Goats are a fun addition to any farm. Not only do they make great pets, but they can also be a productive, useful animal to have around. There are basically three types of goats: meat goats, dairy goats and goats that are used primarily for their wool. Before adding to your menagerie of farm animals, it’s a good idea to think about your purpose for raising goats. Knowing your purpose and goals for keeping goats will help you in determining what breed of goat is best for your farm. After all, there are in excess of 200 different goat breeds, and a goat can live upwards of 15 years or more, so it is a long term commitment.
If you want to raise goats primarily for meat, you will want to research the different meat goat breeds such as Boer and Rangeland goats. If you are looking for dairy goats, you might want to consider Alpine, Saanen or Nubian goats, and if you’re looking for wool, Angora goats might be what you’re looking for. If you have children or just want a fun pet goat, you will want a goat breed that is friendly and good natured. If you do a lot of hiking, hunting or camping, you might want to consider a larger breed that you can use as a pack animal. Goats make great weed eaters and on occasion a large herd of goats can be seen at the side of the freeway or road eating down the tall grasses and weeds, reducing fire hazards. Renting out goat herds to reduce excess foliage naturally has become a popular business venture. Goat manure is beneficial in the garden. If the manure is spread over the garden area in the fall, it will be ready by spring to be tilled in. You can also use the manure with the goat’s bedding as mulch around trees and plants. So, goats on the farm can be more than just another cute face!
Goats are ruminant animals, meaning that they have a complex stomach system used for digestion. A goat’s stomach is divided into four chambers. The first three chambers are used to break down food with the help of bacteria. As well, a goat will regurgitate partially digested food at this point and chew it again. This is called ruminating or cud chewing. Some nutrients are absorbed into the goat’s system during this first digestive process. The food will then enter the fourth stomach chamber where stomach acid completes the digestion process and passes the digested food on into the intestines where more nutrients are absorbed. This digestive system allows goats to eat grass, leaves, tree bark, thistles and other high fiber foods.
Did you know that goats do not have teeth on their upper jaw in the front part of their mouth? They have eight lower teeth and a thick pad on top. This helps with pulling up grass and tearing leaves off of branches. They do have molars on top and bottom in the back of their mouth to help grind up their food, so don’t go sticking your fingers in their mouth!! Contrary to popular belief, goats will not eat anything and everything. They are really quite picky. Goats are curious browsers and will taste test a lot of stuff to determine if it’s worth eating or not. They enjoy grain, fruits, and vegetables, but it’s important to remember that they need a lot of fiber in their diet.
Have you ever looked into a goat’s eyes and wondered why they look so different? The pupil of a goat’s eye is a horizontal, rectangular shape. Some folks think it’s kind of creepy. Because goats are a prey animals, these eyes aid them in survival! The strange shape allows for an increased field of vision of 320-340 degrees. That’s almost all the way around. They can also swivel their eyes so that they have the same field of vision when they have their head down grazing, as when the are standing with their head up. Try that one! Hold your head up straight and look forward. Notice your field of vision. Now slowly lower your head and try to maintain that same field of vision. If you’ve never been able to sneak up on a goat, now you know why!
A goat has a cloven hoof or split hoof. It is split into two toes, and there is a dew claw on the backside. The hoof is made out of keratin, the same stuff that our fingernails are made of. Just as our finger nails continue to grow, so do a goat’s hooves; and just as our fingernails need to be trimmed, so do a goat’s hooves. If their hooves are not trimmed and maintained, the hoof will grow under and make it difficult and painful to walk. Having their hooves trimmed is not a favorite thing for the goat, but they feel much better when it has been done. It is not a difficult task if you have a good sharp pair of hoof trimmers or snips.
Goats are built for cold weather. They have a down, fluffy undercoat and a thick outer coat that is designed to keep them warm, provided they are in good health and have shelters available where they can go to get out of the wind and wet weather. One thing that goats seem to really dislike is wet weather. When the first raindrop falls from the sky, there is a goat stampede to the barn. Maybe they know instinctively that if their coat stays dry, they will stay warmer. You will also notice that goats tend to avoid mud and puddles as best they can and at all costs!
Goats have horns, both the does (females) and the bucks (males). Horns, like hooves and fingernails are made of keratin. A goat will only have one pair of horns throughout it’s life. Horns are not like antlers, goats do not lose them and regrow new ones every year like deer. There is a lot of debate over whether or not horn removal is a good thing. There are benefits for keeping horns. They help to regulate the body temperature of the goat which can be an important consideration in very hot climates since goats don’t pant or sweat. Goats are considered prey animals and horns are a good defense tool for them. As well, horns make good handles in controlling goats. On the downside, horns can be dangerous if you are not careful around them, and in some competitions, horns are not allowed. Disbudding is a procedure performed on young goats where the horn growth bud is burned. This prevents horns from growing. This usually works well on does, but is not always successful on bucks. Disbudding must be done correctly or the procedure will either not be successful or could cause health issues and even death. Give serious consideration to this point as disbudding must be done at a young age. Once horns are allowed to grow, dehorning is difficult. All of our dairy goats were disbudded.
Our first two goats were rescue Pygmy kids (young goats) that my husband brought home without warning some twenty years ago. We didn’t really know anything about goats and weren’t prepared. It was a crash course in learning about their eating habits, their behavior, their make-up, what’s good for them and what’s not. We really enjoyed them and have had goats ever since. We have raised primarily dairy goats, used their milk, raised them as 4-H projects and shown them in county and state fairs. I hope that this information prepares you a little for taking on a truly lovable farm animal. If you pick the goat that’s right for your farm, you will have no regrets!
Sources:
https://articles.extension.org/pages/19363/goat-nutrition-gi-tract
https://www.mnn.com/family/pets/stories/things-you-didnt-know-about-goats
https://animalcorner.co.uk/goat-anatomy/
https://morningchores.com/goat-breeds/