Meat Goat Blog

Spring is Kidding Season; Time to Work the Goats!

Spring is near; there are buds starting on the trees and green showing in places on the ground. The winter has been long and cold. It's an understatement to say Spring is welcome.

Our does should start kidding in the next 30 days so it's time to work them. We worm approximately one month before the kids are due. This year we are going to vaccinate for CDT. Some years we include CDT, some we don't. Either way, we want the does worked before the kids start to arrive.

The parasite load always hits hard with the stress of birthing and nursing the kids. It is a drain on the natural resources of the doe and we don't want them fighting the worms at the same time.

The CDT is given to avoid any more tetanus around the place than necessary. We recognize tetanus is everywhere, but prefer to vaccinate to prevent problems. The other parts of CDT is supposedly beneficial if provided late in gestation for the kids. We don't pretend to understand all the reasons, but accept the advice of our vet as well as the literature we have read.

Working the goats in the Spring is the prelude for the year. The kids will come shortly after, then starts the tagging and recording chores. It is more fun than work. The kids are tagged the first day we find them with an identification tag and scrappie. It means every evening for several weeks we chase them around with a butterfly net, catching and tagging. Looking for them behind rocks, inside tree roots, and under brush is like an Easter egg hunt every day.

If we wait, the work increases significantly. At one week, the kids are nearly impossible to catch. If we use the working pen and chute, we risk losing them to the crowding as the larger animals push together. No question about it, we want to tag the little boogers as soon as possible. Yes Sir, Spring is almost here and we're ready!

Culling and Alcoholics Anonymous

Culling goats may have something in common with Alcoholics Anonymous. First, we want to say there is ABSOLUTELY no intent to demean anyone with a struggle over a chemical addiction. After watching a couple of close friends work for years to overcome their addictions, we have only admiration for folks trying to break the habit.

Admiration is what got me to thinking about one of their principles and how it relates to what we have been trying to say about culling goats. In AA, the first thing you have to do is admit you are an alcoholic. People I have talked to tell me it was one of the hardest parts of the recovery process because you are acknowledging failure.

The  benefits  from admitting failure are valuable. First, there is no more pretense and self-deceit. Things are what they are. You accept the situation and start working to make it better. Second, you can see everything from an objective view rather than you own rose colored glasses. Culling livestock requires a hard and honest assessment of your animals. It means accepting failure in the ones that just don't cut it. It may hurt a little, but let's you focus on improving the situation.

The good part about failure; it's a great teacher! Probably the best teacher if you think about it. The lessons we remember the best are not our successes, but the times we missed the goal. Some days we just wish we weren't learning so much! How about you?

Mountain Lion Attacks Goat; Saved By Woman

A news report indicates a mountain lion attacked a pygmy goat, but was scared off by a woman that heard the commotion. http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14455621 

In our opinion, she needs some LDG's. Dogs are far better suited to fight off big cats than people. Glad the story ended well, but sounds like this woman was fortunate.

I Like That Goat; Cull Her?

Some goats  are really close to perfect, ever had one? We have. In fact, there's two marked on our cull list that are pretty doggone close to what we want. So why cull them you might ask?

Well because the don't measure up. One in particular is hard to let go. We've had her for six years. She has survived all the tough, hard times we went through in the early years, parasites, pinkeye, drought, and a bitter winter with 6 continuous weeks of ice.

She is a big, strong doe with a good udder and parasite reistance. One of the herd leaders that pays attention. Nothing sneaks up on her, always alert. And beside all that she has color we want.

The problem is she only has one kid a year. It is always a big kid and usually healthy. Last year we put her buckling in the Oklahoma forage test. Every year we hope to get a doeling from her that will produce twins, but along comes another buck kid.

Since one of our criteria is twins or triplets, she has to go. This doe is a good example of culling what you really like when it doesn't quite measure up. It is difficult, but necessary.

We Paid To Much Too Cull That Goat!

Here's a good reason not to cull a goat that doesn't measure up. We can't cull it, do you know how much we paid! It reminds me of dollar cost averaging in the stock market after you paid too much for a stock. You know when the stock broker says you can cut your losses by buying more of the worthless stock for less than you paid the first time. When it goes up, it won't have to go as high because you will have some that didn't cost as much.

Stock brokers don't' always give the best advice in our opinion and keeping a goat because you paid too much doesn't change a thing. It's still the same goat! Breeding it isn't going to do a lot either. You're going to get more of the same.

As hard as it is, cut your losses and move on! Don't try to salvage the situation by hanging on to less than satisfactory animals just because you make a mistake. There's money to be made in producing quality goats or you can lose some more while you keep the overhead of a goat you can't get your money back on.

What if We Get Rid of a Really Good Goat?

From time to time, we don't cull a goat because of fear we might be giving up something valuable. It's a lot like folks who can't throw anything away because it might be useful one day. We have a goat that is less than what we want. She won't bring much at the sale barn. So we convince ourselves she might have some unseen, hidden value. For instance, she might have super kids.

In other animals, we have seen situations where you have an ugly looking mother that for some reasons does have beautiful, attractive babies. So we keep her to avoid selling what might be a profitable doe. It's silly reasoning and rarely going to turn out that way. It just another one of those situations where culling should take place, but the emotional response overrides good judgment.

Give some thought to writing down your criteria for culling and YOUR exceptions to the culling rule in advance. The time it takes to write out your intentions will help you  stick to them when the time comes to " pull the trigger " so to speak.

Should we cull or keep her?

The two legged doe is actually getting around better and better. We still aren't sure she will recover, but just can't do the right, i.e., get rid of her. Maybe it is because she is genuinely getting better. The back legs do go up and down sometimes, but not with weight. She just moves them like she wants to put weight on them. The other day she scratched her ears using them.

Today, she was probably 1500 feet from the place she sleeps at night. She is wandering around by herself. And interestingly, she jumped out of a horse trailer by herself without any trouble. We had some loose feed from a broken sack so we put her in the trailer to clean it up. When she was done, she just dragged the two back legs like she does to the door and out she went. No problems!

Well we are going to cull a lot harder this year and have some more stringent requirements, but the " hero without a name " is here for a while longer I guess.

Another Reason Culling is Hard: Emotional Attachment

Goat farmers are human and some of us become attached emotionally to the goats. We say we don't, but we still do sometimes. This is not a sound economic practice, but one that happens to most everyone. Take us for example, guess which goats are the most likely to miss loading on the trailer when it's time to cull. Yep, the little goat that no one thought would make it. You know the underdog, the one we should have put down.  But somehow it survived.

We have a doe like this right now. Something chewed her hind legs. She walks on her two front legs and drags her back ones. Sometimes she actually walks completely on her two front two legs for several feet balancing as she goes. She was a nice looking, athletic  doeling that we hoped would produce many years of fine kids.

When we saw her legs ruined, we should have just put her down. But someone got the idea we could just feed her a little and maybe the tissue might grow back. If so, then the situation could be salvaged. Worst case, we would have a doe to butcher. It's better than fertilizer.

Now we have the poor crippled  doe that survived and has tremendous will to live. And it's true, she is a trooper. She's tough and willing, but I don't think she is going to carry and deliver kids very well on two legs. There are some natural limits to a two legged goat!

Culling requires a tough mindedness that doesn't seem fair sometimes. It means we have to kick the down trodden by sending them to the sale barn or the processor when they have a hero's spirit.

You know I just wonder if we could glue some sticks back there for her? Maybe she could carry kids that way!

What's So Hard About Culling?

Culling is the most important part of raising quality animals in the goat business. It clears out the less favorable traits and allows the breeder to improve the herd genetics. Yet, almost any goat breeder will tell you culling is hard for them to do.

So why is culling so hard if provides so much benefit. Here are a few reasons we think culling is difficult:

 Culling means you have to emotionally and intellectually accept you have goats that aren't first rate in terms of their quality. To do this means, you must accept you bought goats that don't measure up and didn't get what you bargained for. If you raised the goats yourself, it means the product of you planning, hard work, and effort didn't turn out.

Most of us don't like failure. This is America! We are successful and overcome all obstacles. Well, at least we conquer some of them. Culling is viewed as failure and we DON'T like it!

It is sort of like the parents who leave the soccer game making excuses for why their kids should have won. Sure there are some poor referees and there are some teams that break the rules. Bottom line is the team lost and we can't accept losing.

Culling requires a willingness to admit you weren't as successful as you thought you were going to be. None of us want to acknowledge failure.

Breeding Up Sounds Better Than It Is

We have reached another one of those conclusions learned from the hard knocks of the goat business. The concept of breeding up your genetics isn't very easy. We still have a few Boer cross does from  several years ago. It was our thought the Kiko influence would overcome the weaker genetics of the Boer. It made sense. The Boer cross does were the better ones; the others had died. Still last years' doe kids from the Boer cross does just aren't equivalent to our Spanish/Kikos. They aren't as hardy and robust. The Winter has really separated the wheat from the chaff so to speak. Some would have died this Winter except for the feed we started putting into them. 

Once the weather breaks and we have a little more feed in them; it's off to the sale barn. Another lesson learned, breeding up is a lot harder than you would think. Genetics are difficult to improve. You tend to get more of what you already have. We aren't saying it is impossible, but it takes more time and patience than we have.

This year we plan to cull anything with remaining Boer blood that doesn't match up to the Spanish and Kikos. Wasting time and money trying to breed up the less than acceptable genetics is too much trouble. We hope our readers can learn from some of our mistakes.

If you are just starting your herd, do your best to start with good stock. If you have been in the goat business for a couple of years and realize some of your does are not what you want, cull them now! Don't think you can buy a top quality buck and develop from good breeding stock from half the herd!

Any competent goat rancher will tell you culling is the most important and the hardest thing you have to do. In future posts, we plan to discuss some reasons culling is difficult for most of us.