fish teats can sometime create a problem, the kids will tend to nurse one of the small orfices and not get enough milk, if you can't get them on a better teat you might find it beneficial to milk her and supplement the kids with a bottle until they are old enough to take over the larger teat.
Young nannies are often nervous and don't know what's what until the labor pains wear off. Often the first timer will be o.k. after about 30 minutes or so, but there are times when she may not have mothering instincts and you will have to try the things mentioned above. If there is no reason for the nanny not to nurse or take her kid she usually doesn't get a second chance around our farm. Off to the sale barn she goes. There are exceptions to the rule, extreme weather conditions. etc.. It is best to pen a doe by herself when she is exposed to several nannies, there are times when another doe may lick or touch the new born kid and the mom may not except the kid, again, try all the fun things mentioned above, you may want to give her a second chance depending on how much you paid and how good she is.
Transfering Newborn Kids to another Nanny- Some does will take up with an orphaned kid rather easy others want nothing to do with it. Here's a little trick! Rub perfume on the orphans head and rear, rub the same perfume on the nanny's nose, then rub the same perfume on her own kid. After a few days she will most likely get confused and decide to feed both kids, in the mean time restrain her and let the kids nurse her. You may have to use the perfume for a couple of days and it's best to explain this procedure to your wife ahead of time, in this way she'll hide the good perfume and you want have to explain why you smell like perfume and take her to the goat barn to prove your case.
KIdding in Hot Weather - Don't do it if you can keep from it unless you have a confinement barn or other ways of controlling very high summer temperatures. Flies, parasites, etc., are hard to deal with in summer heat. Kids will often gain very poorly during extreme hot weather. LIke "Forest", that's all I have to say about that.
After The New Born Kid Nurses we like go give two cc's of goat drench, this will help prevent floppy kid syndrome(the kid laying around a bit lifeless), it's a good idea to check on a new born for a few days to make sure it's energetic, if not, the first step would be to give 2 cc's of goat drench, many times this will provide enough vitamins and protein to get the kid back up and nursing. If the goat kid is running a temperature or shows other signs of illness other actions should be taken. As soon as possible remove any extra length of umbilical cord and apply iodine on the naval area. We do this by simply placing the iodine bottle over the naval area and tilting the bottle up with the kid on it's back or side.
Bottle Feeding : Be sure to hold the kids head high when bottle feeding so that to much milk does not enter the lungs. Bottle feed milk replacer or milk at luke warm temperature for the first few days. Provide a creep area and place a small amount of high quality creep feed to get the kids started on feed as soon as possible, we do this around 4 days of age, it sometimes takes awhile before you notice any creep feed missing, keeping fresh creep feed out will help get the kids started. If you notice the kids eating dirt make sure there's a protein block available. This will help prevent parasites and provide minerals.
Fencing and Guard Animals
Unless you are going to raise 3 or 4 goats in a small pen I would strongly suggest you build pens, fences, and purchase guard animals before you purchase goats. As your goat herd grows the amount of pasture and shelter also increases. It never seems to end for most of us in the business. We are constantly building fences around small pastures, for pasture rotation. Many times you can use the same shelter for 2,3, or 4 different pastures if you lay out your operation on paper in advance to allow for growth.
There are several types of fences that will work with goats, we use our barbed wire fences left over from the cattle days. Starting 5 inches off the ground we run a hot wire, then three more in between the barb wires. This gives us a 9 wire fence for the outside perimeter fence. Our chargers are low impedance, 18,000 volt chargers. Many have said hot wire want work to keep in goats, trust me it works if the fence is constructed properly. You need to focus on the grounding as much as the hot portion of the fence. We use three grounding rods at the charger, then another grounding rod on low damp spots every several hundred yards. We connect the ground or barb wires on the fence at every corner just as we would the electric wire.
You can also purchase goat wire fences with 4in. and 6 in. squares. Goats will get there head hung in a 6" square woven wire fence. For us this was not cost effective since we already had the barb wire fence in place and it has worked well for us by adding the electric fence wires between the barbed wire.
Some use 20 ft , 4in goat panels. this can make an excellent fence , but is rather costly when covering several acres. We use the 20ft., 4in. square panels to construct holding pens, kidding pens, etc..
Guard Animals is a must for most parts of the county. We use Guard dogs and have been fortunate enough to have some great working guard dogs, they have never lost an animal to predators. They make very good baby sitters as well. Some prefer Lama's and donkeys to guard there goats. We prefer Great Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherd guard dogs. We also raise Anatolian Shepherds to sell. I have been told by several breeders that the Anatolian Shepherds are hard to beat as guard dogs against bog cats, lynx, and other wild cats. Lama's and Donkeys seem to be effective where there is a dog or coyote problem rather than wild cat species. Our Pyrenees stay with the goats that are kidding, they are not as likely to claim the new born goat kid and have more motherly instinct toward the kids. I have seen our Pyrenees keep new kids between her front legs to keep them warm in cold wether, push them away from perimeter fences, etc.,,the Anatolians are more focused on guarding the flock, they kill predators first, ask questions later ! This is not to say the Pyrenees do not guard as well, ours has a special spot to place dead gophers, birds, rabbits, and anything else that gets near her kids. And yes I said birds, we have owls nearby, she watches the sky almost as much as the ground. Dogs are like goats and other animals, if you get a good one you have a good one, doesn't really make any difference the color or breed if they are good at guarding the goat herd.
