Cheryl K. Smith - Raising Goats For Dummies

1 Immobilize the goat.You can hold a small kid across your lap. Secure an adult in a stanchion (a metal device to lock a goat’s head in place), have a helper hold him still, or tie him to a gate or fence.

2 Lubricate your thermometer with K-Y Jelly or Vaseline.

3 Insert the thermometer a few inches into the goat’s rectum.

4 Hold the thermometer in place for at least two minutes.

5 Slowly remove the thermometer, read the temperature, and record it on the goat’s health record.

6 Clean the thermometer.Use an alcohol wipe or a cotton ball that has been wet with alcohol.

Because rumination is an essential part of how goats digest food (see the section “ The digestive system”), you can use cud-chewing as an indicator of goat health. A ruminating goat is eating and generating heat and energy. You can determine whether a goat is ruminating in two ways: by looking for cud-chewing and by listening to the goat’s body.

A goat’s rumen is located on the left side of the abdomen. You can watch this area or feel the side of the abdomen for movement.

The best way to determine whether a goat is ruminating and the strength and frequency of rumination is to listen. Often, ruminations are loud enough that you can hear them by just sitting next to the goat. If you can’t hear them, put your head up to the left side of your goat’s abdomen. If you still have trouble hearing ruminations, use a stethoscope. You can purchase an inexpensive stethoscope from a livestock supply catalog.

Healthy ruminations are loud, sound kind of like a growling stomach, and occur about two or three times a minute. If they are weak or infrequent, give your goat some roughage and probiotics (“good” microbes given orally that protect against disease) to stimulate the rumen and to add to the rumen bacteria.

Look around your herd to see whether each goat is chewing her cud. I’ve found that a good time for this is the early afternoon, when the goats are resting before their last go at the pasture for the day. Usually at least two-thirds of them will be ruminating at the same time. Take a closer look at any goats that aren’t chewing cud. If they don’t look well in some other way (see the section, “ Signs of a Healthy Goat”), go up to them and listen for rumination sounds.

Pulse indicates the goat’s heart rate. Normal pulse for a goat is 70 to 90 beats per minute. Kids’ heart rates may be twice that fast. To take your goat’s pulse:

1 Make sure she is calm and resting.

2 Find the goat’s artery below and slightly inside the jaw with your fingers.

3 Watching a clock, count the number of beats in 15 seconds.

4 Multiply that number by four to get the pulse rate.

The normal respiration rate for an adult goat is 10 to 30 breaths per minute and for a kid it is 20 to 40 breaths per minute. To count respirations, simply watch the goat’s side when she is calm and resting. Count one respiration for each time the goat’s side rises and falls.

Goats spend the first three years of their lives growing. They are almost their full size at age 2, but can still put on weight and height for another year.

Goats’ general life expectancy is about 7 to 12 years. Wethers often live longer than does and bucks — over 10 years — probably because they are most often pets and have less stressful lives. One of the common causes of death in wethers is urinary calculi.

Does live an average of 11 to 12 years. They often die from kidding-related problems because of the stress that it puts them under. They are more prone to parasite overload and losing condition from feeding kids. Does who aren’t bred after about the age of 10 often live longer. I have heard of does living as long as 20 years.

Bucks have shorter lives than either wethers or does, living on average 8 to 10 years. The stresses of annual rut (breeding season; see Chapter 12) take their toll on them. They have to deal with other bucks’ aggressions and lack of eating and sleeping.

Elderly goats require special care and feeding to deal with health conditions that they may have. I tell you more about older goats in Chapter 14.

Goat registries use scorecards to evaluate goats that are being shown. These vary with the type of goat being evaluated. For example, out of 120 points in the Colored Angora goat scorecard, 70 points are for fleece. In the dairy goat scorecard, more focus is put on the mammary system and in meat goats, muscle development and growth have more value.

Look on the Internet or write to the registry for the breed you are interested in and request a copy of their goat scorecard online and use it to help you evaluate and learn about the ideal for that type of goat. The Colored Angora Breeders Association (CABGA) includes a sample of a judge’s scorecard on its website ( www.cagba.org/scorecard.pdf ).

Chapter 3

IN THIS CHAPTER

Deciding whether you want goats for meat, dairy, fiber, or a combination

Learning the pros and cons of different breeds

Figuring out which breed you want to raise

So you want to get goats? You’ve probably already thought about why you want goats. So now you need to figure out what kind of goat can best serve your purposes.

If you want a goat to eat brush, then your choices are unlimited; you just have to figure out what size is best and how many you want. And if you know you want goats for just one purpose — milk, meat, or fiber — then the decision will be easier and you can just read about those kinds of goats. But what if you want a goat for milk and meat? Or fiber and milk? That might make the decision a little harder.

The American Goat Federation represents all goat producers and provides information on different breed clubs and registries ( https://americangoatfederation.org/resources ).

I give you some pointers below as I describe the three types of goats — dairy, meat, and fiber — and the breeds within those types.

If you want dairy goats, you have a variety of breeds and sizes to choose from. The American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA), one of the United States’ two major dairy goat registries (organizations that keep official lists of goats within a specific breed, provide registration certificates, and compile pedigrees), recognizes eight different dairy goat breeds: Alpine, LaMancha, Nigerian Dwarf, Nubian, Oberhasli, Saanen, Sable, and Toggenburg. The other registry, the American Goat Society (AGS), registers only purebreds and also recognizes the Pygmy as a dairy breed. (You can read more about registries and whether to buy registered or unregistered goats in Chapter 7.)