What is your goat raising style?

[Gatorpupsmom]

We got our first milk goat in December. She came from a dairy and was bottle fed, very much hands on raised, despite the fact that she came from a very large herd of goats. She is very much a people oriented goat, and yeah, sometimes a bit of a pest. When she had her babies in March, she wanted my husband there with her. Okay, that may sound strange to say that.....how would I possibly know that she wanted him with her? Because when she went into labor she kept opening the gate and coming to the front door to get him. Yes, that's true!!!! She didn't want the other goat around, and she didn't really want me....she was raised by a man and she wanted one out there with her. We literally started handling her babies the minute they were born, and did a combination of bottle feeding and mama nursing them. When she only had bucks, we went ahead and purchased another newborn doe from the same dairy, and we bottle fed her and she nursed off the doe that had babies. She was also handled from the minute she was born, so she is very much a people oriented goat.

When our second doe had her baby 2 weeks ago, even though we aren't bottle feeding, we have been hands on with her since she hit the ground. She is just as friendly as the babies we have bottle fed, and comes to crawl up in our laps when we sit outside with our girls in the evenings.

In contrast, my father in law has had milk goats for ten years now. He doesn't handle his goats any where close to the way we handle ours. In fact, he prefers to not handle them as babies, and then later gentle them down, much the same way one would gentle a yearling colt. One of the does we have now we got from him, and although we have had her since December, she is still wild as she can be. He came the other day and caught her, and he did get her to leading a bit with some patience and gentle guidance. His goats do end up being gentle enough to get on the stand to be milked, but they don't seem to enjoy being around humans like our goats do.

On the other hand, his goats aren't pestering the hound out of him when he is outside working in the goat yard, like our girls are. His goats aren't demanding of attention like our girls are. I can see that some people would see this as an advantage.

I will always be very much hands on with my goats, I guess we just enjoy being "bossed around" by our caprines. I am not being critical of his goat style, I am just wondering about how the rest of the goat world does it. I have read enough posts here to know that most of you are indeed very hands on with your goats, but I am just curious. What is your goat handling style, and do you know of many other goat people who prefer that their goats aren't "lap goats" like my FIL prefers?

Kim

 

[Madabout]

I tend to handle the babies as little as possible for the first few days so that they bond with the mum then get them used to being handled via stroking and scratching-not a lot but just enough that they associate me as being pleasant to be around. Adults that have come in have tended to be a bit distant for my liking so I spend time scratching faces and simply being with them in the field. Nice food is also a big part of it

My lot are happy to be around me but not dependant on me. I think if you have more than a couple it's kind of essential or you get mugged and 12 goats coming at you would be a bit much However I'm lucky in that they trust me and allow me to do what I need to. One of them used to come up and give me cuddles if I was upset I've never seen anyone else's interaction with their herd though so I've no idea if I do more or less than others!

 

[username taken]

I have a mixture of both in my herd - people orientated goats (both bottle raised and dam raised) as well as some that are more aloof.

I can see both sides of the situation - the people orientated ones can be horribly annoying at times, they tend to yell more and louder, and they also tend to get out more and break more things.

On the flip side however, to handle the other ones I have to corner them in the yard, which is not that huge a deal but it certainly is more work than the others who I just walk right up to, snap the collar on them and work right there and then.

But then again sometimes those pets throw more of a tantrum than the aloof ones ...

lol I guess I'm sitting on the fence in this debate!

 

[nightshade]

I prefer "lap goats" as you call them. All of ours are very sweet and follow you around when they are at as well as coming when called by name or when you haler "here goaties". Some of ours though are defiantly need more attention then others. Some of which can be a pain when you just want to sit there and watch them munch and play with out them being on our lap. But other days turning around after getting up to get a drink and seeing a goat in your chair trying to go to sleep quick is just the laugh you need. I do have others though that even though friendly and come when called are not as my mom puts it up your butt all the time. Some of it I think is just their own little personalities.

We plan to leave our little ones with their moms for awhile and then pull them off and finish bottle feeding them because every one I have talked to has told me this makes them friendlier. But I have though about may be just leaving them with their mom's since all of which are so darn "up your butt" anyway and just spending alot of time with them and handling them and seeing if that produces the same results.

 

[Roll farms]

Rather have my 35 or so "pesty" underfoot (but easy to get to) goats, than 1-2 that I have to chase all over creation when I need to trim / treat 'em.

Today we're going to be catching the 'fat chicks'...3 boer does who weren't bottle raised and are wild as March hares. We always dread dealing w/ these 3 and will be selling them once they kid this year, keeping doelings and bottle raising them.

They're my best boer does, but I am over having my shoulder dislocated from being dragged around by a doe twice my size and I hate trying to catch them when it's 100 dg out.

Something to keep in mind....it's harder to get a dam-started kid to bottle feed (not impossible, just more difficult) and the kids AND moms cry more if they've met, then get seperated.

We pull the kids at birth and usually w/in 24 hrs the Moms have hushed and kids never know any different, so don't make a fuss.

 

[haviris]

I handle kids right away, I do a compo of bottle raising and dam raising. It makes the kids really friendly and makes weaning and selling so much more pleasant. Since the majority of my bucklings sell as pet wethers I like them to be extra friendly.

Hoof trimming and worming, etc, is a big enough chore with friendly goats, I do not like spending an extra couple of hours chasing goats.

I've bought goats that were not to friendly, some tame down and become just as "pesty" as my home grown babies, and others are always less friendly. Some of my does want me there, some don't care, and I've only had one that didn't want me there.

I generally find new homes for the less friendly ones, I have two right now that will be on my sale list. They'd be there now if they weren't such good milkers. I want to get some daughters before sending them on. One I just got this year, she has gotten use to the routine and is generally up to be milked, she may get better and I may change my mind, but I doubt it, she comes right up and will eat out of your hand, but she is very good at avoiding capture, even wearing a collar. The other one I got at 10 weeks, you'd think she would have been easy to tame, but even at 2 years she's a pain if I need to do anything to her (other then milking, she's usually there for that).

 

[Chaty]

Well I dont keep goats that I have to chase anymore as with my age its getting harder to catch them...I love mine and some are aloof at times but still will come up for a scratch sometimes. I bottle raise my milkers and with some of my Nigis I let dam raise as the teat size makes the decision. I am slowly getting my Nigi herd down and going to larger type milking goats. Easier on the back and easier to lead. My girls love going for walks and will come when called. Yes they are under foot when trying to do thing outside but after a bit they move on to something more interesting than what I am doing.
I have had some that you have to chase down just to trim the feet...not anymore ...my bones hurt as now with me hitting 51 this yr just dont do it anymore...
Sometimes even if you bottle raise they can be skittish and not tame down much...just genetics...
Also they are great therapy..

 

[cmjust0]

We had six kids born on the same day to two first-freshening dams last spring.. The boer took really good care of her three boer/nubi crosses, but the nubian didn't know what to do and we ended up losing one of them the first night.. We ended up milking the nubian dam and bottle raising the two survivors. They spent...jeez...a long time with us in the house.

We spent a ton of time with all the kids pretty much from the minute they came long, and today, I'd defy anybody to tell me which were bottle raised and which weren't... They're all velcro goats who would still happily climb in your lap at well over 100lbs each.

Lots of the dairy goat books tell you that you MUST bottle raise in order to have sweet kids and save yourself a lot of consternation later, but frankly, I think that's just an absurd rationalization to allow the human to feel OK about seperating mamas and babies in order to get first crack at all that milk.

We don't plan to bottle raise anything unless it's absolutely necessary.. When the nubian doe kids out come spring, I'll tie her nose to a pole and put a hobble on her if necessary, but she WILL nurse her kids this time.

And they'll still be sweet.

 

[angelib1]

I am sure i'm the wrong person to be answering this post. When I had my little farm, people would come to the house and be horrified to find a calf in the bathtub, baby goats in playpens, week old chicks in a kiddy pool, house bunnys, cats, dogs and a pygmy goat named tom thumb sitting in a chair beside #2 son doing school work. Obviously the goats job was to eat the school work when #2 son didn't want to do it quite a team.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

oh geez.... i'm definitely NOT the lap goat kind. remember i'm the confirmed 'goat LIKER' not lover. generally we dont snuggle the livestock but they are socialized enough to come when called, we can work with them, and for the most part they are nice and quiet

but

i will confess that my non-snuggling policy went directly out the window this morning!

one of my hens has just one chick - who she walked off and left to scream like bloody murder. so i went over and found the chick and plopped her on my lap while i was milking the goats! she sang quietly to herself and everyone was happy.

but thats it. really. no goats in lap. but that little mocha sure is cute and i'm sure her babies are going to be cute.... maybe just ONE little snuggle.........

;-)