1. Do not purchase goats or sheep from a sale barn or from people who buy from a sale barn. Many goats and sheep pass through sale barns who are sick and can pass their diseases on to other animals being sold.
2. Purchase from breeders who manage similar to your desired management. Extra feed can make a bad goat look good and vice versa.
3. Start off with low numbers with inexpensive goats and sheep from reputable breeders. Small ruminants are not easy to raise. Starting off with low numbers will decrease your economic risk.
4. Kids and lambs do not like cold and wet conditions. Make sure they have adequate shelter and avoid kidding or lambing during months of the year that tend to be cold and wet. If you do kid or lamb in poor weather, make sure you have a kidding barn.
5. Cull. You should not keep goats or sheep who do not reproduce, get sick or have to be dewormed often. Also, cull goats who annoy you or otherwise cause you excessive grief.
6. Determine what your average animal is and cull anything below your average. Your goal should not be in raising “average” animals. Keep animals who raise offspring with little or no assistance, are free of parasites and are structurally sound.
7. Find a good large animal veterinarian and work out a health management plan with them. Offer to pay them for their time even it if it is simply to answer a question.
8. Goats and sheep should not be fat. If they have considerable fat over their ribs, they are too fat. Fat pregnant does will have a greater chance of dystocia or ketosis. If they jiggle in the middle, put them on a diet.
9. Rotate pastures to help decrease parasite problems and keep forage fresh and in the vegetative state. Also, find out how to use FAMACHA© to help you select parasite resistant goats and sheep. FAMACHA© provides a tool to identify anemic animals, and their level of anemia, thus reducing the number of dewormer treatments given, while also maintaining good overall parasite control.
10. Purchase a good buck or ram. Bucks should excel in muscle and structural correctness for their breed but should also be easy keepers and not require excessive management to keep them healthy.
11. Consider crossbreeding. Hybrid vigor will increase desirable traits and decrease undesirable traits. Good goat crosses include Boer X Spanish, Kiko X Boer, milk type X meat type, etc. The greater the differences in genetics between the breeds, the better.
12. Purchase a good guard animal. Examples of guard animals include dogs, donkeys, and llamas. Dogs tend to roam, but so do small ruminants, so they may be perfect as a guard animal. Donkeys and llamas work well, but may not be able to follow your animals to all pastures — yours or your neighbors.
Dr. Beth Walker is an Assistant Professor of Animal Science at Missouri State University.
