🐐Goats: raising and housing

Your goat depends on you every single day, rain or snow or 100 degrees. This page covers the daily routine, what to feed, how to keep your goat healthy, and how to build a pen and shelter that will actually hold a goat.

Tip: Have the pen finished before you bring your goat home. Goats are escape artists on day one.

The daily routine

Do the same things at the same times every day. Goats love a schedule and grow better on one.

Morning (before school)

1. Check that your goat is up, alert, and moving normally.
2. Dump, scrub, and refill the water bucket.
3. Feed the measured amount of pellets in the hanging feeder.
4. Give a small handful of hay.
5. Pick up manure and wet bedding.

Evening

1. Feed the second measured meal.
2. Check water again (goats drink more than you think in summer).
3. 15 minutes of training or exercise.
4. Look the goat over: eyes, nose, feet, poop.
5. Lock the pen with a carabiner or goat-proof latch.

Weekly

• Weigh your goat (a bathroom scale and a parent holding the goat works fine) and write it in your record book.
• Check hooves. Trim every 6–8 weeks.
• Deep-clean the shelter bedding.

Feeding

Feed your goat by weight, not by the scoop. Buy a cheap kitchen or feed scale.

Goat weight	Show pellet per day (16–18% protein)	Hay per day	Water
30–45 lb	about 1.5–2 lb, split in 2 meals	1 small handful	always full
45–65 lb	about 2–2.5 lb	1 small handful	always full
65–90 lb	about 2.5–3 lb	1 small handful	always full

These are starting points. Adjust based on how your goat looks and weighs.

What goes in the feeder

• Show goat pellet, 16–18% protein. Pick one brand and stick with it. Switching feeds upsets a goat’s stomach.
• A small amount of good hay. Alfalfa or a grass mix. A handful, not a whole flake. Too much hay makes a pot belly.
• Loose goat mineral with copper. Goats need copper. Sheep mineral does not have enough. Keep it in a small covered dish.
• Ammonium chloride. Most show goat feeds already include it. It keeps wethers from getting urinary stones. Check the bag label.
• Clean water, always. Scrub the bucket every day. A goat that stops drinking stops growing.

Adjusting gain

• Not gaining enough? Add a quarter pound of pellets per day for a week, then re-weigh.
• Getting fat and soft? Cut pellets slightly, add exercise, and never add extra hay to “fill him up.”
• Off feed? Take his temperature (normal is 101.5–103.5°F). Call a vet or an experienced leader if he skips two meals.

Heads up: Change feed amounts slowly, a little each day. A sudden big meal can cause bloat or a deadly gut infection.

Health basics

You’ll learn a lot of this in your YQCA class too. The main problems for show goats:

Problem	Signs	What to do
Bloat	Swollen left side, kicking at belly, grinding teeth	Emergency. Call a vet. Walk the goat.
Coccidiosis	Watery or bloody diarrhea, especially in young kids	Vet-recommended treatment; keep pens dry and clean
Urinary calculi (stones)	Wether straining to pee, crying, dribbling	Emergency. Vet now. Prevent with ammonium chloride and lots of water.
Worms	Pale gums/eyelids, bottle jaw, weight loss	Use the FAMACHA eyelid color check; deworm only when needed
Pneumonia	Cough, fever, fast breathing, snotty nose	Vet. Common after big temperature swings.
Heat stress	Panting, drooling, lying down in the sun	Shade, fans, cool water. Feed in the cool of the morning and evening.
Hoof problems	Limping, overgrown or curled hooves	Trim every 6–8 weeks; keep pens dry

Vaccines: Goats need a CD&T shot (protects against overeating disease and tetanus). Ask the breeder when it was given and when the booster is due.

Rule: Every drug and dewormer has a withdrawal time on the label. Because your goat becomes food after the sale, the USDA Wholesome Meat Act says you must follow it. Write down every treatment, dose, and date in your record book.

Building a goat pen for Navajo County

Our area (Holbrook, Snowflake, Taylor, Show Low) is high desert at 5,000–6,500 feet. That means your pen has to handle:

• Blazing sun in June, July, and August
• Strong wind all spring
• Cold nights into May and again in September
• Monsoon downpours in July and August
• Coyotes and loose dogs

How much space

• Pen: at least 10 × 10 feet per goat. Bigger is better. A 16 × 16 pen made from four 16-foot panels is a great size for two goats.
• Shelter: at least 4 × 6 feet per goat of covered, dry space.
• Exercise area: a separate run or a place you can walk the goat daily.

Fencing that holds a goat

Goats climb, squeeze, and test every gap. Use:

• Combo (sheep and goat) panels with 4-inch spacing near the bottom. Regular cattle panels have 6-inch gaps that kid goats slip through or get their heads stuck in.
• Height of 48 inches or more.
• No gaps at corners or under the panel. Wire the corners tight.
• A latch goats can’t open. Goats learn chains and simple hooks. Use a carabiner or a two-step latch. (You’ll need the carabiner at the fair anyway.)

Materials list: 16 × 16 panel pen with 3-sided shelter

Pen

• 4 combo panels, 16 ft × 48–52 in
• 8 to 10 T-posts (6 ft)
• T-post clips or heavy wire
• 1 gate (a 4-ft tube gate) or use a panel section with a carabiner
• T-post driver, fencing pliers, gloves

Shelter, 8 × 8 ft, 3-sided (lean-to)

• 4 posts: 4×4 treated, 8 ft (or steel pipe)
• 2×6 boards for headers and rafters (about 8 pieces, 8 ft)
• 3 sheets of 26-inch corrugated metal roofing, 10 ft long (gives overhang)
• Plywood, OSB, or metal siding for 3 walls (about 6 sheets 4×8)
• Roofing screws with rubber washers, 3-inch deck screws, joist hangers
• Concrete mix or gravel to set posts (2 bags per post)
• Optional: two 16-ft panels can form the walls instead of plywood, with a tarp only as a windbreak, never as a roof

Step by step

1. Pick the spot. On high ground so rain drains away. Open side of the shelter facing east or southeast so it blocks the west wind and afternoon sun.
2. Set the pen posts. Drive T-posts every 8 feet (one at each panel end and one in the middle). Panels go on the inside of the posts so a leaning goat pushes against the post, not the clip.
3. Hang the panels. Clip or wire every panel to every post at the top, middle, and bottom. Wire the corners tight with no gap.
4. Set shelter posts. Dig 24-inch holes for four posts in an 8 × 8 square inside the pen. Make the back posts 6 ft tall above ground and the front posts 7 ft so the roof slopes to the back.
5. Frame the roof. Screw 2×6 headers across the front and back posts, then run rafters front-to-back every 2 feet.
6. Screw down metal roofing. Overlap each sheet one rib. Let it overhang 1 foot in the back so rain drips outside the pen.
7. Close three walls. Back and two sides, leaving the tall side open. Screw siding to the posts. Goats chew, so no exposed foam or loose tarps.
8. Add the floor. Pack 3–4 inches of gravel or decomposed granite, then bed with straw or pine shavings. Never let bedding stay wet.
9. Hang the feeder on the panel at goat chest height. Put the water bucket in a tire or hang it so it can’t get tipped or pooped in.
10. Goat-proof everything. Walk the pen looking for gaps, sharp wire ends, and anything a goat could stand on to jump out.

Tip: Get a parent to help with post holes and roofing. Anything with a ladder or a saw is a grown-up job, and you can put the build in your record book as a project expense and a learning experience.

Predator-proofing

• Coyotes and stray dogs are the biggest danger to a small goat. A night pen inside the main pen with a solid roof and 5-foot panels is the best protection.
• A motion light helps.
• A livestock guardian dog or even a family dog near the pen makes a big difference.
• Never leave a goat tied out unattended.

Feeders and water

• Hanging fence feeder for pellets. Goats poop in ground feeders and won’t eat dirty feed.
• Hay rack or a small hanging bag for hay.
• Covered mineral feeder.
• A 5-gallon bucket in a tire, or a small automatic waterer if you have a hose nearby. In winter, break ice morning and night.

At the fair the new goat and lamb barn pens don’t have built-in feeder hooks. You’ll need a piece of pig or cattle panel cut to fit, plus zip ties or wire, to hang your feeder on. Practice hanging it at home.

Exercise builds muscle

A goat that stands around gets fat. A goat that moves gets muscle, and judges love muscle.

• Walk your goat 10–15 minutes a day on the collar. This doubles as show training.
• Jumping platform. A sturdy 18–24 inch box or stack of pallets in the pen. Goats will hop on and off it all day.
• Climbing rocks or a big log.
• Two weeks before fair, add a few short runs to firm up the leg.

Keep records as you go

Write down every bag of feed, every shot, every weight, and every dollar. Your record book in ZSuite is a lot easier if you write things down weekly instead of trying to remember in September.

Next steps

• Goats: learning to show
• Fair week: what to expect
• Packing list for the fair