Getting your first Goats

Here are some frequently asked questions. Multiples? They are herd animals so do much better in 2’s and 3’s. So we can set you up with two or three to go home. What do they eat? They are still on bottles. We will provide a bottle for each baby goat that needs to be rinsed out after each use and sanitized (run through the dishwasher) every day. They are also starting to eat grain and hay. We’ll provide both grain and hay for you to put out for them to graze if you provide the milk. Just store bought whole cows milk. Depending on the age of the goats you bring home they are drinking 2 to 3 16oz bottles a day. How do I feed them? When you prepare their bottles the milk needs to be warmed up so it’s not refrigerator cold. These babies are older and hardier so they don’t need the milk too warm just not cold. It’s fine to microwave the milk in the bottles or heat it up on the stove in a pot. Just make sure there are no hot spots. The microwave will heat the top but not the bottom so I gently shake the bottle around afterwards. Where do they sleep? We’ll bring a large dog crate for them to sleep in. You can put them inside or outside as long as it’s out of the wind and rain. You can also put them in a laundry room or bathroom so you can turn the lights out and close the door when it’s night time. Are they noisy? Yes, they can be. Bottle babies will squawk and cry when they are hungry. If they see you coming with a bottle they will start making lots of excited noises. But most of the time they don't make any noise. Can they run around the house? Yes, absolutely. We play with ours in the house where we have hardwood floors and can clean up. I also keep a close eye on them and when they stop and start squatting I run them outside or be ready to clean up real quick. Some people put baby diapers on them to avoid messes all together. I’ve never done that. Can I put them in my yard? Make sure you have a secured area. Goats are very tiny and can squeeze through most fences. Test this out to make sure they can be contained. Small dog or baby fencing works great to secure a smaller area within your yard for them.

Some of these we have been on the waiting list for 3 years and have been working our way up to the top of the list. Out of these 8 reservations we are 1st on 2 and 2nd on 1. So we will hopefully take home 2-3 new doelings to add to the genetics of our herd.

Preparation for your new baby goats. Enclosure - Fencing. Baby goats can squeeze through tiny spaces so make sure your fence has small openings, tight to the ground, and gates have minimal gaps. Housing - Shelter can be a variety of things, dog house, shed, lean-to, barn, etc. Just insure they are out of the wind and rain and have dry bedding. Bedding can be straw, hay, or wood chips/shavings. If you are in a high preditor area make sure your fences are high or you can lock them in at night. Wheel barrel, shovel pitchfork - And a plan for how and when you will clean out their soiled bedding, where to compost it. Hoof trimmers - We will train you on trimming hoofs. Wonder Dust - Wound and blood stop powder good for any kind of injury. Keep it with your hoof timmers in case you clip too far. Rectal Thermometer - The first thing to check when you think your baby goat is sick. We just use dollar store oral thermometers and keep them with a stack of disposable gloves. Then insert it in a finger of the glove to use so it will keep clean. Goat Nutri-drench - for emergencies, lots of vitamins and minerals to help recover from illness. Collars - Use break away collars if you are going to leave them on all the time. Goats have a way of getting caught up on things or each other. Leashes - Leash training them early will be very helpful in the long run. Scale - To weight them when they are babies to insure they are gaining weight and growing. If you have one already you can just use a kitchen scale while they are little. Vitamin boosters - North 40 has a huge selection an entire aisle long. I pick them up in paste tube form. I’m not loyal to a particular brand. The ones I like to have on hand - Selenium and Vitamin E Gel - Vitamin A-D-E-B12 - Diatomaceous Earth - Every time we clean bedding I like to put down a layer of this as well as dust them with it occasionally. We have deer and field mice and other critters that can bring fleas or lice around and keeping a clean area with regular dusting of DE can limit them sticking around. Feeding Food and Water dishes - As babies do not use water buckets as they could fall into them. Use shallow bowls like dog dishes for water and goat grower Bottles - This wide mouth bottle that attaches to the pritchard teat is my favorite. https://www.premier1supplies.com/p/wide-mouth-lamb-n-kid-feeding-bottle?p1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzLCVBhD3ARIsAPKYTcS3rUa0Z-awYvi9IUHXUw5UCymKUvYjxyoAPa1UiyfzXSE6IJ0BTP8aAss0EALw_wcB I like it because you can easily wash the entire bottle because of the wide mouth. It is also easy to fill up because of the wide mouth, vs using a funnel to fill bottles multiple times a day. The bottle is only sold at Premier 1 online which in general has the best livestock supplies. The pritchard teat is sold at most all livestock stores, Tractor Supply and North 40. (Just the yellow narrow cap and red teat) and you can buy the narrow neck bottles to go with it there or even use disposable soda or water bottles. The only thing I warn is that the bottles are VERY clean. Bacteria can build up and cause bloat or sickness. We scrub our bottles by hand and then put them in the dishwasher under sanitize. The bottles I mention above are dishwasher safe, the only thing that I will say is that the branding and ink measurements on the outside will start to wear off with constant dishwasher use but they do have the oz measurements embossed on the bottle as well so even if all the lettering washes off you will still be able to see it. Thermometer - to test the temp of the milk. I just use an old school meat or candy Thermometer with the probe to stick in the bottle and check the temp. Hay - Alfalfa, Timmothy or Orchard Hay. Even when they are still on the bottle leave out hay for them to start to nibble on. This will help develop their rumen. Purina Goat Grower - You can find this at Tractor Supply. North 40 does not stock it. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/purina-noble-goat-grower-16-medicated-goat-feed-50-lb Loose minerals - We like Manna Pro but there are lots of good brands. Initially most of the minerals will be provided in the medicated goat grower.

We are going to an Artificial Insemination clinic in October to learn the basics. It's a hands on class so they will actually walk us through AI'ing a doe each. So I've been looking for some great straws before class. October 18th Saturday Karen Lewis - Frozen Assets Hosted by Judy Bevaart Shows are a great spot to meet up and purchase straws. I had the pleasure of meeting the Springwater herd at the Logan Utah show and fell in love with her doe Apricot. I reached out to Nancy Boling and while straws of her buck Alejandro (Apricots Sire) are sold out she had a couple straws for personal use she sold to us.

Friday August 21, 2020 Grants Pass, Oregon Josephine County Fairgrounds This was a long haul of a trip!! I carpooled with a friend and we drove through the night to make it happen. I woke up at 2am to load my car and get to Serena's house by 5am to make the long drive. A few of us all camped at a nearby campground the night before. The Grants Pass location wasn't as ideal as some of the other locations. The parking to the back barn was hard to get to so we had to haul everything quite a ways. But there were ringside holding pens which were nice. We only brought junior doelings and were excited to bring home some ribbons. The show wrapped up by 8pm and we drove through the night taking turns. I got home at 10:30AM. That's my last time driving through the night.

August 29, 2020 at 9:00 AM Lewiston, Idaho at the Nezperce County Fair Grounds, Goat Barn Ring 1 Judge Amy Amkramoff Ring 2 Judge Lorelei Hallock Chairperson: Janet Hughes We arrived on Friday at 5:30pm and had an easy check in. There are two RV parking lots that have electric for each spot, we parked in the Northeast lot past the barns and had water hook up as well. Everything was close by with clean bathrooms and barns. Pens were already assigned and very well organized. Senior does showed in the late morning on Saturday so we mulled around the campgrounds and chatted with friends, and did last minute shave clean ups on our kids. The raffle also held lots of excitement... (yep, we are getting old and love raffles)

We broke a record last year and added 21 new goats to the herd from 5 different breeders. This year we aren't planning on adding any new goats (period) which of course means we are going to limit it to just a few stunning selections. Here's our plan so far...

We planned on picking up reservations on 4 doelings this year and ended up with 21!! 7 adult does, 4 bucklings and 10 doelings,

We always try to incorporate new genetics into our herd. With a small farm we are extremely selective of the goats we add to our family. We originally had a reservation for 3 does from DLMG. Added a buck reservation for Flutterbye along with our doeling which she delivered for us!! We were smitten with two more doelings as we were waiting for ours to kid so we will be taking home FIVE kids, 4 doelings and a buckling from Laurie Homer at DLMG Farms. All three of our Almar Acres reservations fell through. Two of the does didn't settle and the third had a single buckling and not a doeling like we reserved. We were disappointed but picked up a couple more does from Laurie with Almar Acres bloodlines. Then in the beginning of April Almar Acres announced that due to the current events and the restrictions from their Vet and the requirements for air transport they would only have kids available for local pick up. They are such an incredible breeder they are known Nationwide with most of their kids flying to herds all over the country. With the reservations opening up we were able to acquire a buckling from 'Fire N Spice', a doeling from 'Moonlit Sky' and a doeling from 'Miss B'. We couldn't be more thrilled!!