Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 3: Selecting goats
• Part 2 of 3: Creating a fence
• Part 3 of 3: Grooming goats
• Tips
• Warnings
• Necessities

Raising goats can be a lucrative and fun farming experience if you are well prepared. In this article, you will learn more about the reasons for raising goats and the considerations you need to make for starting a goat farm.

To step

Part 1 of 3: Selecting goats

1. Check the rules for keeping goats. You can't just keep the animals everywhere, especially if you live in an urban area. In addition, goats must be registered in the Netherlands. Get well informed about this at, for example, the municipality. If you live in a rented house, check whether your landlord agrees with keeping the goats.
   • Choose whether you want to breed or keep goats and whether you want to use them commercially or for private purposes. It is possible that the rules are different per category.
2. Have at least two goats. Goats are social animals and are more likely to be a nuisance and try to escape if kept alone. Therefore always keep at least two goats per fenced area. Uncastrated males (bucks) cannot be kept in an area with females (goats). You will therefore likely need to purchase more than two goats to keep both males and females from getting lonely. Read on below for tips on which goat sex to choose.
3. Determine how many male goats and how many female goats you want to purchase. There are three types of goats in terms of sex: females (goats or goatee), uncastrated males (bucks) and castrated males (wethers). Goats must be pregnant to produce milk, but keeping a goat can be quite a bit of extra work. You need a separate fence for a goat. The animals also have a stronger odor and are often aggressive. To avoid this kind of problem, the best thing to do is to buy two goats and pay another goat farm to use one of their bucks.
   • Neutered males, or wethers, cannot be used for breeding or milk. They are often purchased as animals for a petting zoo. Many goat farms have males neutered if there are too many goats, after which they are sold to other farms.
   • If you do want to buy a buck, consider spending some extra money to get the correct papers so that you can breed the animal. You can also read from these papers whether your buck is healthy.
4. Think about the approximate age of your goats. 8 week old lambs are generally cheaper than older goats. In addition, they are often kinder to people. When they are about 2 years old, goats can be used for breeding, for the sale of meat or for the production of milk. You can also buy a young goat between 6 months and a year old. As a result, you will have to wait less long before the goat can be used for different purposes. An adult goat may be the cheapest option when it comes to care. However, beware of goat farms trying to sell their lactating goats for a pittance. There is often a catch here.
5. Choose a goat breed. Some breeds are better suited to milk production, such as the East African dwarf goat, the La Mancha or Alpine goats. Others are often bought for their meat, such as Spanish goats. Finally, Angora or Cashmere goats, for example, are very suitable for coat cultivation. Find out which breeds are kept in your area, how big each breed grows, and what the character of each breed is. For example, some goats are more docile than others, some goats have a strong odor and some goats have regular health problems.
   • Before making a decision, it is also best to inquire about dairy goats, goats for slaughter and goats' fur. If you'd rather leave the slaughter of goats to others, you may be able to find out if there are any slaughterhouses nearby that can do the job for you.
6. Make a cost overview. How much it costs to keep a goat depends on many aspects. For example, the costs may differ per region and the income you have from, for example, selling furs may also fluctuate. If you want to start a goat farm for commercial reasons, make sure you understand the costs and benefits involved. Try to talk to different goat farmers to get a picture of the costs involved in keeping goats. If you don't have enough budget for keeping goats, you can consider buying fewer goats or choosing a different breed. Keep in mind that a goat farm often doesn't make a profit in the first two years, especially if you buy kids or have to invest in fencing and the like.
   • How much does it cost to keep a young goat for a year? Try to find concrete figures about this, preferably specific for the breed you have in mind.
   • If you want to keep goats for their milk, ask yourself how much milk one goatee produces. And how much does the milk yield?
   • If you keep goats for their meat, find out how much a slaughtered goat yields. And do they yield more in certain periods, for example around Islamic holidays, Christmas or Easter?
   • How much buffer do you need for unexpected costs such as fence repairs or vet visits? Does a sick goat cause you a lot of financial problems?

Part 2 of 3: Creating a fence

1. Build a sturdy fence. Goats are true escape experts and like to crawl through small holes or climb over fences. Therefore, provide sturdy fences of at least one and a half meters high that are difficult to climb. If you keep both goats and goatees, it is wise to build two fences so that you can separate the animals. This way you can ensure that your bucks cannot reach the goats while they are fertile, in other words: you prevent unplanned pregnancies.
   • Do not keep goats of different sizes together, unless they are a mother and her lambs.
   • Bucks can become very aggressive when kept near fertile females. All the more reason to separate males and females.
2. Build a goat house. In winter and when it rains, your goats need shelter. A small shed is very suitable for this. Goat breeds with a thicker coat will be able to withstand colder temperatures better, but check with an experienced goat keeper first. If you live in a mild climate, a shed can be enough, while goats need a closed shed in a cold winter. Do let the goats outside during the day.
   • Goats hate puddles and rainy weather. The climate in the Netherlands is therefore a true nightmare for goats. Do your goats a favor by creating plenty of indoor space.
3. Remove poisonous plants and shrubs with a strong odor. Goats chew on almost anything, so you have to be careful with plants that goats cannot tolerate. Plants with a strong odor can also influence the taste of the goat's milk. Onions, cabbage and parsley, for example, create a strange milky taste.
4. Purchase the necessary tools. When you start a goat farm, you will have to invest in several things. Consider, for example, food bowls, water buckets and food. Compare different foods so that your goats get all the nutrients they need. This way you prevent health problems. An experienced goat keeper or veterinarian can probably provide you with many nutritional tips.

Part 3 of 3: Grooming goats

1. Remove the horns from young goats. Most goat breeds have horns with which they can seriously injure both humans and their ilk. Wait until lambs are two weeks old and then remove the horns. This can hurt the goat and so it is best to have an expert assist you. Ask an experienced goat keeper or vet to assist you in this so that your goats can be anesthetized and the removal causes the animal as little pain as possible.
   • If you can move the skin on a goat's forehead easily, it is probably polled. You will not have to remove horns.
2. Spay most young males. Even if you are breeding goats, you only need one buck for every 25 goats. Young goats that are not intended for breeding can be neutered if they are healthy and older than two weeks. Have a vet vaccinate them against tetanus first and then have the neutering performed.
   • Bucks develop large testicles and a castrated goat looks no different from a fertile goat.
3. Breed with your goatee. If you want your goats to reproduce or produce milk, you will need to have them covered by a goat at an appropriate age. Once a goat is fertile, you can separate it from the herd and bring it together with a goat. Two to four matings are usually enough to guarantee pregnancy. A normal pregnancy lasts about 150 days, but this can vary by breed.
4. Milk your goats daily. Goatee can be milked during pregnancy as soon as their udder is swollen. Milk the goat once or twice a day until about two months before birth. This way you ensure that the mother has enough milk for her lamb. After birth, you can resume milking until the lamb is six weeks old. You do not need to cover the goatee again until milk production declines.
5. In case of major problems, call in experts. Know who to call if one of your goats gets sick or escapes. If there are no other goat farmers or veterinarians in your area, you can try looking online to find out which symptoms indicate which diseases and how to spot diseases in goats.
6. Research who you can sell your products to. Whether you sell meat, fur, dairy products or lambs, you will have to find buyers for this. If you have a small goat farm, you may be able to sell your products in your immediate vicinity. However, if you work on a larger scale, you can offer products online or sell them to stores that then offer your products to their customers.
   • Consider opening your farm to visitors. You can optionally charge people to pet or feed friendly goats.

Tips

• Disinfect all your milking equipment and keep your milking area as clean as possible. This is very important for the taste of the milk.
• Regularly check that your fence has no holes. Goats can squeeze through the smallest openings and especially the lambs escape easily.
• Feel free to become attached to the goats you keep, but avoid connecting with goats meant for slaughter. This can make slaughter more difficult.
• Bucks often urinate on their own legs or faces during the breeding season. If you notice that an animal smells bad or that something is sticking to its coat, this is probably the cause. Do not worry about this behavior; it might be annoying, but completely normal.

Warnings

• You will have to invest time in your goat farm every day. If you want to go on vacation, you will also need to hire an experienced farmer to fill in for you.
• Avoid using thin wires or barbed wire for your fence. Mesh and chains are a lot stronger, although you have to be careful that the goat cannot escape easily.

Necessities

• Goats
• Fence
• Separate sheds for goats and goats
• Enter
• Veterinarian