Meat Goat Blog

Dr. Sparks on Selecting Meat Goat Stock

In the video below from Goat Boot Camp seminar, Dr. Dave Sparks talks about strategies for selecting seed stock for your meat goat operation. He points out that it doesn’t matter what the goat looks like as long as they can do the job. Throughout the lecture, Dr. Sparks reiterates that you can’t have good breeding stock if they aren’t having kids – no matter the size. He also articulates the importance of having good records in order to make good business decisions. This is a great video for anyone who’s interested in goats – novice or expert.

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.

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.

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.

 

Parasite Resistance in Goats

Goats are funny animals. They can find the tiniest hole in the fence and show the entire herd how to get out - but they can't see the wide-open gate you're trying to get them to go through. They can pound on each other with their horns all day long - but get sick from eating the wrong kind of leaf. But perhaps one of the most stunning goat-paradoxes is how these comparatively large animals can get killed by a little worm that's smaller than the tip of a pin.

As the scientists refer to it, Haemonchus contortus, or the Barber Pole worm, is a parasite in goats and sheep that attaches to the walls of the stomach and sucks the nutrients from their blood. This lack of nutrition causes the animal to become anemic (which often leads to Bottle Jaw and eventual death).

    Drug Resistant Parasites

So if you're like a lot of ranchers right now, you're thinking "AH - No big deal! I'll give them some wormer and they'll be good as new!" But here's the other side of that coin. Parasites, like the Haemonchus contortus, do not have static genetics. They are constantly changing and adapting to their environment. So, even though that wormer kills off most of the population, the one or two parasites that survive grow immune to the medicine. Then, as the population rebuilds from the survivors, a lot more worms have immunity to the drug.

People have been using modern Anthelmintics for over 50 years - and it's starting to show. According to Ray Kaplan, DVM, PhD, a professor at the University of Georgia, parasites that are common to cows, horses, sheep, and especially goats are becoming entirely immune to dewormers. There are already a lot of popular wormers on the market that, quite frankly, aren't worth much more than water for fighting parasites. This is why the agricultural market needs to start treating parasites differently.

    Alternative Dewormers

Over the years, we've heard a lot of ideas for how to purge worms from a goat's system without drenching or injecting them with wormer. Some people absolutely swear by copple tablets, garlic, algae, and even tobacco. But none of these methods have really seemed to be as good advertised. Most of them have not performed well in scientific evaluations. Those that did, must be administered too regularly for commercial use (Although copper oxide wire particles did show promise for treating Barber Pole worms in goat kids). If you're interested in learning more about Alternative Deworming methods, check out this great article by the SCSRPC.

Another popular method for parasite management is pasture rotation. The idea behind pasture rotation is that, when parasite populations build up in one pasture (growing in the manure), the herd gets moved to the next 'clean' pen. Without hosts to feed on, the parasite populations in the first pasture die off. Using a system of three or four pens, this method can be quite effective - but it's a lot of work for commercial operations and it doesn't do anything to fix the problem. So here's what we're doing to combat worms - and I hope you will too!

     Parasite Resistant Goats

In the same way that the parasites can grow resistant to dewormers, goats can grow resistant to parasites! But, just like the parasites, not all goats have the genetics for it. This is why culling is such a big deal! Whenever we see a goat that looks run-down or wormy, we immediately  start thinking "Has that goat been wormy before? If so how recently?" Then we do a Famacha eye score to measure the parasite load of the animal. If they need to be wormed, we grab one of the few effective dewormers on the market and treat the animal. But if they have been wormy and run-down before (especially within the last two years), that animal has got a first-class ticket to the sale barn next time we go - whether or not she has nice babies, good conformation, or a pleasant personality.

By getting rid of the animals that are not parasite resistant, the genetics from the ones that are become more concentrated in the herd. As the years go by, the number of goats that need to be wormed/culled on the ranch plummets.

Most of our goats are wormed one to two times a year. If they need more than that on a regular basis, then we don't need them producing parasites for the other goats to pick up. Having goats that are completely parasite resistant is a pretty lofty goal - but it's one worth shooting for! If Dr. Kaplan is correct, traditional dewormers don't have many more years of effective use. Then ranchers are gonna have to make some tough decisions. I hope that parasite resistance in goats will become a more wide-spread goal before then. But if not, then maybe there will be enough savvy producers to supply the market with parasite resistant livestock.

How Nutritious Is Goat Meat? Is Goat Meat Good For You?

The folks over at Beginning Farmers published an interesting USDA-ARS chart the other day that compares beef and goat meat. The chart shows that goat meat is very healthy for you! It has just about equal or better scores than beef on almost all the good things and way lower scores on the bad!

Most interesting to me is the comparison on fat - beef has almost 5.5 times more fat than goat meat!

Here's the chart - just goes to show that goat meat is good for you!

Comparison Goat/Beef(Ground)	Cooked
Servings	1
Servings Weight	100g

Content (units)	BEEF	GOAT
Water (g)	56.75	67.93
Energy (kcal)	257	142
Protein (g)	25.56	26.99
Fat, total (g)	16.42	3.02
Cholesterol (mg)	88	75
Saturated fatty acids, total (g)	6.317	0.926
Monounsaturated fatty acids, total (g)	7.305	1.354
Polyunsaturated fatty acids, total (g)	0.491	0.229
Copper (mg)	0.081	0.302
Iron (mg)	2.49	3.72
Magnesium (mg)	20	0
Phosphorus (mg)	193	200
Potassium (mg)	304	403
Selenium (mcg)	21.3	11.8
Sodium (mg)	401	248
Zinc (mg)	6.21	5.25
Vitamin B-6 (mg)	0.366	0
Choline, total (mg)	80.4	106
Vitamin B-12 (mcg)	2.69	1.18
Vitamin E, alpha tocopherol (mg)	0.45	0.34
Vitamin K (mcg)	1.6	1.2
Niacin (mg)	5.107	3.933
Riboflavin (mg)	0.176	0.607
Thiamin (mg)	0.047	0.09

Avoiding Coccidiosis: Here Come the Kids!

Coccidiosis - one of those big 'sciencey' words that I usually like to avoid - "is a potentially fatal intestinal disease of goats." Now you may be thinking that "I better make sure that none of my goats have the little critter that causes this disease." But I'm sorry, that's not how this thing works!

According to an article by Sweetlix nutritionist, Jackie Nix, "All adult goats contain coccidia in their gut, even healthy goats." Now that's just great! What am I supposed to do to prevent my goats from getting sick?

Here's the good news and the bad news. Most adult goats have built immunity to the parasites that cause coccidiosis; however, "Kids less than 5 months of age are particularly susceptible since their immune system is often still developing and they are prone to stress. Stresses that can induce a coccidiosis outbreak include: weaning, drastic weather changes, rapid feed changes, transport and rough handling." That can mean that those kids you've been waiting all year to sell just drop dead for no apparent reason! But fortunately there's a solution.

We talk all the time about how we don't provide our goats with much more than weeds, water, one or two yearly wormings, and minerals. Well here's where those minerals can really pay off. Every year, near the start kidding, we start putting out minerals that have one extra ingredient: Rumensin. Rumensin minerals,  like  the 16:8 Meat Maker with Rumensin, are "a medicated mineral supplement for goats designed to prevent coccidiosis." You can also use water supplements that are designed for cattle, but on our place, the goats usually prefer the creeks and ponds to the chlorinated tap water, so it doesn't do us any good. The babies don't eat many of the minerals, but their mother transfers the Rumensin to their systems through her milk.

While we don't buy into a lot of these types of treatments, this one really works. After having lost a good portion of our kid crop during a couple exceptionally worm-heavy kidding seasons, I can assure you that those couple extra dollars we spend on minerals are well worth it!

Spanish Goat Genetic Conservation Efforts

Lately there has been a surge in organizations, like the SVF, that are trying to preserve the embryos and semen of endangered species like Spanish goats. Their goal is to ensure that the unique genetics of each breed are not lost. We applaud their interest in preserving these precious breeds. Making efforts to protect rare breeds is very important and we appreciate their dedication. However, we have our own all natural approach for protecting these animals.

Spanish goats are characterized by their ability to survive and adapt to any environment. That is what makes them worth preserving! Spanish goats are not "endangered" because they are weak or incapable of surviving the rigors of daily life, but, on the contrary, because they are often crossed with other breeds so they can improve the weaknesses of the other animals.

While we use a small portion of our herd to cross with a Kiko buck, we focus heavily on preserving Spanish genetics the natural way - by breeding them and then letting them cope with the elements on their own.

Many breeders right now are being forced to sell their herds for slaughter because of the drought. But when spring hits and the rain returns, Spanish goats will be in high demand. When people start breeding and increasing their herd sizes the Spanish goats will be more protected than ever!

Drought Makes Feeding Grain a Necessity

Opposed as we are to feeding grain and supplements to the livestock, the lack of rain this year has forced our hands. As with most ranches in the Oklahoma area, the lack of water killed off the forage that would have sustained our livestock for the rest of the winter months. Right now we're having to feed about half a pound of grain per head every day to keep all the pregnant does from getting run down.

We feel very fortunate that we are able to hold on to our herd during this difficult time. Many ranches have been forced to sell their breeding stock for slaughter, just to keep them from starving. The majority of these ranchers will start all over again in the spring, using brand new stock.

So, while we don't like doing it, when most of the property has turned to dust and rock, something has got to give and we feel very blessed that we are able to hang on to our herd's genetics - even if it does mean using a little bit of grain.

Selecting a Herd Sire

Whether you get your buck by buying, leasing, or just picking one to keep from last year's kid crop, you've got to have some criteria and standards to use in your decision. People often ask "what qualities are important in a buck." Here are a few things we've come up with when shopping for herd sires.

Eventhough parasite resistance is important with all goats, it is absolutely essential when picking the animal that will contribute fifty percent of the genetics to your next kid crop. While checking their eyes with Famancha Scores can elliminate a large portion of the potential candidates, you should also ask the owners how the buck and its parents have done historically and how often they were wormed.

Next on the list is kidding. While you will have to take the owner completely at their word on this one, you should ask whether the buck was a single, twin, or even triplet. You cannot expect to raise very many twin producing does if you are starting from a long line of singles on the father's side.

With those things out of the way, you can start to look at appearance. If the goat is not aesthetically pleasing, you may end up with an entire kid crop of ugly goats. You should also, if they are available, look at the parents (and even grandparents) to make sure they don't have any hugely intolerable flaws since genetics can sometimes skip generations. Look at the general wellness of both parents and check the mother's udders to make sure they have held up well.

But the most important thing when choosing a buck is being careful not to rush out and buy the first one you see. This is an important decision since this one goat will determine the fate, good or bad, of your herd for many generations to come. So take it slowly and seriously while at the same time enjoying the prospect of adding some GREAT new genetics to your herd.