"Goat Care" by Screaming Eagle and Dink

[spartan300]

Here is one of our prized milk goats, her name is Karma. Mrs S makes great cheese and butter from her milk.

[woodyz]

Goats as a livestock animal for survival post event
If you had only one choice of livestock animal for survival post event, what livestock species would you chose? Would your choice be Chickens, Rabbits, Cattle, Horses, Goats, Pigs,Sheep, Llamas, or another species of less known livestock? Think about what your post event survival needs could or would be as they pertain to live animals to support your own needs for survival. Which single species of livestock could give you the most useful products and bi-products, while being easily managed, easily concealed, all while requiring the least amount of food and space per animal, for the resulting products and bi-products for true survival?
Which would I chose? I would choose the lowly goat. Goats were one of the very first animals to be domesticated by man. It is believed that about 10,000 years ago, early man realized that wild goats could be raised in captivity, survive to reproduce and be an excellent source of many creditable products and bi-products. Early humans who often were nomadic following the seasons found that goats not only could easily move with their tribes or clans, but that they could carry part of the household goods in the transit. They realized that as browsers, goats could be used to clear land for living space under concealing over head cover. They realized that goats mature quickly and have a much shorter gestation period than larger cattle. They learned that goats have one of the most efficient digestive systems of the ruminant species and can live and thrive in the most inhospitable conditions. So what does a small herd of goats offer in a survival situation 10,000 years later?
As noted above, goats mature very quickly, some breeds can begin breeding as early as 3 months old and those used for breeding or milking can live over 15 years producing up to two sets of multiple kids a year in a true production scenario. Gestation is usually about 150 days, so if pressed a single doe can produce a number of offspring annually to renew animals slaughtered for meat. Goats are considered to be “small” livestock animals and they are browsers. That means just about any woody fiber, twig, leaf, branch, vine or stem can sustain them. More akin to deer than their cousins sheep who graze on grass in open fields. It is believed that due to the goat’s horizontal pupil placement that they have excellent night vision for browsing under the cover of darkness. Something that may be critical to concealment of a small herd while allowing them to feed.
There are three main distinctive types of goat breeds acknowledged today. Meat, dairy and Fiber breeds of goats can be found with many crosses of all throughout the world. Even today, well over 80% of the world’s population eats Chevron (goat meat) on a regular basis. Typically meat goats are slaughtered at about 6-8 months old which means they require less time than cattle to reach an age where meat to bone weight is worth slaughtering. In Africa, Asia and Europe goat milk is the most consumed milk by individual producers over cow milk. A typical mature dairy doe can produce up to a gallon of milk a day. That amount is more than enough to feed not only her offspring or kids. It is enough for drinking milk, making cheese and butter. Three highly important products used daily by all of us. Taking note of just these two main products, meat and milk (including all the milk byproducts: cheese, butter, yogurt, kefir, etc.), one can see why a goat is an optimum choice as a survival based livestock animal. However, there are many other less thought of bi-products also made from goats.
Mohair and cashmere are derived from fiber goats. Hides and leather are clear and obvious products but the horns, hooves, bones and catgut are all also critically used products from the goat. Paint, gelatin, soap, lotion, shampoo, glue and tallow are commonly made from these components of the goat. Manure for fuel and fertilizer is a resource that even today is utilized widely by goat producers as bi-products for sustainability.
Without getting into breed arguments or specifics, I personally believe that the Nigerian Dwarf goat is the goat to have for survival planning. They are originally from Africa can endure hot arid conditions. They are small, compact meat and milk producing animals that can live is smaller spaces. They are early maturing and often produce quads and quintuplets with each kidding. There are many crosses that will have more size and dual purpose but then you must have the ability to conceal and feed larger breeds as well as preserve the milk and meat produced from a single animal when refrigeration might not be an option.
In conclusion, one must remember that the goat was domesticated very early by man, who was trying diligently daily to survive. Today much of the world population in undeveloped countries still depends on the goat for survival. Should we find ourselves as preppers in a true day-to-day survival situation where we cannot readily go and purchase milk and meat, we might well look now at goats as a renewable resource for long-term survivability. Goats are one of the oldest and least labor intensive types of livestock known to man. They are hardy and resilient to living and thriving in adverse conditions. The goat may be the perfect livestock animal for personal survival planning if one has the ability to begin training themselves on the husbandry aspects of goat management.
Goats or sheep
Many don't realize sheep give a good sweet milk as well...just not as much, depending on the breed and how you milk them. They are meatier and not as finicky as most people think. They are easier to handle, in that they stay with you and are easier to move from place to place...as long as you mess with them regular. They are MUCH quieter and get into less trouble...they do get into things, just not as bad as goats. They are great mothers and excellent pets for children (depending on the breed). They will panic and run until they have a heart attack if dogs or something gets after them...unless you get lucky, I had a group of 5 Blackbelly Barbados ewes gang up and kill a fox tht tried to drag off a lamb. They killed her before I could get to them. Some breeds are a little more suseptable to parasites and such, but crossing certain breeds can make the offspring much hardier.

Goats make great pets, and depending on the breed, give a large good quality milk, the meat isn't bad and the hides tan out nicely for thin weight shirts and garments for summer use. They are loud and tend to attract dogs and other predators much more than sheep. If they get loose, you better have something more tasty to give them than they can find on the loose or you might have a VERY hard time catching them for a bit, even some of the tamest can and will be wild buggers until they want grain. They will eat most anything and even teast a few things they will end up spitting out, but not before damaging it. They tend to get rough when playing, so even kids and does must be watched around children against the standing and head butting acts of play. They are easy to care for, make great moms and pets. They tend to stray when being moved from place to place and do not stay close with the shepard like sheep do, and the bigger the group the harder it is to keep them together.

I personally think the best combination I ever had was 5 blackbelly barbados hair sheep and 5 wool sheep with an American blackbelly/bighorn ram and a merema/bighorn ram. The young were very hardy and meaty, good marked males were raised seperated until they had at least 2 1/2 turns on the horns and then sold at auction for hunting farms (cheapest went for $375 @ 1 1/2 yr old....highest was $900 @ 2 yr old) you just have to find the right place to sell them. The lambs from the hair sheep were put in the freezer or sold for meat, the wool lambs were eaten or sold as wool/hair cross breed ewes and I was very suprised at how many people wanted them (average 6 month old ewe brought $150-175). American blackbelly rams get horns (as do some ewes), Barbados blackbellies do NOT have horns AT ALL...blackbellies are a hair breed and do not require shearing. I bred mine for the ram lambs to get horns for the hunting sales. Any not producing sufficient horn was eaten...and lamb is GOOOOOD eatin!!!

IF I ever have a goat again, it will be Boer goats and strictly a breeding trio for meat purposes. Otherwise I will go back with the same combination for sheep. The barbados are VERY heat and cold tolerant and disease and parasite resistant, and when cross bred the young retain this very strong.

I suggest sheep...just choose your breed wisely.
I've raised both. For 4H we raised Suffolk, Barbados, and Dorset sheep. On goats we mainly raised pygmies but we had some full size ones as well.

We used to joke that "Sheep Die for Fun" meaning that they will just keel over dead with no visible explanation. One would sneeze and a half dozen would be dead the next day. I had one (male sheep) Ram that ran itself to death trying to mount every female in the herd. Dead as a doornail.

Sheering sheep is a real pain the butt. If you don't have the right equipment and know how you will wish you were dead. So will the sheep.

Sheep are dumb. I've seen them all run into the same spot in the fence because the one in the lead did it first.

Sheep required more shots. I was constantly fighting off one illness or another with some sort of shot. We'd have to treat the whole herd otherwise some would just die for the heck of it. Sometimes they died anyway for fun or just to mess with me. It was a pain in the butt.

Diet was a pain. The sheep would eat something and die. The goat could eat the same thing and be fine.

Birthing was a pain. I lost sheep all the time in birthing. Almost never lost a goat in birthing.

Male goats stink. They piss all over themselves. You can smell them a mile away. My male sheep (Rams) were all great. Gentle giants that followed me around like puppy dogs because they were raised right. I was sad whenever we lost a Ram. I didn't give a flip if the billy goat died. But get a mean Ram and they can bust your femur.

In the end I told my own children that if they wanted to raise sheep they were on their own. I never want to see another sheep on the farm ever. I've considered getting a few goats though. The goats were hardier and way less labor intensive.
I guess it depends on the breed as well as the persons personal opinion. I know a LOT of folks with sheep and have never heard of such drastic amounts of dieing off. However, I never lost any due to lambing and with certain breeds, they are just naturally more hardy. I will have to say one thing about Rams...they are just as dangerous as any other male animals...I bottle raised my breeder rams, and NEVER allowed anyone to touch their heads or horns and no matter the breed, they ALL would turn a bit ugly and want to "Ram" things when ewes were within scent reach and open. And I have been told by several old farmers that this is why they got the original name of Ram....always ramming things. They are also more aprt to play with gates adn find escape routes adn cause damage to things you don't want destroyed...including the neighbors flowers and lawn furniture! And yes, bucks (billy goats) stink to high heaven and from a large distance!!

I think there are as many good points as bad points to both animals. It simply depends on what you want them for, and who is going to be handling them. The only major difference between sheep and goats are that goats are much more independant, and have a stronger constitution...but this leads to more trouble, if a goat gets sick from eating something like metal, you will not know until its to late and they will hardware disease. You don't have to worry about this with sheep. Goats are more adaptable than certain breeds of sheep...but then you would be very suprised what a barbados can and will eat!! They LOVE brush and leaves as much as a goat!

Also, with goats, no matter the sex, you MUST watch for head butting! I witnessed a 7 year old boy get a concussion from a 5 month old nubian doe kid wanting to play, the family stood there thinking it was all fun until she stood up and slammed the side of his head, ripped his ear open and gave him a concussion. Even the gentlest of pets can cause damage when wanting to play. They are, after all animals. I have only witness ewes headbutting with other sheep...but personally have been knocked through the air off both feet (literal air time) when getting hit by a 250# ram from behind in the lower back and right hip. Why? Because I turned my back on the big bottle raised baby and he wanted attention.

No matter what you choose, goat or sheep...choose the breed of the type you want very carefully and don't buy someone elses rejects. People will sell them saying its little Johnnys pet and they can't afford it any more when in fact there is ususally a LOT more to it than that. Be careful, choose wisely. And if you don't like the choice, you will know in a short time. If nothing else, eat them and try something different.

[spartan300]

Good post woodyz. You make some great points. Excellent point on the head butting as well. Even during play, goats and children do not mix without parental supervision. Many think you can buy goats, stick them in the field, and they will pick grass and take care of themselves with little intervention. Not true. We love our herd, but they are a lot of work to be raised properly. We feel the benefits outweigh the trouble though for sure.

[woodyz]

Not all mine this was a post from that site of before. I have some goats engaged in the Kudzu fight. And have always had goats growing up, I was required to be on goat milk as a child then learned I had Chrons in 95, then found a birth defect in my pancreas and had it fixed in 2004 and no more Chrons, ummmm.

Any way I have staked out goats, cows and horses due to excellent grazing locations with know fence,

The biggest argument against staking should be them becoming entangled (which I am not sure I saw) the fix I used was a wire between two solid objects like trees or a building corner, just like a clothes line and about the same height. Hook a swivel on a snap hook to the line, with enough slack to lay down. Here is the secret part. At each end afix a cable clamp to the cloths line so the tether line can just not reach the object used as an anchor. we used a portable setup for one or both ends by making a three legged pipe stand with a cable pulley welded on top the clothes line wire went over the pulley an you just staked out both ends so the pipe stand was held upright. Then you could stake out a dog, horse, cow, goat or your baby brother/sister (been there done it) Two important things access to shade and water.