Goat Rearing – 4 Simple Tips To Start Raising Goats The Proper Way
Image by Ed Yourdon
Note: this photo was published in a Jun 7, 2010 blog titled "Jeffrey Warriors’ new softball, boys basketball coach."
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On my way to dinner at a nearby sushi restaurant the other night, I stopped at a local playground to see if there was anything interesting to photograph. I found that a local community organizer, Darrin Dunn, had raised some contributions to provide uniform-style t-shirts for two competing teams of basketball players in the playground’s court, which has been named "Goat Courts."
Dunn is the CEO of the Earl Manigault Foundation, Inc., and you can reach him by phone at 832-660-1039 if you’d like to offer assistance; he doesn’t have a Website or email address at the moment. The foundation, and the basketball court, are named after the legendary Earl "the Goat" Manigault, who died in 1998 after playing professional basketball in France and Germany. You can learn more about Manigault, the basketball court, and the local tournaments in a July 10, 2009 Black Star News article titled Hope Dreams – Beyond Basketball, which was written by Mitch Ligon, whose chess-playing talents (in the same park) I showed in this Flickr photo.
Anyway, it was an interesting game, with lots of action. I took some 300 shots, and whittled it down to 30 keepers; I’ll upload 10 of them each day, while trying to juggle my other work demands…
Article by Ted Allen
Goats are extremely hardy creatures. Taking care of these animals would need a bit more work to ensure that the horned and hoofed ones remain productive in your farm. They can basically thrive on just about any food source, and the known breeds we have today are especially resilient to most diseases and ailments that affect many farm animals worldwide. However, that does not mean that you leave goat rearing to goats. Here are some easy but very effective goat raising tips you might want to try.
1. Decide early on as to what kind of goats you would want to raise. There are goats that are valued for their milk, meat and fibers; and there are those that are being groomed as pets. By knowing beforehand what kind of animals you want to take care of, you can limit your choices to milk producers, meat producers, wool producers or docile animals as pets. This is also a good way of limiting your expenses when it comes to buying goat rearing tools and machineries.
2. Decide exactly how many animals you would want in your farm; and this should be done in relation to the size of your land. A large enough area would ensure that overcrowding does not happen and that your goats have ample areas to graze and exercise. One more thing to remember though: goats are herd creatures. They do not thrive well in solitary existence. If your farm is very small, try to get at least a pair of goats to rear.
3. One way of ensuring that you have an easy time goat rearing is: to make sure that you choose and build the goats’ house or enclosure carefully. Try to choose a patch of land where they can graze on their own without worrying about the animals wandering unto the highway or meeting wild predators. Their housing or enclosure does not need to look downright fancy. But you do need to ensure that the space is properly ventilated (especially during warmer seasons,) properly heated (during colder seasons,) with a good drainage system (to help keep the area clear of animal wastes,) enough bedding space for each goat (about 4 meters of floor space each,) with separate feeding and watering stations (to help keep mold and fungus at bay.)
4. And lastly, goat rearing is not simply about feeding and letting the animals run wild for the rest of the day. The most productive farms are those that follow specific schedules. Aside from establishing a daily routine of feeding, watering, exercising and grazing the goats, there should also be a monthly (or bi-monthly, semi-annually or annually) schedule to follow too. This should include cleaning or grooming, dehorning, hair trimming, hoof trimming, and veterinary checkups.
