Raines Ranch Nubians & Boers
CAE Negitive Nubian and Boer goats in SW Nebraska
Looking at the possibility of owning a goat?... New goat owner? or maybe your just curious?
Goats are wonderful as pets, companions, pack animals, 4-H projects, and of course MILK! If your looking into, recently got, or are considering buying a goat, heres some great info to get you started! We have owned goats for the past 4 years, but we have had many people along the way with as much as 20 years in the goat business to lead us along. In our short time, we have learned the joys of owning goats, milking goats, and showing goats at our local 4-H county fair. When people ask me about my goats, the first description I come up with for them is "they're like big dogs that give you milk!"LOL We love our goats! The care involved isn't much more then the care involved in owning a dog. The more time and care you spend on them, the better the animal. If you want farm fresh raw milk, then they are the perfect family milk animal. A goat doesn't need half the land and/or feed that a milk cow does. Their droppings are not messy like a cow, they're more like lil dry berries! So cleaning yards and stalls is not a big to do. The average weight of an adult doe is around 120 pounds, vs a dairy cow at around 900 pounds. All of our goats are very friendly and broke to lead with a collar and leash, like a dog.
I guess the hardest part
of owning goats is which breed(s) to get and which ones to sell after kidding season! If my children had their way we would have close to 100 goats today! LOL
Here are some neat charts and such I have found........
Fencing and shelter.......
"goat shack" on our main page is what we have and it works Goats do not require much for shelter, but a clean draft free shed is a must for kidding season and we do prefer that they have at least a 3 sided shelter any other time. Our lilwonderful for both. We partitioned off a stall that is used for the kids during the winter months and for mommy and kids to bond directly after kidding.
Fencing on the other hand is a little more tricky for goats. They are like sheep, escape artists LOL They need a good field fencing, chain link or cattle panel to keep them in. And some are climbers, but thankfully wehaven't run into that problem ourselves. Our buck does need additional wire along the top of his pen, during rut (breeding season) he will clear a fence like aantelope to get to his girls otherwise ;0)
Here are some pictures of the neat lil warming box/kidding supply cupboard my hubby built me this January 2008. It only took him a half a day and a small amount of lumber!
We took and installed a recessed heat lamp in the top of the warming box (bottom of the upper cupboard) to keep the lil kids warm. As you can see it didnt take long for them to figure out its a club house!
Feed and mineral.....
We have learned ALLOT about mineral requirements in the last year. We also found that allot of the hay in our area is depleted of those much needed minerals. So to start off, select a good mineral (loose mineral is better then mineral blocks) and keep it available free choice at all times! Below are some pictures of our homemade mineral feeders for our goats....
We made these using 4 inch diameter pvc pipe and connections. They work like a charm!
Horns? or no horns?.....
We do not keep horns on our goats for numerous reasons. Number 1, they are dangerous to the animal and to you. To the animal because they can get their horns stuck in fencing and horns are not like antlers, they have a quick in them and if they are broken they can and will bleed to death. To you, even the sweetest goat canaccidently hurt you with horns, their horns are sharp.
Number 2, fair! I have never heard of a county or state fair that allowed any animal to be shown with horns. Nether milk nor meat goats can have horns for safety reasons (as stated above).
Number 3, They can also hurt each other. I cant begin to tell you have many times I have seen my does go head butting each other duringregular typical pecking order disputes. I have seen does side each other with their heads and they ram each other right under the belly! Can you imagine the stitches and possible lost pregnancies that could easily accrue??
