Goat raising

Learning about Goats

In the spring of 2005 I started thinking about raising goats. We had 10 1/2 acres outside of Austin and needed some livestock on it. My mom and I decided it would be a joint venture. We started looking around at local goat farms and settled on one to visit. It was located close to the house and the gentleman was eager to let us learn the ins and outs of goat raising. Boer goats would be our goat of choice. They looked so calm and friendly on someone elses property. The first thing we would learn was how to give shots and worm them. I was not prepred for how strong they would be. Jay had some baby goats that we would purchase when they became old enough to leave their momma, and until then we would train. The adults range in the 140-150 pound range and most still have their horns. Worming requires putting liquid into their mouths and forcing them to swallow. First you climb onto the back of the goat and grab by the horns. Then the next person puts the syringe in the mouth while covering the nose and mouth to force swallowing(the goat however does not like this). Sometimes you have to chase the goat first. We also learned to give injections and exactly where the injection sites were. This all seemed hard at first, but with practice became easier.

We continued this until May, when finally our goats were ready to come home. Those goats pictured were our first babies. Adam the only male(because they can service a hundred female goats) is looking at us, Eve the white one,(these two proved to be dominant), and the twins Rebekah and Rachel. It would be months before they would produce new goats, and until that time we would care for them. We decided the best place was directly in the back yard. We were very protective over our goats. We converted a shed into a bed for them. Adam was from champion linage and should produce a champion blood line.

What we found out is that goats get into everything. As you can see in the picture we had to block off the tree. They also started going under the fence.(Goats can squash themselves down and go under the fence it is amazing.)