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Show Goats Blog

  • Making Sense of Feed Labels Part 2: Balancing major minerals in your goat’s diet

    In Making Sense of Feed Labels, Part 1: Balancing trace mineral deficiencies in your goat’s diet,  we learned how to determine if your mineral supplement balances deficiencies in trace minerals, such as copper, zinc and selenium. Daily mineral requirements for goats were based on diets for large breed diary cattle adjusted for differences in body […]

  • Making Sense of Feed Labels

    Part I: Balancing trace mineral deficiencies in your goat’s diet   You are at the feed store looking for a mineral supplement for your goats because you have heard that grass and hay in your area are deficient in minerals. You read the label of a recommended supplement with a “guaranteed analysis” expressed in terms […]

  • 10 Tips to Prevent Barn Fires

    I remember that Sunday afternoon as though it were yesterday. Looking out the kitchen window, seeing the smoke, realizing that the goat barn was on fire. My husband and I ran out the door, horrified at the sight of flames shooting out from the doors and under the walls. The barn was fully engulfed.   […]

  • Culling – the ‘sooner or later’ of showing goats

    Sooner or later, one of the less talked about aspects of goat husbandry will rear its ugly head – the need to reduce your numbers by culling animals.  Whatever prompts the decision, it is never easy to let your babies go. While often sales are prompted by the desire to improve your herd genetics or increase your production numbers, unless you have […]

  • Using Goats in a Therapy Program

    I love my goats. They always make me smile. I am a registered nurse and sometimes my days can be a little stressful. One little therapy doeling really brightens my days. Her name is Baby. Baby is a Fainting goat. Every time I look at her she brings a smile to my face. This got […]

  • Blood-Sucking Parasites in Your Goat’s Stomach!

    This article was originally provided via a link in a comment to Shannon Lawrence’s Farmyard blog “Goat vs. Barber Pole  – don’t let the worms win” (August 2012). Because of the popularity of the link we decided to publish the full-length, updated version of this article.   I’m back with everybody’s favorite topic – worms, […]

  • Introducing New Goats Into a Herd

    Bringing a new goat into your established herd? Here are a few tips for helping new arrivals feel at home.   1.       Quarantine all new goats – Regardless of where your new goats come from, it is a good idea to quarantine them from your other animals for a few weeks. This quarantine period is […]

  • An Epidemic: Mineral Deficiency in Goats

    If you cruise the Craigslist goats for sale pictures or the various Facebook goat health groups around the United States, one common theme you will see in a lot of the pictures and descriptions of goat problems is mineral deficiency. Mineral deficiency is a widespread problem and I am calling it the single most dangerous […]

  • Getting does ready for kidding

    Many of you already have kids on the ground, while others are patiently watching the baby bumps grow. Here are some tips for getting your pregnant does ready for kidding:   Mineral supplementation – Ideally, you should start supplementing your does with the proper minerals before breeding for the best results. Goats need a lot […]

  • Preparing for a goat show

    You could say that preparation actually starts with our fall breeding buck selections. What conformation features do we want to improve on and what strengths do we want to maintain? We use the season’s comments from the judges as guidelines. Since we’ve been at this for a while, we select bucks that will make as […]

  • All about goat shows

    The first goat show we ever attended we found very confusing. The only person with a microphone didn’t use it much, and when he did, what we heard didn’t make much sense. I imagine this is what shows are like for most folks who come to agricultural fairs. It is the fair that’s the draw, […]

  • Showing Your Goat

    Why show your goat? Showing your goat is fun! It is also a great way to meet new people. Showing your goat will help promote your goat breed too. It can be a lot of hard work but it is very rewarding and YES fun! Showing your goat allows you to be able to show […]

  • Does this udder make me look fat? – Putting weight on your dairy goats

    Would you believe me if I said that the first rule to putting weight on a goat does not involve grain? You will probably think I am really crazy if I said that grain isn’t even in the second rule, either. A common question that many goat owners have is how to put weight on […]

  • Pasture weeds as mineral sources for goats

    Introduction   There have been several blog articles published recently at Hoegger Farmyard that deal with the problem of copper (Cu) deficiencies in goats. As mentioned, this deficiency can be either primary, or secondary. The former is due to low Cu content of forage whereas the latter reflects the interaction between Cu and other chemical […]

  • Why milk and grain do not make for fast growing kids

    It goes against common sense to say the key to raising fast growing and hefty kid goats is not in what you feed them. I have been raising baby goats for 10 years and have learned repeatedly over the years that kids grow best on limited grain and milk. Overfeeding a kid grain or milk […]

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