Meat Goat Blog

When to Wean: There Go the Kids

With the 2017 kidding season already underway, we've been getting lots of calls from people wanting to buy goats as soon as they're available. But, the kids need to be raised and weaned before they can be sold. So how long should a goat rancher wait before weaning?

Well, there are a couple of things to consider when weaning kids. You don't want to wean them too early - otherwise their growth will be stunted. But, you don't want to leave them too long either; then, the bucklings will start breeding everything they can reach.

We've found that it's usually best to wait between 60 and 90 days before separating the kids from their mothers. This gives the kids adequate time to grow strong on their mother's milk and to begin eating a few weeds. Once the kids are separated from their mothers (preferably out of her line of sight), the doe will have a chance to regenerate her strength for next breeding season without needing to provide nutrition for three.

Thanks for the suggestion, Allan!

Pokémon Goat - Discover Adorable Baby Goats!

I may be a little late to the party...but all the millennials have been playing an iPhone game called 'Pokémon Go' where they walk around collecting digital monsters on their phones. Well, I finally figured out what all the buzz is about. The game is just like a goat rancher searching for new baby goats that have been born!

Just look at the similarities between 'Pokémon Go' and 'Pokémon Goat!'

• Goat ranchers and Pokémon players both get to collect fun new animals (I would argue that goats are more fun, though).
• Ranchers and millennials both get exercise while trying to find their new critters (baby goats are very good at hiding!).
• Goat herds and Pokémon collections can both include hundreds of animals (admittedly, goats aren't quite as pocket-sized).

I can't help but notice one difference, though. Goat ranchers get a much higher price when they sell their livestock at the end of kidding season! Well, at least I finally understand why everyone was playing. I'll be ahead of the curve when 'Pokémon Goat' goes viral in 2017!

Happy New Year from Meat Goat Blog and Post Oak Ranch!

We have Goat Kids!

We were happy to find our first goat kids of the 2017 kidding season earlier today. We can't wait to see what the latest generation of meat producers can do! The kid shown here is from our Post Oak breeding line. Hopefully, she will have the parasite resistance, mothering abilities, and all-around toughness of that breeding line!

Good Bucks Have to be Sold Sooner

Here's a funny thought: if you have a really good buck, you'll end up selling him sooner than you'd sell a buck you don't like as much. You'd think goats would be like an old ranch truck you love to drive because it's gotten the job done for all these years. The more you use the truck, the more you like it.

However, with bucks, the more times you breed them, the more their genetics are present in the herd. This makes it hard to continue breeding without inbreeding. That's the unfortunate situation we have with one of our favorite bucks: Blue.

We've bred Blue almost every year since he was born and we really love the hardiness of the kids he produces. But, that means it's getting harder to breed him. Because so many of our Spanish breeding does are related to him (or his father), we're having to make the hard choice to put him up for sale now that he has finished this breeding season. It's funny how things work out - good bucks have to be sold sooner!

When to Breed Goats - Quick Tips

If you haven't already started, breeding season is nearly here! But, maybe you'd like to try a different breeding date this year. Although I'm certainly no expert, we have sometimes found that breeding just after the weather cools yields more twins and triplets than breeding in the extreme heat or bitter cold. You might want to consider the best time to breed your goats.

Containing Bucks during Breeding Season - Quick Tips

For the last few weeks, the smell as I've walked through the gate to the buck pen has made it obvious - breeding season is almost here! If you want to keep your overly-eager sires from butting through your fence, try reinforcing the fence separating the bucks and does. Life is much easier when you know how to build a good buck pen!

What Age to Buy Breeding Stock: Kids or Does

We got an e-mail a while back asking what age of goats we recommended a new rancher purchase. Though I often make the case for beginners to purchase proven does instead of kids, the excitement of starting a herd at “ground zero” usually overrides the logic of buying grown stock. So, based on my experience, here is my advice for what age of goats to buy – take it or leave it!

I prefer not to buy does until they are at least a year old – preferably two years. When we purchased our original breeding stock, we tried buying both doelings and grown does. The older goats almost always had a better overall result. The obvious disadvantage of the grown does is that they are that much closer to the end of their usable years (usually around 8-9 years old). However, at two years old, they are just entering their prime.

The disadvantage of doelings is that the first year can be a very difficult one. We lose more does before they reach one year old than any other age (that's why the price goes up after they reach a year). Since they are smaller, they are easier targets for predators. No matter the breeding program, there will be some natural survival of the fittest. That first year is usually a very telling period for which goats are the fittest and which ones aren’t.

Bucks are another consideration when buying young does. When the doelings are 8-9 months old, they are still pretty small. This is why we keep a couple bucklings to breed our kids, instead of our older sires. Once the bucks reach about 2 years old, they are just too big to breed to the little doelings without hurting them. If you do decide to breed any doelings, you will definitely have a better result using a buckling instead of a grown buck. Young bucklings (under a year old) can usually cover 10-15 does per cycle.

But the doelings’ struggles don’t end after breeding. While they’re carrying their kids, the doelings are still very young - and it takes a toll on them to raise that first set while they are still trying to grow themselves. We breed our young doelings almost every year to get their hormones in phase (we usually wait until they are 8-9 months old though) - but we usually don't require much from their first kidding cycle. So the bottom line: this means that you must hold on to these does for almost a year and a half before you start seeing a decent number of kids hit the ground. As long as you understand that buying doelings is a long term investment, any age can be a good choice. But I think most new ranchers would like to see a return on investment a little sooner.

How to Turn a Cow Fence into a Goat Fence

Guest post by Greg Christiansen

One of the obstacles to enlarging your goat herd and increasing your goat acres, is the cost and labor involved with fencing large acreages for pasturing goats.

By utilizing even an old broken down cow fence that hasn’t kept cattle in for years, and a couple electric wires placed 6 to 12 inches in front of it, you can do as I have done and successfully keep hundreds of goats in the pastures where they belong.  It is rare that I get the dreaded phone call from one of my neighbors, or worse, the sheriff, that my goats are out.

This is not only economical, about $.08/ft., for your post and wire, but also the least labor intensive method I’ve found to fence goats.  That’s a win, win.

There are a few things I’ve learned in stringing electric wire over the years that make it easier to build and more efficient to maintain.

I always use 12.5 gauge hi-tensile wire.  It carries electricity better than smaller wire and is much tougher and longer lasting than cheaper wire.

I used to attach the electric wire to the same post the barbwire is fastened to.  That seemed to result in the electric wire getting snagged into the barbwire and shorting out the fence on a regular basis.  Now I use a separate post, usually a 3/8 fiberglass, placed 6-12 inches in front of the barbwire fence.  This cost is less than putting “stand off” type insulators on your T – post and is much more trouble free.

When we run our wires to a corner and begin to turn the corner to go another direction, we start with another corner insulator and begin our wire again instead of keeping it in one piece and running it around the corner and on to the next leg of fence.  Keep the tail of wire long enough to reach the next run of fence. Put some bends or coils in the wire to make it more like a spring and slide an insultube on it for a handle, put a hook in the wire and use this as a jumper wire between the two runs of fence line hooking it across the corner. If there is a problem with the fence I can go to any corner and unhook the jumper and work on that leg of the fence without worrying about getting shocked. I can also disconnect the power to any pasture that we are not using at the time and direct our energy to another pasture.

You will definitely want to get a good fence compass so you’ll be able to quickly hunt down faults in miles of fence, when they occur.

You can find more fencing ideas and other help in raising pasture meat goats in Greg's book, Raising Meat Goats In A Commercial Operation available on his website, in The Goat Rancher Magazine , and on Amazon.

The Great Goat Gathering Seminar

If you plan to be near Choteau, Montana Saturday, October 18, 2014, mark your calendar for The Great Goat Gathering seminar. Speakers include Mike Lange, Brian Payne, Gamal Zayed, and Dr. Frank Pinkerton. There will be a catered lunch and dinner in the nearby hotel convention room.

The goal of the seminar is to "explore the traits in our goats that make our lives easier." I don't know about y'all, but lazy guys like me want to know everything we can about doing the job easier. It sounds like the The Great Goat Gathering will be an exciting convention! For more information check out their webpage. Registration is required and costs $55 until October 10th, when the price increases to $75.

"Raising Meat Goats in a Commercial Operation" - Advice from an Experienced Rancher

To the 2 to 4 year goat-ranching-veterans who are feeling a bit discouraged:

Maybe your first year didn't go like you planned - but you shrugged it off because you just "needed to get the hang of things." Then you were waylaid by another discouraging season (of course, due to the poor conditions, none of your neighbors did very well either). But last year's lack-luster performance really doused your spirits and you're sick and tired of losing goats for no apparent reason. Well take heart! Maybe it's time to look at your operation through the eyes of someone with a little more experience.

Greg Christiansen, bachelor in Animal Science, has raised goats for over 12 years and he's picked up plenty of experience-based advice along the way. I just finished reading his book, Raising Meat Goats in a Commercial Operation, and, let me tell you, this book would have made life a lot easier if I'd read it a year after we started raising goats on our ranch! So if you're in the same boat I was, maybe some hands-on advice is just what you need to really turn your operation around.

In his book, Greg covers essential 'trouble shooting' tips for struggling ranchers and gives positive solutions to address the underlying causes. To hit the highlights, Raising Meat Goats in a Commercial Operation explains parasite management, kidding, mothering, fencing, predator control, cross-species grazing, nutritional requirements, and marketing. The book is an easy read and covers everything from the perspective of someone who's put in the time to learn what actually works (and doesn't). As you read the book, you realize that Mr. Christiansen makes his management decisions based on economics and logic - not what someone told him was the way he should do it.

From the onset, Greg Christiansen makes his ranching objectives clear: the animals "should be able to take care of themselves for the most part. [...] As long as they have feed and water they should be mostly trouble free." So, with that goal in mind, he explains how to effectively manage a goatherd that is too large (600 head) to babysit.

At the same time, Christiansen, as a full-time rancher, also knows the importance of helping struggling animals regain their health (if only long enough to take them to the sale). According to Mr. Christiansen, you should be active when identifying unhealthy livestock; "[y]ou must be able to spot a sick goat before he spots you." Otherwise the animal's defensive instincts for avoiding predators will spur them to feign good health - only to be dead 5 minutes later.

Despite all the information Raising Meat Goats in a Commercial Operation packs into less than 100 pages, I think my favorite most relatable section was Chapter 7's "Other ways to kill goats." In this section, Christiansen lists some of the ways he has lost or almost lost goats over the years. If you've been in the goat business very long, you know how creative goats can be at getting into trouble. Reading a section like this will allow you to think one step ahead of the goats as you, for instance, build a fence with holes that are big enough for a goat to get their head stuck.

Greg Christiansen's book is chock-full of useful information that would be a lot of help to someone whose operation is struggling. As I'm sure Mr. Christiansen would agree, none of the information in the book is designed to be highly technical or scientific - but you will save a lot of time and money if you listen to his advice.