Husbandry

A few personal thoughts on goat care & herd maintenance.

First & foremost, consider the amount of land available for your goats, the importance of secure fencing/cross fencing for your herd & a clean, dry safe place for them to come in at night, or hang out on inclement days.

Cleanliness is paramount, for overall goat health & milk quality. This is where keeping a strict limit on numbers comes into play. We clean & scrape each goat pen down to the cement every 2 weeks, replacing soiled bedding with fresh pine shavings & a heaping amount of fresh straw for the goats to bed down on. More goats always means exponentially more pee & pellets, resulting in even more frequent cleaning, so keeping your herd smaller & more manageable is a huge blessing in the long run.

Fresh clean water is essential to herd health & milk production. Goats appreciate spotless buckets & warm (not hot) water in the colder months. Offer fresh water daily, scrub each bucket once a week at the very minimum, watch for goat pellets in buckets & sanitize them immediately if you find any fouled. A word of caution about young kids around water buckets, they can fall in and drown.

Each goat in your herd needs daily attention, including your bucks. There is no substitute for putting your hands on your animals each day, assessing their condition, checking their skin/coat for anything out of place, making sure eyes are bright & bottoms are clean. Hooves need to be trimmed at least once a month, soles should be checked carefully for any signs of foot rot, splitting walls, gravel embedded in the pads or between toes & injuries. We use FELCO goat hoof trimmers - they have a goat head stamped on them, to easily discern hoof trimmers from pruning shears.

Poisonous plants, noxious weeds & invasive predators all pose a serious threat to your herd. Take the time to walk your fences often & inspect your pastures for any potential hazards. Never allow goats to access toxic chemicals, such as herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, machinery lubricants or paints/stains.

We do not recommend leaving your goats outside, unsupervised at night. We bring our goats indoors each night, making sure they have plenty of ventilation, but remain sheltered from potential assault by stealthy predators after dark.