Goat keeping is rewarding.

Keeping goats is fun.

Very basic information for
new and prospective small scale goat stewards.

Goats are one of the most common animals kept in an effort to increase one’s self reliance.  There are many books about goats to be had, but most of them miss the mark on the whole.  If you are looking into keeping a goat or a herd of goats, you will need to read at least a half a dozen books to begin to feel like you have any proficiency—almost all of which will go out the window when you actually get your first goat.  You see, the goats haven’t read the books so they don’t know what the rules that you are playing by are.

Goats are among the top seven intelligent animals, right up there with chimps, dogs, dolphins and ostensibly man.  They enjoy games almost as much as dolphins do, and will go to great lengths to create a game which is one of the reasons that penning a goat can be a challenge.  They are likely to see low or open-concept fences as obstacle coursed rather than delineations of territory and gate latches as entertaining puzzles rather than barriers.  Not having an opposable thumb only slows them down a little, as they do have a strong, prehensile tongue (just as a monkey has a prehensile tail) which they can use to surprising advantage…such as to sort and high grade their mixed grain, deftly picking out the tasty bits and leaving anything they find uninteresting.  Baring accident, predation and negligence, a goat can live upwards of twenty years, the middle fifteen of which can include breeding.

• Assessing your goal and your options
  The first thing to address is legality; if you are an urbanite and often even for suburbanites, checking local laws and statutes to determine the legality of goats is a necessary first step.  If you find restrictive rules and are determined to proceed, you may look into obtaining a variance or the like.  Once that is sorted, you need to assess your property and make decisions about housing modalities that will fit into existing usage.  The third assessment would to determine your goal; while many folks keep goats for draft, packing or weed control and some just for the delightful companionship they provide, most people interested in keeping goats are looking for a milch animal.  Determining your reason for wanting a goat or goats will narrow down which breed would best suit your needs and will also influence housing and equipment requirements at least to some degree.
• Housing and yard
  A properly cared for goat must have housing—not just a bit of tree to get out of the worst of the sun, rain and snow, but an actual house.  It does not need to be an entire barn, and in some circumstances that’s not even recommended.  Remember that the goat must heat the inside of that building with their body heat, so a larger building is not necessarily an asset.  Ideally, a goat house should at minimum be large enough for hay feeding, a spot for minerals, a water bucket and to allow the goat to walk in, turn around and choose to stand or lie down without having to be right under the hay feeder.   As for yard or pasture, a general rule is fifteen square feet for large breed goats and ten square feet for small breed goats—these are minimums.  A large breed doe can see to much of her own nutrition needs on a properly planted quarter of an acre, unless she is in kid or milking.  Best option would be rotational pastures, regardless of the size; even if goats are kept in a goat yard, the option of rotating them out to let one yard rest (absorb/process/compost manure and urine, regrow any vegetation) is still best for the sake of breaking the cycle of parasites.
• Choice of breed
  A companion goat can, of course be any breed or breed cross; their job is to bond and engage with humans, so the considerations that come into play for choosing a milk animal or a draft or pack animal don’t need to come into play.  A draft or pack animal, however, needs some size about them; always remember that old adage it takes weight to move weight.  A pack goat in good condition can carry up to one third its weight; a draft goat can pull two and a half times its weight.  While does can be pack or draft goats, most dedicated pack or draft goats are wethers (neutered males), specifically if they are wethered after six of months of age so they get their best growth.  Good breed choices for draft or packing are Alpine, Nubian, Boer and Saanen because of their size.  If you are looking for milk, you’ll need to look at what quantities of milk you want…or can deal with!  A Nigerian Dwarf doe will produce about 2 quarts of milk per day, split between night and morning milkings; a Kinder goat doe should produce about three-quarters of a gallon and often more;  with a good Nubian doe, you would look for a gallon or more, and a Saanen will give two gallons or more per day.  Day, after day, after day, after day…..
• Feeding
  Goats are extremely picky eaters.  They lip at and take a taste of almost anything that interests them, but if the feed is moldy, spoiled in any way, or has been pulled out and walked on most goats will not eat it unless there is nothing else.  Goats are ruminants; they have four stomachs, just like a cow.  However, goats are browsers like deer much more than they are grazers like cows.  Their digestive system is designed to work on much more coarse fare than grass.  A goat can actually starve to death in a field of just lush green grass; they can’t get enough nutrition from it, and it goes throught them too fast.  A goat’s stomachs act like big fermentation vats. When you feed a goat, you are actually feeding the bacteria in this fermentation vat. The bacteria, in turn, make the nutrition in the food available to the goat’s system. A goat’s rumination method of processing food requires plenty of roughage and fiber to work properly.  Alfalfa bales can about meet the need for most goats, but are not the best choice for bucks and can cause wethers desparate problems from urinary calculi.  Kids, does in kid, and milking does must have concentrates in addition to their browse; this means grains, and no matter what your local feed store would like you to buy from them labelled as “Goat Chow”, ground and/or pelleted feed is ultimately bad for goats.  A mixture of whole grains, or at most rolled grains, is the best choice.  Salt and minerals are also extremely important, and care must be taken to ensure that goats get copper; this mineral is lacking in any mixes designated for sheep, who cannot have copper.  Fresh clean water is a basic necessity, and one goat berry, a dead bug or just the beginnings of algae in the bucket or tank can result in a dehydrated goat in short order.

It’s possible that the most appropriate by-line for goats is “your mileage may vary” as every goat is an individual.  Despite myths and common misconceptions, goats make great pets but they are rather like having an eternal busy two-year-old human child.  If they’re not doing something you want them to do, they’ll be doing something you don’t want them to do.  They are a fantastic productive friend of many, many self reliant people and becoming more common in first world countries.

Very useful links:

Fias Co Farm

Goat World

American Dairy Goat Association

Goats breeds, as listed by Oklahoma State University