Meat Goat Blog

Dead Goats Make No Sales - Even If They Weigh a Lot

This following post was inspired by an e-mail I received from a reader. I always appreciate good suggestions - keep them coming!

Penny,

Thanks for the note. Weight gain is definitely an important topic for us goat breeders! As you mentioned, our Post Oak-goats have strong Spanish and Kiko influences. Those were the best genetics we could find when we started looking for new breeding stock after a rough welcome to the goat business from a herd of Boers.

Since we switched away from Boers a little over ten years ago, we've been focused on improving our goats' genetics in three main areas: parasite resistance, mothering, and body size. We think that parasite resistance is most important. A doe can't raise a healthy kid if she's dying from worms. However, mothering takes a close second place. A healthy doe that is infertile or neglects her kids just costs me time and money with nothing in return. We only began to consider size once we felt like we had parasite resistance and mothering pretty well in-hand. A little extra bulk can definitely improve the prices you see at the sale barn. But, a large dead goat kid is worth a lot less that a small goat kid I can load on the trailer.

Weaning weight is a tricky subject to tackle because everyone raises their goats a little differently. We had some friends a number of years back who raised the most gorgeous registered Kiko goats we'd ever seen. They were big, healthy, and even had a weaning:mother ratio greater than 2.0! But then we learned a little more about their operation. They kept their goats in a 20 acre lot with a barn big enough to use as a house. The goats were fed high-dollar bagged feed and the kids were treated like royalty the second they were born. While we were still very impressed by their livestock, we started to realize that we weren't making an apples-to-apples comparison with our goats. From the beginning, our goats have been treated like goats. We provide them with brush to eat and water to drink. If they ever get bagged feed or hay, it's because they flat ran out of brush to eat in the Winter. They kid in the pasture and we don't handle them much (other than ID tags) until the bucklings go to the sale around 90 days old. Because of their environment, our goats may not always be pretty - but they're definitely tough! While scores like average daily weight gain have their place, it can be difficult to equalize between different operations.

I hope this answered a few of your questions. I left links to a few more posts your might be interested in below:

• Average Daily Weight Gain in Goats
• How Big are Spanish Goats?
• Parasite Resistance in Goats
• How to Select Future Breeding Stock
• About Our Ranch

Matt

 

 

Goat Minerals Follow-Up Question

Post suggestion by Allan

I recently got an e-mail from a long-time viewer of the blog with some follow-up questions regarding a post I wrote a few years ago about avoiding Coccidiosis. Here's how the conversation went:

Matt,

I have several questions but first a little background. My wife and I bought a ranch as I retired ten years ago. It is in south Texas and adjoins her parents’ ranch. We have also taken over my father-in-law’s cattle operations.

However eight months ago, at age 89, he decided he would start a goat business. He knows little about goats so I have been trying to learn as much as I can from websites like your blog ever since. That said, I am very interested in learning better ways to do it both for helping today and to prepare me for tomorrow.

Your blog has me interested in Rumensin minerals. Would you be willing to give me some advice as to how you feed this product to your goats?

What period of the year do you use the SweetLix with Rumensin?

Do you control which goats have access to it?

How do you make certain all the goats you feel should have it actually get it? Our goats have a pecking order around the feed and I’m sure some don’t get any at all.

Do you have to get the doelings/bucklings you wish to sell off of the medicated feed for a defined period before they can be sold?

My father-in-law still has good forage available (50% south Texas brush, 50% pasture with mixed grasses/ weeds). The only supplemental food he puts out is corn. Initially it was to train the herd to come in every night. But as soon as we get a freeze things will change more.

Thanks,

Allan

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Allan,

Welcome to the goat business! I hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

I'm happy to tell you about what has worked for us; I'm not a vet, though.

We don't mix our minerals with anything. We just leave them out for the goats to eat whenever their bodies need them. We offer free-choice minerals year-round but mainly worry about Rumensin minerals from about a month before kidding until the kids are weaned. We offer minerals to every goat on the ranch but NOT TO HORSES. I've been told that goat minerals have too much copper for a horse and can kill them. I'm not sure if this is true for cattle. We give our goats Sweetlix 16:8 Meat Maker with Rumensin. I found an online store that carries it here.

Since the minerals are always available, the goats usually don't fight over them too much. Any goat that wants the minerals can walk over and get them. We have had to stop providing minerals for a few months occasionally; when we put them out again, the goats will sometimes eat a whole bag in about 48 hours. After a couple weeks, they slow down again. 200 goats will eat a 25lb bag about every 2 weeks. But, the rate varies wildly depending on the season.

I believe Rumensin is safe to feed to animals before slaughter. I found this FDA article that says it can be used to increase weight gain in slaughter cattle (among other uses).

We use a swivel feeder that we got from a friend to give the minerals to the goats. At the time, we never would have paid this much money for a glorified feed bowl. However, I would definitely pay for one today. We've been using ours for over 10 years and it still gets the job done. The fin on the top of the feeder turns the opening away from the wind when it's raining. This keeps the minerals dry. The swivel also prevents the goats from knocking it over. It doesn't take very many bags of ruined minerals to pay for the feeder. Here's a link to a similar Sydell product.

If we do give feed (separate from the minerals), we usually use 20% protein cattle cubes. The main reason they need feed is to supplement a lack of good weeds to eat when the property gets eaten down too much. Protein is the most important thing in bagged feed.

I hope this helps! Keep questions like these coming. I'll probably start turning them into posts that might help other people who have the same questions!

-- Matt

 

Good Parasite Resistance in Goats

Like your mother used to say: “life isn’t always fair.” Whether at your job or on the news, sometimes it can feel like the world is full of parasites who take your hard work and give nothing in return. These same parasites exist in the goat business. Many goats are susceptible to gastrointestinal parasites or “worms” which leach nutrients from the animal’s bloodstream. This drain of the animal’s resources causes anemia which leaves them malnourished, weak, and unable to raise kids. Fortunately, certain goats have a genetically occurring immunity or “resistance” to internal parasites. Good parasite resistance in goats allows them to stay healthy and strong in order to care for themselves and raise their kids without adding economic strain to the rancher.

A goat that is overrun by parasites, becomes feeble and unable to reach food or evade predators. The internal parasites sap the goat’s nutrients making it difficult for them to keep pace with the rest of the herd. This means that the goat must choose between eating less while trying to stay with the group or leaving the group to become a target for coyotes or roaming dogs. If a parasite-weakened goat is attacked by a predator, they will be unable to escape because of their malnourishment. Thus, a goat with intestinal worms is susceptible to starvation or predation due to the nutritional drain of the parasites.

Furthermore, a goat that hosts too many internal parasites is often unable to raise kids because they do not have the resources to get pregnant or care for their young. If a doe (or buck) becomes undernourished due to internal parasites, their fertility will decline in an attempt to preserve their strength. Since a goat that doesn’t produce kids cannot pay their keep on the ranch, a resistance to internal parasites is an integral characteristic of a profitable goat. But, even if a doe manages to get pregnant and give birth, she will not be able to quickly raise her kids to a desirable size for sale or slaughter. If her kids do not sell for a reasonable price because they are underfed, a wormy goat is inherently less profitable than a parasite resistant goat. So, a goat that is not immune to internal parasites will struggle to provide value while skipping breeding cycles or producing underweight stock.

However, some ranchers counteract their goats’ susceptibility to parasites by investing time and money in pasture rotation and wormers. In order to curtail the number of worms which accumulate when goats stay in one place for too long, the herd can be cycled to a ‘fresh’ pen every two weeks to allow the parasites to die without a host. To be effective, this system requires that the pasture be cross-fenced to create at least 3-4 pens. Not only does pasture rotation incur additional fencing costs, but the owner must also be diligent to move their goats on schedule or risk allowing the parasites to gain the upper hand. If the parasites successfully infect the herd, the rancher must purchase expensive wormers to treat the ailing livestock. Though effective wormers are still available, the chemicals in many products have become ineffective since the worms are developing an immunity. This means that more and more wormer is required in order to treat the parasites. Raising goats that are resistant to parasites eliminates the economic and time costs required by rotational grazing and worming.

So, don’t let parasites get you down by killing your goats, ruining your kid crop, and robbing you of time and money! Goats that are not burdened by internal parasites will outperform their peers in the metrics that really matter. Then, even if you can’t solve all the problems you see on the news, at least you’ll still have great goats!

Determining the Parasite Levels in Your Herd - Quick Tips

If you'd like to have an numeric method for determining the parasites in your goats, you might consider using a fecal egg count. Although Famacha eye scores are more convenient for on-ranch observation, by sending a few manure samples to your local veterinarian, you can get a more precise understanding of the parasite load on your pasture and your herd.

What are Fecal Egg Counts?

We talk all the time about using Famacha eye scores to determine a goat's parasite load. But what if you really need to know for sure how many worms your goats have? Enter fecal egg counts. Fecal egg counts are pretty basic for the people who know what they're doing (i.e. veterinarians) but lay-folk like me wouldn't know the first thing about how to do one.

So here's a video by Parassitologia, using sheep, that explains what you need to send the vet and how to collect it.

If you're also curious about how the fecal egg counts work, check out this video from the UK by ScientifEQ (FYI, they spell fecal with an extra "a" across the pond). The video performs the count on horse manure, but they do a good job explaining how the process works.

The idea behind fecal egg counts is that if you use a microscope to count the number of parasite eggs per unit area it will give you a rough idea of the number of worms in the animal. This method is the accepted standard for getting quantified data on the parasitism of the animal.

But for most commercial operations, fecal egg counts are not economically viable for keeping records on individual goats within the herd. Most veterinarians charge $10-$15 a sample and it takes more work to collect the fecal samples than to check the eyes. Fecal egg counts are most effective, for small operations and large operations that only want to get a rough idea of the parasites in the entire herd. Otherwise, we recommend the Famacha eye score system.

How Often to Worm Goats?

How often should I worm my goats? The smart alec reply is "as often as they're wormy." But that can be difficult to determine. Worming goats is a tricky business - worm too often and you allow the parasites to become immune to the wormer. Don't worm often enough and you lose goats. There are a few ways of testing whether your goats are wormy - ranging from Famacha eye scores and body condition scores to fecal egg counts. But the frequency of worming can vary drastically depending on your environment.

In dry or cold climates like Arizona or Montana, parasites will likely have a much harder time surviving than in more humid climates like Florida. Here in Oklahoma, our weather can be quite varied - but it usually leans slightly to the heavy side of the parasite range.

But the biggest factor affecting how often you worm is the parasite resistance of your herd. When we started off, we wormed about 4 times a year (and lost a lot of goats anyway). Thanks to a lot of hard culling, now we only have to worm one (or in wet years two) times a year. It takes a lot of effort to produce a herd that can hold its own against the parasites - but the reduced management time more than compensates for it.

The best way we've found for determining the parasite resistance of your herd without breaking the bank on vet bills is to keep some records of the Famacha eye scores. This also lets you know which does have the heaviest parasite loads. Using this information, you will be able to identify the goats that need to be sold and the ones that should be bred.

Worming Regularly: A Bad Practice

As responsible livestock managers, we all know that the more time you spend taking care of your animals the better off they will be. But be careful translating logic like this into your worming practices – you might regret taking such good care of you herd!

Like people getting a booster on their flu shot, parasites can become immune to wormers – the more you  worm, the more immune they get. Now you’re probably thinking: “How can they become immune if the wormer is killing them?” Well, it comes down to a numbers game.

In order for a wormer to be considered effective, it must reduce the fecal egg count of the treated animal by 90% - anything less means you’re building immunity. In almost any set of worms, there will be a few that are not affected by the wormer – it doesn’t matter how much you pump through, those worms are gonna stay alive. Wormer is designed to get rid of the other 90%. But if you kill all the worms that are not immune to the wormer (thereby eliminating the "refugia") then, as the parasite population rebuilds, it will be built only on the genetics of the parasites that survived because they were immune.

This is where things get tricky. In order to prevent the worm population from becoming immune to the wormer, you must allow the worms that can be killed to mate with the ones that cannot be killed. By doing this, you allow the genetics from the immune worms to be “corrupted” by the non-immune parasites. But if you worm the entire herd every month, the worm population will very quickly dwindle down until the only worms that are left cannot be affected by wormer – they’re immune.

So don’t worm unless you have to – and even then, remember that 80% of your worms come from 20% of your herd. If you worm the bottom 20%, it will do almost as much to cut back on the parasites as worming every animal on the place – but you’re less likely to build immunity.

First Time Worming Goats in 8 Months

We just wormed our goats for the first time in 8 months this Saturday - it's been a while! These does have had to hold up to a lot of stress since last time we wormed. It was a cold winter with plenty of snow and sleet - then our does started kidding right in the middle of the last storm and have been taking care of their kids for the last 3 weeks.

We were a little worried that the does might not do well on the Famacha Eye Scores since it was so long, but they all did well - most of them scoring 1's and 2's (1 being best and 5 being worst).

This is why we are in love with the genetics of our Kensing Spanish and Spanish/Kiko crosses. They're low maintenance!

How to Body Condition Score a Goat

Every wonder if your goats are getting enough to eat? One way to tell is using a body condition score. By simply evaluating the amount of fat on a few key areas of the goat's body, you can tell how the animal is fairing. This video by Goat eXtension gives a great tutorial!

 

 

If you'd like to learn how to check your goats for worms, check out this video on Famacha eye scores by Purdue University.

Famacha Eye Scores Tutorial

If you've been wondering how to do a Famacha eye score, this video by Purdue University gives a nice tutorial of how to perform Famacha eye score exams. They also explain that Famacha eye scores let you determine if your goat is wormy. They also do a really nice job teaching what Famacha eye scores are, why they are used, and how to worm a goat.

Early in the video, they mention the increased resistance that parasites have developed to dewormers. That's exactly why parasite resistance is so crucial! This was a very good educational video!

If you'd like to learn how to tell if your goats are getting enough (or too much) food, check out this video on How to Body Condition Scores by Goat eXtension.