Bringing goats home

[pnptrapp]

What age of goats do you typically suggest people purchase to start the herd? I am wanting working goats, for hiking, pulling/driving, so I wouldn't need to be milking or breeding right away, if ever.

Thanks for the help!

 

[OneFineAcre]

Young ones will be easier to train
Our first 3 were 12 weeks and 8 weeks old
If you got ones between 3 and 6 months old would probably be best

 

[Goatgirl47]

If you want to bond with them better and train them easier I would suggest getting them young, maybe four or five months?
I got mine when they were three and five months old.

 

[pnptrapp]

Thanks! I was thinking younger is better, but wasn't sure. Also, how old before they start learning to pull/ drive?

 

[Goatgirl47]

Thanks! I was thinking younger is better, but wasn't sure. Also, how old before they start learning to pull/ drive?

I have never had working goats, but in a goat book that I have it says that 'goats shouldn't carry significant weight (up to 25 percent of their body weight) until they're at least three years old.' And it also says that 'some folks use lightly loaded soft packs on yearlings and fit 2-year-olds with regular packing gear that holds 10 to 15 percent of the goats weight.'

Just in case your are wondering, the book is called The Backyard Goat.

Are you going to get bucks, does or wethers? Wether's would be best.

 

[babsbag]

My friends with pack goats only buy bottle babies.

 

[pnptrapp]

Thanks I'll have to look up that book.

I'd love to do bottle babies but I won't have the time to actually feed them. I think I'll have to stick with weened babies.

 

[Ferguson K]

If you're worried about bonding start young. However, if you want to jump in guns loaded go for older trained goats.

 

[Ferguson K]

To add to this: older, trained goats will cost a little more but it may be easier. They know the job, or at least, have been handled enough they'll be easier to train down the road.

Young goats are like children. They know nothing. You essentially have to take it slowly.

 

[babsbag]

I didn't mean that you had to be the one to raise them, I meant that they had been raised on a bottle. I have about 40 goats on my farm right now and only 7 were bottle raised, (none by me). They are the sweetest, easiest, friendliest goats in the herd.