Anyone with Goats?

My fiance and I went to the state fair on Friday and I absolutely fell in love with the goats. And not just the babies. I especially liked the Nubian and Nigerian dwarf goats.

I was wondering if anyone here has goats. If you do, I have a few questions.

1) What are some ups and downs of having goats?

2) What would be considered a small herd?

3) About how much does it cost to feed a small herd?

4) Housing requirements?

5) Food requirements?

6) Pictures? :P

I want to remind anyone that reads this or posts, that I have absolutely NO intention of getting goats for many years. My fiance said we could have goats after medical school and after we get a house, so this is just for informational purposes only. Kind of a "find out if its something I'm interested in doing" post.

Goats
This is a good site with *lots* of info. on goats, how to raise them, what to look for, feeding, shelter, fencing, birthing, the dos and don'ts, etc.

We had goats when I young. I love them, especially Nubians. We also had pygmy's and fainting goats. I had two orphaned goats that followed me everywhere. They are very comical. I go to the fair every year, and always have to stop by the goat barn.

Couldn't tell a thing about their care as I was a kid, but they were incredibly fun animals and I WILL have some again in the future.

Pros:
They are smart, and inquisitive...they can learn almost anything.

They have relatively few medical problems, and with good care can live to 14 or 15 (we had two girls reach 16).

They are inexpensive and easy to feed - good quality second cutting hay and a little grain supplement for pregnant or lactating does. We fed 5 goats on the hay that would keep one horse.

With reasonable shelter, they can survive a wide variety of climates.

You get your own milk, and if you can stomach it, a great source of meat too. Even the dwarfs can provide enough for a small household.

Cons:

They are smart, and inquisitive...they can learn almost anything.

No fence is 100% escape-proof, and they -will- get out at some point (probably several points, each one different and challenging).

Any wire spacing greater than 6-8" is enough room for an adult to get through.

Any fence under 5' is jumpable by just about any goat. We had a doe who would get cranky on the weekends when we fed them an hour later, and even at full-term pregnancy she could easily clear an uphill jump on a 4' gate into the backyard, where she would peer into the windows and loudly demand breakfast. She looked like a blimp going over, but landed as daintily as you please.

Barbed wire fencing on its own will result in long jagged tears on udders, because sooner or later one of them will squeeze through and either her friends will follow and get torn up themselves, or they won't and she'll panic and squeeze back through to rejoin them.

Woven wire will snag horns and legs...can get pretty ugly (unless you electrify it).

Hotwire is your friend. We also put lightweight aluminum yokes on the sneakier girls...they are easy to make and very effective on goats who somehow manage to sneak through hotwire.

Did I mention they are hard to fence?

They are intensely social and cannot be kept alone..you need a minimum of two.

Bottle-raised goats tend to adapt poorly to herd life, unless weaned and foisted off an existing herd to learn manners. Kids who are raised too closely with people mature into 100lb porch-pooping car-stomping nuisances (seen this multiple times with kids we sold to people who just wanted pets and didn't teach them how to be goats). Our holdback doelings were all bottle-raised at first, but forced to move in with the herd once they were weaned. They hated it, but they matured into lovely graceful girls who functioned well with both humans and other goats.

Does are vicious bullies. They spend pretty much their whole lives jockeying for position, and you have to be herd alpha, or they'll include you in the fights. We had a particularly domineering girl actually kill a young doeling by slamming her against the wall. A lot of the housing and feeding has to be arranged to accomodate the weakest goat, even if the alpha tries to rule it all. The weakest goat would rather shiver in the rain outside the popular shed than take solitary shelter in a different shed. Bucks seem to be peacemakers in doe fights...we've observed several unrelated bucks physically place themselves between two girls who were going at it.

That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. Feel free to ask me anything...they are a bit of a favourite of mine.

Hmm, sounds just like a capricorn!

*sneaks off and pretends she's not a capricorn*

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by slartibartfast

Pros:
They are smart, and inquisitive...they can learn almost anything.

Cons:

They are smart, and inquisitive...they can learn almost anything.

---

Hehe....that's awesome! Goats are SO cool!

Is it common to neuter male goats? To avoid fights (and unwanted babies) would it be possible to keep a female and a neutered male together?

Yup, castrated males are called "wethers" and it's typically done around two weeks of age.

Due to lack of testosterone, they grow up very tall...often much bigger than buck...but are much gentler. Wethers make great carting animals.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JLC

Hehe....that's awesome! Goats are SO cool!

Is it common to neuter male goats? To avoid fights (and unwanted babies) would it be possible to keep a female and a neutered male together?

---

Its very common and wise to neuter male goats, If your not using them for breeding. You could keep the neutered male with a female.

Thanks Jess! I'll add them to my dream of our "forever home" with land and room for all sorts of fascinating critters!

(EDIT: And thanks, John! ;) )

No problem Judy!
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...1/goatpics.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...aClub2bldg.jpg

Unnuetered male goats are usually just plain nasty. Goats can be great, and are good for milk, and for meat.
Does I've never really had issue with, but males.... ewww. They pee on their own face. Wethers would be much better.

My fiance likes the Nubians. I have heard they are hard to fence and I've been looking up many different ways to keep them in. I am used to escapees. We used to have a pony that would get on on a regular basis when we lived out in the country. From what I've seen, woven fencing works best. As far as horns, it has been recommended by many people I've been talking to, to de-horn them. It looks brutal, and I'm not sure if thats something I would do.

Boers are really sweet natured too and don't get too big(ok.. the males do). You could easily buy some wethers from an FFA participant and get some quality, healthy animals.

We like the Nigerians since they only get about 2ft high at the shoulders. Anyone have experience with these? We'd like to keep them as pets in a few years. (Maybe even use them for milk)

Unneutered males also STINK TO HIGH HEAVEN. Eww.

We had goats when I was growing up, an adult female for milking and a couple of kids we raised for butchering. They were great. =) Fresh goat meat is so tasty!

I don't remember them escaping much, but we had electric fence. One thing I didn't see on the lists above is that they like to chew. On everything. And they can strip bark off trees faster than you can blink. Our goats' fence backed up to a small row of sapling sassafrass trees. The goats loved the sassafrass leaves, bark, braches, whatever they could get their little lips and teeth on. =)

But basically, our goats were basically, funny sounding, hoofed dogs whom we milked; very friendly, very social, "oh yes please give me some hay and a scritch between the ears". =)

Woven wire does snag legs as well as horns...they stand up on their hind legs, a front leg pokes through the wire up high, they stumble and *snap*. Worst case, they dangle for a while before you find them. Trust me, not pretty. My favorite doe did the same thing on a forked tree limb and caused a horrible splintered open comminuted fracture. Go with horizontal strands of hotwire, or at least electrify the woven wire so they don't get up against it. They are climbers...if you don't believe me, look on Youtube for "goat" and "tree".

There are a couple of ways to dehorn.. the one I like best is "disbudding"...a small cautery tool is used to burn the horn buds before the develop into horns (it's been a while, but I think younger than two weeks). Yes, it hurts. They scream, and kick, and as soon as it's over you plug them onto a bottle of warm milk and they forget it ever happened. The amount of harm done to them is less than the potential harm they can do to each other down the road.
There is also a horrible caustic paste than can be applied...causes chemical burns...I think it's much worse.

My friend had some goats on her farm which she recently sold; they are more of a pet-type animal to her and were not earning their keep on the farm like the beefer cows and breeding-stock horses do (sometimes heh..).. didn't have time to milk them, etc. But I used to love going over there and watching them bicker amongst themselves! There'd be a pile of straw bales in the aisle and they would play "king of the mountain" on it for hours.. she had a neutered male and two females. They seemed to have a good pecking order but then again, unlike horses, they were always scuffling amongst themselves like someone mentioned before. She said that she would never have an intact male around because they have a strong nasty smell.. and yes you have to stand up to them and not me a sissy or they will dominate you, much like a horse would, but they have a weird mentality all their own and are really intelligent. Hers did escape regularly from a white-ribbon electric fence; they just hopped over and the neighbors brought them home all of the time.. not something I liked hearing about..
I might get 0.2 in the coming years, if I find two that strike my fancy..

Pygmy goats are THE best. Smart, funny, and can learn to walk on a leash like a dog. You can also show them.
The downside to them is they're not really used for anything aside from fun, breeding and showing.
If you're looking for meat goats, boars, nubians or a cross.
Dairy goats I haven't had much experience with, meat goats and pygmy's I've spent several years raising. They can be a lot of fun! :D