We use Sweeter Heaters, plug-in electric radiant heaters, in our warming boxes for our goat kids. The warming boxes sit in the creep pen to encourage kids to stay in their safe space and offer extra warmth at night or during a cold snap in our Wisconsin spring weather.

We do have the Prima Heat lamps from Premier One Fencing, but I prefer using these Sweeter heaters since the prevent a much lower risk of fire.

Making bone broth is quite simple to do and is way more beneficial for your health than those hard bouillon cubes or even a simple stock. Since the bones are simmered for a longer time with bone broth, it allows for more time to release more collagen, bone marrow, amino acids, and minerals, such as calcium, zinc and magnesium (Cleveland Clinic, 2018). It’s also more economical than the alternative.
 
You can drink it like a cup of tea. Or, I typically will I freeze or can it, and then use it in recipes that call for broth or stock, such as soups, gravies and other dishes. When I made this recipe recently, I used a combination of goat and beef bones.

Nutrient-Dense Bone Broth – Instant Pot or Slow Cooker
Ingredients

• Enough bones to fill the bottom of your slow cooker or Instant Pot – recently I used a mix of beef and goat bones
• 2 tbs. apple cider vinegar 
• Vegetables, such as onion and celery, if you wish
• 1 tbs. refrigerated minced garlic
• 2 tsp. sea salt
• Fresh herbs, if you wish
• Water

 
Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 450 F degrees.
2. Rinse bones, layer on sheet pan to roast in oven.  Include veggies, if you wish. I usually will add the onions, but not other veggies at this point. Roast for 1.5-2 hours until the bones are browned, even a little crispy looking. Time may vary on the type of bones you are using.
3. Remove the bones and place in your slow cooker or Instant Pot. If there’s any extra fat or brown crispiness left on the pan, scrape it off and add it to the cooking pot.
4. Add apple cider vinegar, vegetables, garlic, herbs, and sea salt. Fill the cooking pot with water to the top, covering all the ingredients. In the Instant Pot, be sure to keep the water below the max line. I like to fill a cup below this line.
5. Cooking Instructions: Slow cooker: Cook on low for 48 hours. Instant Pot: Set on low pressure, cook for 30 minutes.
6. After cooking is complete, remove bones, vegetables and herbs. You can strain any other residue at the surface. I prefer to keep the extra fat on the top, but some may want to take it off. 
7. Prepare for storage: Freeze in mason jars or zip top bags (leave room for expansion, or they’ll pop). If I have enough time, I’ll can the bone broth so I can store it in my pantry and keep my freezer space for other items. 

 
Uses:

• Drink hot, like tea for an extra daily immunity boost 
• Ingredient for recipes, such as soups, gravies or other dishes. I also like to swap bone broth for the water when cooking rice

 
Tips:

• Keep a gallon size zip top bag in your freezer to add veggie scraps and bones when cooking other meals. Use these items as future broth ingredients. I save chicken bones, bones from steaks, onion ends, veggies that start to go soft, etc. 
• You don’t have to roast your bones. It just adds an extra depth of flavor. If the bones are from another meal where the meat/bones are already cooked, I usually don’t roast the bones.
• If we have a whole chicken for dinner, I’ll debone it after and then put the whole carcass with some of our frozen veggie scraps into a slow cooker to start a batch of bone broth.
• If you order whole/halves/quarters of meat from a farmer through a butcher, ask for the bones. Sometimes they’re aren’t on the cut sheet, but typically you can still get them.

Order your goat bones from our Farm Store. For more goat meat recipes, cooking tips, promotions, and to know when goat meat is available, sign up for our email list here.

Kidding is just getting underway on our farm. A lot has to get done to before the baby goats arrive. It includes herd health work, preparing the barn and organizing my supplies 
 
Preparing the does
About a month before the does are scheduled to kid, we will do a herd health day so they are ready for kidding. This includes:

• Hoof trimming, if needed
• Deworming, if needed. We make the decision by assessing each doe individually, based on body condition, FAMACHA and behavior. If a doe needs to be dewormed, we will typically deworm with two or three dewormers, with each from a different class of dewormer. This practice is based on a research article published on the American Consortium for Small Ruminants website: Combination Dewormers: The Time is Now by Dr. Ray Kaplan, Professor of Parasitology, University of Georgia, College of Veterinary Medicine  
• Assessing body condition to determine if any supplemental feeding is needed
• Vaccinating with CDT for clostridial enterotoximia protection (over-eating disease) and tetanus, and Pasturella for pneumonia since our spring weather can have big swings in temperatures, which can lead to respiratory issues. By vaccinating a month in advance of kidding, we are able to pass on immunity protection from the does to the kids, which is especially important during the kids’ first month of life. 

 
As we work through each doe, we will enter notes on what we did into our herd health system, Easy Keeper, making extra notes on areas of concern to help us better monitor the health of each goat and manage our herd overall. 
 
Much like our other herd health days, we will set up our workspace in the barn to work efficiently as possible. Each of our helpers has specific tasks to keep everything moving along, while I visually assess each goat and enter notes into my record keeping program on my iPad. Along the top of the pen wall, we set up several 5 quart rectangular fence line feeders to hold supplies, including vaccinations, dewormers, hoof trimmers and drenchers. Here are some of the supplies I use:

• Fence line feeder 
• Drencher (feeding syringes) 20 ml and 50 ml
• Automatic bottle top syringe 
• Serrated hoof trimmer
• Stand for hoof trimming and herd health work

 
Preparing the barn
In the weeks leading up to kidding, we start to transition the barn from winter housing to kidding:

• Bucks will be moved to a separate pen, if not already. We often leave them with the whole herd most of the winter for ease of feeding.
• Yearlings, last year’s doe kids kept for breeding stock, move to a new pen. In the area where they were originally, the barn bedding is cleaned out to allow for set up of 8x8 pens for kidding. 
• Warming boxes for the postpartum pen are pulled out, each box has two radient Sweeter Heaters inside for warmth and a safe space for new kids
• Infrared heaters are checked to make sure they’re working and we have enough propane, if we have a cold snap during kidding 
• Pull out tote of heat lamps for back up. We don’t use these often, but they are good to have on hand.
• Set up barn cameras about a week in advance
• Make sure extra bedding is on hand

 
Supplies mentioned:

• Sweeter heater 
• Prima Heat lamps  

 
Preparing supplies
About 1-2 months in advance I like to assess my veterinary supplies for kidding to allow for enough time to order or purchase supplies locally. This includes ordering enough vaccines for the does, as well as for their kids (they require boosters with most vaccinations). 
 
Here are the supplies I like to have on hand for kidding. Some of them are used, and some are for emergency situations:

• Plastic gloves – I wear them anytime I might encounter bodily fluid or administer any type of supplements or medication. There are a number of zoonotic diseases that can be passed between goats and humans. It’s a good preventative measure to follow.
• Artificial insemination gloves – these are great if you have to do a rectal exam or assist with pulling a kid
• Selenium and Vitamin E Supplement – this is only used if a kid is weak and showing signs of a vitamin deficiency. Consult your veterinarian for supplements and dosages, if needed.
• Lubricant to aid with rectal exams or assisting with pulling kids 
• Betadine surgical scrub – If I have to internally assist to pull kids, it is a quick disinfectant
• Flashlight 
• Iodine for dipping umbilical cords
• Small plastic cups (condiment size or smaller) for iodine for dipping umbilical cords – I get these at the dollar store
• Dedicated, clean and sharp scissors for trimming umbilical cords
• Small scale to weigh kids – I use this one with a bucket 
• Ear tags for farm identification and USDA scrappies requirement
• Probiotic gel – give to kids and does for an extra boost 
• Vitamin B gel – give to does if they need an extra immunity boost after kidding, or have had a rough delivery 
• BlueLite – goat electrolyte mix – use in the doe’s water after kidding 
• Digital thermometer 
• Lots of old towels for drying off kids
• Marking pen or ink 
• Kid tube feeder 
• LA 200 – To prevent any infections if the doe has complications during birth or you have to assist with the birth. Consult your veterinarian on best practices and dosages. 
• Bag of a quality goat milk replacer, or a Jersey milk replacer (it has similar fat and protein content as needed for goats)
• Colostrum supplement – powdered or tube
• Dog jackets – only for weak kids or really cold dips for brand new kids. Only use these in extreme situations
• Hair dryer – to help dry off new kids, especially when it is cold or if they weren’t cleaned off right away by their mom
• Pet heating pad – used with kids that need to revived or extra warmth for new kids when there’s a cold dip
• Handful of bottler for bottle feeding. I prefer Pritchard nipples on Fiji water bottles (they are more durable for rewashing). 

 
Kidding process and protocols 
When a doe kids, I will let her do most, if not all of the work herself. The only thing I will do is help clean off kids with an old towel to so they dry fast as possible and help clean airways. The does will typically still continue to clean their kids afterwards. By helping dry the kids, this helps reduce any chances of pneumonia or hypothermia, especially if it’s cold out. 
 
After the doe is done kidding, I’ll bring her and the kids into a separate pen for 24-28 hours to allow for bonding and recovery. I’ll observe the kids to make sure they nurse. If a kid had a rough or slow start, I’ll help them with their first feeding. 
 
When it comes to processing the kids, we will take weights, ear tag, and trim umbilical cords and dip them in iodine. Then the kds are placed back into the pen with their mother. This information and anything else relevant about the birth or kids behavior is entered into our animal health record system, Easy Keeper. 
 
After 24-48 hours, the doe and kids will move to a “postpartum” group pen with other doe/kid pairs. The kids will have access to a creep/safe space, typically with some source of heat to keep them safe from other mothers and prevent them from accidently being sat on by their own mothers. 
 
Kids are vaccinated a month after they born and then followed up with a booster based on the vaccinations given.
​

If you’re interested in learning more about what we do on our farm raising goats for meat, join our online community here.  ​

Thank you Katelyn at the Wild Rose Farmer for having me as a guest on her Rural Woman Podcast. I’ve been a listener since the start and an avid podcast junkie for along time. It is an honor to be coming into your earbuds as a podcast guest, instead of my usual role as just the listener!

For those who often ask about how I got started raising goats and the meat goat industry and market, here it is!

You can find the podcast episode here, listen to it anywhere you listen to podcasts, or stream it on ‪WildRoseFarmer.com‬

P.S. If you’re new to this podcast or Katelyn, she also raises goats for meat!

You don’t know how many times this winter (now spring) I’ve been asked, “How’s kidding going?” Each time I explain that we don’t have any babies yet since we’ve moved kidding to later in the season.  We’re set to kid in late April and then have the last batch of kids in May.

We’ve kidded and worked with baby goats in January through April, with both babies born on our farm and bottle babies we’ve raised since they were only a few days old.  The first few years raising goats we didn’t own a buck and our breeding schedule worked around the farm where we rented a buck.  We’ve also bred for earlier in the season (anytime between January and March) because that seems to be what most farms do in our area. So why not do the same? And, with raising bottle babies, we of course were on the schedule of the dairy farms we worked with.

There are many reasons farms kid earlier: raising for the show/fair kid market, having kids be at market weight in the fall, renting bucks like we have done, seasonal milking, and so on.

Here are three reasons why we’ve moved to late season kidding:

1. Be in sync with nature. There’s probably a reason why deer have their fawns in the spring time.  Wisconsin winters can be downright frigid cold. Kidding later in the season gives new kids a greater chance of thriving rather than being a “kid-sicle,” potentially leading to pneumonia or even losing a kid.  It also gives new moms a little extra time to let their maternal instincts kick in or time for the shepherd to assist (my preference is the first option).  Shortly after kidding we’re able to get the does and kids out on pasture rotationally grazing, taking advantage of the higher quality pasture earlier in the grazing season.
2. Reduce shepherd’s fatigue. Kidding or lambing can really be wearing on the farmer. Whether it’s a set schedule of late-night barn checks in person or by barn camera, it can get exhausting. That part isn’t going to change with warmer weather (as in not subzero temps). However, the increased effort, and even stress at times, to dry off and warm up new kids is reduced. I also tend to have a little more patience letting does clean up their newly born kids. Last season we also had a new baby (as in human kid) and it was harder to get out to the barn as regularly as I like to do so. Kidding later in the season gives us a little bit of flexibility on being able to bring my kids (again, human) down the to barn and a little more give and take on timing if I can’t get to check on a new set of kids immediately. 
3. Reduce the need for heaters. Mother Nature permitting, kidding later also allows us to reduce the use of heat lamps and infrared heaters to keep kids warm in their safe areas in the kidding pens and in the creep area in the main pen. If spring comes earlier, we might even be lucky enough to not need the heaters at all. Reducing use not only cuts down on our electrical and propane (we also have propane infrared heaters) bills, it also reduces the risk for fire by not using the heat lamps or using them minimally. When do use the heat lamps we use the ones from Premier 1 Fencing, which have more safety features built in than the standard metal heat lamp. We also like using infrared heaters (we have both propane and electric powered ones - the electric are from Sweater Heater).

Even with our later kidding season, we can still run into Mother Nature’s seasonal mood disorder. Last season we kidded a week earlier than this year and ended up having kids during the spring cold snap (single digit temps). We can try our best to work with the flow of our seasons in the Upper Midwest.  Kidding later works well for our farm and family.
​
If you’re interested in learning more about what we do on our farm raising goats for meat, join our online community here.  

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I manage my herd as it grows to its “full size.” As some may know, my herd is still in its growth stage since I've been building it from within. In this planning process I’m being mindful of working with the seasonality of our region, managed grazing practices, and use of our facilities.

My plan going forward after this kidding season will be to split our herd into two groups and move into a breeding cycle where our herd is kidding three times a year, about four months apart. This doesn’t mean we’re doing back-to-back breeding, but it means that each group will kid every other kidding season. Each doe will have the opportunity to breed every nine months, allowing for time for gestation, nursing, and recovery. 

Why am I moving to this system:

• Less intense kidding season. Not all does will be kidding at the same time. Easier on the shepherd to monitor her herd
• If a doe doesn’t take, she has an opportunity to be rebred sooner, than waiting an entire year or culling. Lack of conception can happen for many reasons, which may not all be on the doe.
• This allows us to have a more consistent supply of meat for our customers

From an economic perspective, this farm is also a business. It requires income to continue and serve our customers. Over the span of time, we should be able to produce the same number of kids as if our herd size was 25-30% larger. This means fewer breeding does to feed and manage, with more offspring to either add to our herd as replacement stock or to sell. As a family farm, it also helps keep my workload more manageable.

What I will be working on figuring out: 

• The right timing of breeding and kidding based on our seasons. My goal is to still minimize kidding in cold weather to allow our does a chance to care for their new kids without a lot of extra concern with hypothermia or pneumonia.
• Goats can be seasonal breeders (not always). I’ll need to determine the best strategies with our summer breeding plans.

What I know I’ll need to do:

• Continue to take good records on our animals
• Band all of our buck kids, unless we have requests for breeding bucks. It will just be easier to manage our market kids in one group or it could get out of hand fast!
• Set up a good animal sorting/handling system 
• Get used to kidding three times a year!

Lastly, a big shout out to Sandy Brock, of Sheepishly Me, a sheep farmer in Canada. Her approach to managing breeding and lambing for her flock provided me inspiration to think about how I could adapt practices to my goat herd and our grazing system. 

When it comes to goat meat, it can be a challenge to find in grocery stores. Sometimes specialty markets will carry it. But, if you do find it, it is likely imported all the way from Australia. 
 
Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of goat meat. Most of the goat meat found for sale in grocery stores in the U.S. is sourced from Australia. According to Meat and Livestock Australia:

• imports of goat meat into our country have more than doubled in the last 10 years
• 98 percent of goat meat imported into the U.S. is from Australia
• In 2015, imports were about 40 million pound of goat meat to the U.S.

 
Most of these goats are semi-wild (feral), sourced from Australia’s rangeland.
 
Sourcing goat meat in the U.S.
So how can you find goat meat in the U.S., that’s raise right here in our own country? 

1. If a store in your area carries goat meat, check the label to see where it is from. If you can’t tell ask the manager to know if it’s imported or raised in the U.S. Food co-ops often carry food sourced from local farmers. You can ask the same question at restaurants as well.
​
2.  Look for farms that raise and sell their meat direct to customers. It’s not always easy to do, but with a little homework you can hopefully find some good options. Several places to start include farmers markets, local foods listings and goat breeder organizations. Even an online search can help as well since many farms have an online presence and may even have online ordering options. 

Often buying direct from the farmer means purchasing a whole goat, cut and packaged to your liking. Sometimes you can also purchase individual cuts of meat, which can be convenient if you don’t have a lot of freezer space or want to enjoy a special recipe without needing to purchase large quantities of meat.  

Let us be your choice for enjoying goat meat raised in the Upper Midwest on our farm. Sign up for our email list to know about upcoming sales, recipes and tips for cooking goat meat and updates on what's happening from our farm. In spring of 2020 we will be launching a new ordering website, with an option for shipping right to your doorstep. 

One of the best parts of living in Wisconsin is our wide range of seasons. Well, at least I think so. When it comes to winter, I often get questions on how my goats handle the cold weather and snow. They do just fine. 

In November our weather will usually start to make the transition to winter with temps in the teens to single digits, snowfalls are common. January through February is usually our coldest weather of the season with temperatures usually in the single digits or below zero. Often there’s a stretch of weather -25, which usually lasts only a few days. In March the weather starts to gradually warm-up.

It Starts with the Herd
Livestock are a lot heartier than we may think. While my goats are farm animals, goats themselves in the wild original as mountain animals. They originally were designed to live in a rugged environment with a range of temperatures, including cold weather. 

On our farm, we’ve bred in the Kiko breed to help build a heartier herd (which is a Boer-Kiko cross), that thrive on pasture and is self-sufficient, including handling nature’s elements. 

Transitioning to Winter
We help our goats adjust to winter by keeping them outside on pasture as long as possible as the weather transitions from fall to winter. This helps their bodies adjust to the temperatures and grow a thick coat to help keep them warm throughout winter. At first, they aren’t fans of the temperature change and they’ll bleat at me about it. Then, after a few weeks later, they’ll be adjusted and don’t make much of a fuss. 

During this time, they’ll still have access to pasture shelters, which keeps them dry and blocks them from the wind. We’ll bed those shelters with straw to keep it clean and dry. 

Additionally, we feed hay in the winter. The hay ferments in their rumen, creating heat for the animals, helping them stay warm from within. Between their body heat and snuggling together, they keep fairly warm in the shelters.

Once our weather is consistently in the single digits, we’ll transition the herd to the barn for their winter shelter. We have a flap on the door to keep block the wind and keep snow out. They would do fine in their pasture shelters as long as they’re kept bedded and dry. We have the barn, so we choose to use it.

The herd will continue to feed on round bales out in the pasture, to make sure they are getting adequate exercise and help keep the barn cleaner. As a side benefit of feeding outside the leftover hay and goat fertilizer helps our pasture thrive the next season by adding to the seedbed and providing more nutrients.

With exposure to fresh air, they also tend to have fewer respiratory issues. Moving back and forth from the feeders to the barn also helps them generate more body heat. 

In the Barn
While the goats have full access to the barn, we will bed their pens regularly to make sure it stays clean and dry. We keep adding to the bedding throughout the winter season. This “deep pack bedding” acts as an insulator and generates heat as it gradually breaks down at the base. 

We’ll also keep an eye on the airflow in the barn and condensation and run our ventilation system when needed as well. We will make sure the barn is free of drafts as well. It’s also important to not have the barn close too “tight” as well. Some flow of fresh air is good.

The water source in our barn is a frost-free hydrant. We don’t use automatic waterers. I like to just use the low 60-gallon tanks or the “muck” tubs for smaller pens. We use drop-in heaters to keep the water from freezing and a heated hose for filling the tanks in the main barn. 

In our machine shed, we have an overflow pen, but we don’t have water in that barn. We will use three 100-foot expandable hoses with shut off valves (like the “as seen on TV” hoses) to fill the tank in the other barn from the hydrant. When we are done, we’ll coil up the hose and put it in our heat milk house room in the barn so it doesn’t freeze. This has worked better than hauling buckets or filling a large tank.

Severe Weather: Extreme Cold or Major Snowfall
If we hit a really cold stretch or anticipate a big snowstorm, we may close the barn door and feed the goats inside. 

If it's an especially snowy winter, we will also plow paths in the pasture to help the goats get to their hay feeders. We’ll also strategically plow snow to create windbreaks. 

We also try to keep an eye on the snow load on the barn roof as well, to make sure we don’t have a collapsed roof issue and then have to figure out how to house our animals while it gets fixed.

Health Concerns
We see fewer health issues with our goats in the wintertime than in the summer. High heat, wet summers and temperature swings in the spring are harder on the animals (pneumonia, parasites, other pathogens, etc,). 

It may be natural to think that we should keep our goats in an insulated, heated barn, however it can lead to more health problems. An enclosed barn without ventilation can run the risk of respiratory issues such as pneumonia.

We also do not kid in the coldest months in our Wisconsin winters to avoid the risk of pneumonia or hypothermia. There are goat farms who do kid in winter, we just choose not to do so. It’s easier on the goats and ourselves as farmers. 

If it is a late “spring” from Mother Nature and kidding as started, we may use jackets for our goats for the first week. Then we will transition them off to help the goats get adjusted to the temperature. In general, jackets are usually not necessary. We’ll also use heat lamps with kidding stalls and infrared heaters in the creep area to keep kids warm and safe from the bigger goats.


Livestock are hearty animals. Ruminants do a great job of keeping themselves warm from within through fermentation in their rumen. As farmers, we make sure they have access to dry, draft-free shelters and they do quite well throughout the winter months.

Drop in tank heaters / deicers: We use a variety of tank heaters depending on the size of the livestock  water tank and the placement (is it outdoors, is it near an open door, inside, etc.). I try to size the heater to the tank and also minimize the wattage (check the box for the size) to keep our electric bill down and not overload our electric circuits in the barn. 

I prefer to use drop in heaters vs buckets with heaters built in because sooner or later the heater will die. I'd rather replace the heater than everything.

The Perfect Bucket Heater by K&H Pet is my favorite for the muck bucket tanks (see picture). It's small and only uses 80 watts. Why use a big heater if you don't have too?

​I also like having a couple extra heaters on hand. I always seem to have one that decides to stop working in early spring when most farm stores stop restocking their shelves with winter supplies.

Heated hose from K&H Pet, 40 ft. We use this at our hydrant to fill our main livestock tank in the winter. We will plug it in before we need to use it and then it's ready to go. Each time we use it we make sure to keep the end that screws on the hydrant "up" so excess water doesn't freeze in the opening, making it hard to unthaw. We've been using this hose year-round for hour seasons.

Expandable hose by XHOSE, 3 100 ft hoses to run from the water hydrant in our main goat barn to our machine shed to all for filling up the water tank in our overflow pen.

When we use heat lamps I really like the Prima Heat Lamp from Premier 1 Supplies since it is durable and has a number of features that make it safer than the traditional heat lamp. Caution should always be used with heat lamps in barns to avoid fires.

I really like the Sweeter Heaters, they're an infrared heater. No lamp, just heat. They're much safer than using a heat lamp, to help avoid the fire risk. A bonus is that they are owned and manufactured by a family in northern Wisconsin!

If you’re interested in learning more about what we do on our farm raising goats for meat, join our online community here.  ​​

This past weekend we started preparing for breeding season for our goats.  We will do this herd health work about 1-2 months before we actually put the bucks in with the does. 

So here’s what it looks like for us: 

Does:

• Sort and officially wean all doe kids. We let them self-wean up until this point.
• Look over the goat, including body condition, udders, FAMACHA, coats
• Deworm: We do “three-way” deworming, using one dewormer from each class of dewormers. Current research from the American Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control (wormx.info) shows a greater impact of all wormers when working together. Because we experienced some parasite issues several years ago after introducing new goats to our herd, we are on a 2x a year deworming schedule and then only deworm goats who show signs of needing it outside of that timetable. Our goal is to reduce our frequency but for now, this approach works best based on our situation. 
• Copper bolus, as a nutrient supplement and as a natural dewormer
• Hoof trim
• Take notes on any other issues, visual observations, behavior, genetic attributes 

Bucks: The bucks get the same attention.

Why do we start the process in advance? It gives any goats that need a little extra attention some extra time before the big dating day comes. We can make sure all the goats are at their best, in terms of health. If any kids are still nursing, it also allows the does bodies to readjust before making the transition to growing babies. 

The day of health work: We bring the goats from the pasture back to the barn. It’s just easier to have a contained space to work with them and sort them. We will have 1-2 friends or family members helping sort goats and doing the hoof trimming and health work. 

I’ll also make observations and record all the health work and other notes into our online record system EasyKeeper on my tablet (if you try it out, you can get a $30 credit here).. This year I also was keeping tabs on our almost 2-year-old-daughter. It was a bit of a balancing act! 

We use the over the fence feeder troughs to put our supplies in order of use and so they’re easy to access. There’s a whiteboard with a checklist of tasks for each goat and dosages based on animal size. This helps streamline the process. Next year I’m hoping to add a chute and sorting facility to our system. Right now, it works, but it has the potential to add extra stress on the goats and is also hard on our own bodies.

At the end of November, after Thanksgiving, we’ll split our herd into groups and put the bucks out. The timing works out well. We kid in mid-April, which its usually starting to warm up.  We often have extra family and friends around the farm with the holiday and deer hunting season. 

We’ll put our yearlings into one group so there’s no extra competition or stress with the older does during breeding. We also will often use a smaller buck.

The older does are split into two groups with our other bucks. We use breeding harnesses to know when does are exposed. They are kept in their groups for 20-30 days, or until all does are marked. Then we combine the groups at 45 days. Around 60 days we will usually pull the bucks and put them in their winter pen. 

Five months later it’s baby goat time! 

Wonder why we kid later in the season? Read this blog post here.

If you’re interested in learning more about what we do on our farm raising goats for meat, join our online community here.  ​