Advice on Raising Goats: If I Could Do It Over Again

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Goats are terrific companions that'll provide you with gallons of wholesome fresh milk if you take good care of them!
Goats are terrific companions that'll provide you with gallons of wholesome fresh milk if you take good care of them!
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Trim their hooves regularly.
Trim their hooves regularly.
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A milking stand enables you to hold your goat still during milking, trimming, etc.
A milking stand enables you to hold your goat still during milking, trimming, etc.
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And make sure to have lots of fresh food and water available.
And make sure to have lots of fresh food and water available.
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Here's a face only a mother could trust. In other words, don't try to raise a buck!
Here's a face only a mother could trust. In other words, don't try to raise a buck!

OK, fellow goat enthusiasts, here’s the second half of my discourse concerning some reconsidered dos and don’ts of keeping caprine critters. As those of you who read Part 1 will likely recall, I’ve already discussed the number of does that (I think) make up the perfect farmstead herd, told you how to avoid the pitfalls of “goatflation,” recommended qualities to look for when buying a good milk animal, and advised you on where to keep your newly acquired charges once you get them home. (If you haven’t looked at the first half of this feature, see Raising Goats: Strategies for Success.)

And now that the preliminaries are out of the way, we can get on to some of the finer points of raising goats, namely, breeding, milking, kid care, and home veterinary treatment. But before we launch into those subjects, let me reiterate something I said in Part 1: The following hints (most of which I’ve learned the hard way!) are meant only as suggestions, not as steadfast rules, to help you discover the most efficient and simplest means of rearing and handling your own milkers.

Tips for Breeding Goats (Don’t Keep a Buck)

I used to tell folks to keep a buck around their homestead for breeding purposes. Now, however–having long tried in vain to deal with the cantankerous nature and malodorous scent of the male goat–I have to retract that bit of poorly conceived advice, and offer in its place another, much more sensible, plan!

Why not get together with half a dozen or so other nanny owners in your community, and pool all of your resources to buy one exemplary buck that can serve all of your does? Then–and this is the tricky part!–see if you can’t talk one of those other goat lovers into boarding (with the expenses shared by everyone, of course) “old whisker face” on his or her farm. Naturally, you’ll have to go to the trouble of hauling your does over to this benevolent neighbor’s barn at breeding time, but–take my word for it–that’s a very small price to pay for keeping your backyard clean-smelling!

  • Published on Sep 1, 1983
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