Workin' Goats

Aside from a morning feed, visual check and count visit, the goats pretty much fend for themselves. Unless there's a stuck head... which happens a lot. Only the goofy boys tend to get their heads stuck in the fence. They put their heads through to get at a choice weed on the other side of the fence, then can't figure out that they have to turn their heads to get their horns back through the square "holes" of the fence.


Every now and then, though, there's a few hour's worth of work to be done keeping them ship shape and in good condition. Fecal analysis (ever tried to get a goat to poop on command?), mucous membrane checks for good color to catch any anemia issues, hoof trimming and weight taping to check for good growth and/or maintenance of condition.

First, we close the gate to the goat "barn" while everyone is inside. Well, if we were smart we would do this. Typically we end up trapping most of them like that, then have to do a few hours of aerobic exercise trying to catch the goats that made it out.

Then, we lead (drag) them one at a time to the tying post and tie them by their horns to the "hitchin' post". Sidenote: There are a lot of folks who feel that goats should be dehorned to prevent any accident and lessen the danger of working the goats. I prefer to keep them in a natural state and avoid the medical issues of dehorning. Plus, I just like them with horns. I do understand the other side of the argument, though. /sidenote.

Once the goat is tied to the post, measurements are taken to figure weight. (heart girth x heart girth x length)/300 = weight. I round up to the nearest 10 pounds as a fudge factor.

Then, the hoof trimming. Most of the goats don't like this process, except dear old Ruby who thinks it's a fine time at the spa. After we've trimmed up the hooves nicely, we dip them with "Copper Tox" (I don't know how to really spell it, but it's green, gooey and stinky). This helps prevent any issues of thrush or foot rot. This is probably an unnecessary step with the pasture rotation and management we do, but better safe than sorry.

Any poop that is present is collected and microscope fecal analysis is done later. If the parasite load is too high, we'll round them all up again and worm them.

We also note any issues that the individual goats may be presenting.... runny eyes, limping, cuts and scrapes, etc.

After all that, the goats are led out of the pen and into the yard so that we can keep track of who we've done and who we have left to do.

Flag is our biggest nanny goat at 139.6 pounds and Spruce is the smallest baby at 53.8 pounds. FreezerBoy, our choice for our first taste of goat meat weighed 91.9 pounds. Thatsa lotta goat for six months old.