Starting Herd Size

[username taken]

Just teasing.

Seriously though, what kind of parasite problems do you have with 40 goats/sheep on 1 acre?

No much surprisingly, as Kate said.

Three key things:

- I'm in a very dry area, not much rain = not many parasites
- Basically no pasture, so goats are all hand fed hay and grain - they dont therefore pick up any eggs
- Good parasite management - strategic drenching and pen rotation and spelling is critical

 

[Aped]

Well my main concern with linebreeding/inbreeding is that I did buy my own buck. I still not not have does yet but I had to travel quite a way to get that buck and I will be traveling quite a way to get some does. So borrowing a buck from someone isn't really reasonable for me but I'd prefer not to have to many of them. I figured if I had 3 does and 1 buck I could make it quite a while before I was even linebreeding. Maybe if I could get some bred does fro mgood stock, that might help as well.

As for how much space I have and how many goats I can put on it, it really is a space issue and not a cost issue. I know you can keep a lot of goats in a small space but I just want it to be healthy for them.

And just as an aside, bucks aren't that bad! haha I've been researching goats for quite a while and bucks are made out to be the devil! Well I guess goats do have some sort of association with the devil but they really aren't so bad. Yeah they smell but to me they smell like goat cheese aka one of the main reasons I want goats. Some people like that smell some don't. I believe i am used to it because most of the hard goat cheese I've ever had comes from my family in Italy and they aren't so strict about keeping bucks and does apart. And some people don't like their behavior and pushiness esp during rut. They're just a little more passionate than the does!