For the Love of Goats

New goat breeders frequently ask where and how they can sell their goat kids. When I started with goats in 2002, I bought goats from breeders who had websites, so I assumed I would also need a website for selling my goats. That has been the only sales channel for my goats forever. In this episode, Emily Nyman and I discuss what information you need on your website, such as an about page, health hi...

If you've ever thought about starting a business with your dairy goats , today's episode will give you a lot of valuable information. We are talking to PJ Jonas, founder of Goat Milk Stuff, which sells all sorts of products made from goat milk. Although they focus on soap and body care products today, they also sold cheese, yogurt, gelato, and caramels before the pandemic. PJ talks about...

Who wouldn't love free food for your goats? But before you call your local brewer or distiller and ask if you can pick up their spent grain, listen to this episode with Dr. Robert VanSaun, vet professor and ruminant nutritionist at Pennsylvania State University. Spent brewers grain and distillers grain are popular feed for cattle, but are less commonly used to feed goats. We've used brew...

If you've been looking for a smaller breed of goat that's parasite resistant, has excellent mothering skills, and comes in a variety of colors, the Arapawa goat from New Zealand might be a good fit, especially if you are interested in conserving rare breeds. In this episode, we are joined by Emily Nyman, Arapawa Goat Breeders Association President and Livestock Coordinator at Conner Prai...

Can goats threaten your health if you're a pregnant woman? If you are a woman, there are some specific precautions you should be taking with goats giving birth and also when using drugs for synchronization. Dr. Jamie Stewart, Assistant Professor at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and a reproductive specialist, is talking about zoonotic diseases that are of special concern...

If you've ever had a goat with wonky knees, today's episode will shed some light on the problem. When a goat has carpal hyperextension, it means that the knees bend backwards rather than being straight. We are joined today by Dr. Erica McKenzie, Professor of Large Animal Medicine, Oregon State University and Dr. Leah Streb, 3rd year Laboratory Animal Medicine Resident, UC Davis, who are...

Have you ever had a goat get an udder even though you are 100% sure she has not been anywhere close to a buck so could not possibly be pregnant? Normally, goats have to go through pregnancy and have a baby before they produce milk, but it's not impossible for a doe to start making milk without getting pregnant. A precocious udder is one that fills up with milk even though the doe has not been...

Milk testing can provide you with a plethora of information about your does' milk production and the components of their milk, and they can even earn milk stars, but a lot of people never get started because they find the process daunting.  Lisa Shepard, board member and former Performance Program Coordinator for the American Dairy Goat Association, joins us to talk about the different types...

Some of the most common questions I receive from new goat owners are on the topic of manure management. Many new goat owners think they need to clean out the barn weekly or even daily, so in this episode I'm talking about how our barn cleaning practices have evolved through the years. I am also joined by some of our Goats 365 Premium members so they can ask questions. We cover everything from...

If your farm plans are bigger than your budget and you're not even sure where to start, help is available. Your local USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service office can help you with technical assistance, cost-share programs, and grants. Joshua Hammond, a public affairs specialist with the NRCS, joins us in the podcast to discuss some of the projects the government agency can help y...

If you want to view everything we know about individual ADGA-registered dairy goats in one place, check out ADGA Genetics . It's the brainchild of Gene Dershewitz, who created the database and website. He also responds to questions from goat owners or wanna-be goat owners. Gene says that most people are simply using the site as a pedigree viewer, but it has so much more to offer. In addition...

What do you do when your doe gets bred but doesn't get pregnant? There are a number of reasons why this can happen, and Dr. Jamie Stewart, Assistant Professor in Production Management Medicine at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, joins us in this episode to discuss five of the possibilities. We are talking about the causes and treatments for cystic ovaries and false pregna...

Whether you are interested in finding buck service or renting out your bucks, you don't want to miss today's episode with Dr. Jamie Stewart, Assistant Professor in Production Management Medicine at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. Although it is important to be sure that all goats have tested negative for CAE , CL , and Johnes , that is only the beginning. Dr. Stewar...

Losing an animal to a predator is every goat owner's worst nightmare. When it does happen, you want to know who did it and stop them from doing it again. But figuring out whodunnit can often be a challenge. It this episode, we are talking to Gowan Batist, co-existence programs manager of the Mountain Lion Foundation. She is also a regenerative sheep rancher, hand-shearer, wool spinner, writer...

A couple of months ago, we had a Facebook post that elicited a lot of very passionate responses and also uncovered a lot of myths and misinformation about worms in goats. In today's episode we are talking about many of the comments that were made on that post and explaining what current research says specifically about goat worms, which are different from worms in other species like dogs, cat...

Rotational grazing is the key to parasite control. After all, if you limit infection of your goats, you limit the potential for them to become severely parasitized. But there is more to rotational grazing than simply dividing up your pasture by a magic number. Heather Glennon, Associate Professor of Animal Science at University of Mount Olive and goat owner, is talking about pasture management for...

New restrictions on over-the-counter antibiotics used in livestock will start in June 2023. Until now, anyone could walk into a farm store and buy penicillins, sulfa drugs, and other antibiotics without a prescription, but that's about to change. In this episode, we talk to Kevin D. Pelzer, DVM, MPVM, a Professor, Large Animal Clinical Sciences at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary M...

It can be scary for a goat owner to see something bulging from the vulva of a pregnant goat days or even weeks before the doe is due. In today's episode, we are talking to Dr. Jamie Stewart, Assistant Professor at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, about what causes vaginal prolapses, the different levels of vaginal prolapse in goats, when to use a prolapse retainer, and when t...

If you are raising goats for meat or other products, marketing is a big part of a successful business. In today's episode, we are talking to Leslie Svacina, owner of Cylon Rolling Acres, about what they do to market their goat meat. Luckily Leslie had a background in marketing before they started their goat farm. She gives you a timeline of how they got started selling live animals and delive...

Whenever a goat dies, we always want to know why. But the only way to know for sure is to get a necropsy, and that's what we're talking about in this episode. I was convinced of the importance of necropsies after owning goats for only five years when a seemingly healthy doe suddenly started screaming and was dead an hour later. Without the necropsy, we never would have known that she had...

All these years I thought we were just lucky to have never had a case of hoof rot in our goats, but in today's episode, I learned that luck has nothing to do with it. Dr. Kevin Pelzer, Professor of Production Management Medicine at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, talks about the bacteria that cause hoof rot and hoof scald in goats, how you know your goat has...

Although it is a fairly common practice for goat owners to treat anemic animals with Red Cell after deworming, there had not been any research on whether it was helpful — until now. Today's guest, Joan Burke, PhD, Research Animal Scientist at the USDA, ARS Dale Bumpers Small Farms Research Center, is one of the co-authors on a study that looked at whether using Red Cell could help an anemic g...

Almost everyone has a tetanus shot to protect us from a deadly disease that can be transmitted from an injury that breaks through the skin. Although some animals are not as susceptible to tetanus, such as dogs and cats, goats can get tetanus. Like humans, which have been protected by the vaccine since the first world war, goats can also be protected from tetanus by a vaccine . In this episode, whi...

Not only is a goat placenta very different from a human or horse placenta but how it functions is also different, as well as how it should be managed after birth. In this episode, we are talking to Dr. Jamie Stewart, Assistant Professor at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, about what the placenta does and how it functions in goats. Like all ruminant placentas, it is actually a...

If you only have a few does to breed each year, it might seem like a waste to own your buck. But even if you have a buck, who do you breed his daughters to? One option is artificial insemination , but another option is to co-own a buck. Although I had heard of two people co-owning a goat before, I had never heard of four until I met today's guests when we were recording last week's episo...