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Kids: Coccidia

Coccidia are a protozoan internal parasite, that most goats have, in small numbers. In adults, this is generally not a problem, but if kids get an overload of coccidia, it can cause diarrhea, intestinal scarring, and ultimately death, if not treated.  The first line of prevention for coccidia in kids is to keep their areas clean. This may seem like an unreasonable expectation--it's a barn, for all love--but what this means is essentially making sure the kids have minimal access to poop--they pick up coccidia from mouthing poop, soiled straw, etc. This can mean cleaning out the pen every day, or it can mean adding a new layer of straw once or twice a day, or even both. A good criteria (picked up from Deborah at the Thrifty Homesteader) is that you should be willing to sit down in the stall. Then, it's clean enough for kids. If you're not willing to sit down (while wearing "barn" pants. Not wearing a fancy dress, for instance) it's not clean enough for kids.  In...
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Goat Evaluation

So, how exactly do we decide which goats are the best? This is important if we wind up with too many goats (like we did with Dora, Cassie, Misty and Cammi), or when deciding which kids to keep. Obviously, this is an individualistic question, and each farm will have a different answer. But here are some basic criteria to have in mind when thinking about which goats to breed and which to keep. 

  1. Temperament. This is a biggie. If the goat is a huge brat (like Misty), or really loud (like Misty), or bad on the milk stand (like Misty), you might want to think about getting rid of her. This can be overridden by overwhelming excellence in the other categories, but you still might want to try to move towards keeping one of her kids (as we did). 

  2. Voice. This goes along with #1, but if a goat has an extremely annoying bleat (like Misty), perhaps she wasn't meant to be a city goat. 

  3. Ease of milking. If a goat's udder is ridiculously hard to milk (like Misty's), she is not a good homestead milker, and her presence is not working towards our goals.

  4. Conformation. Also a biggie. This is a little harder to evaluate on your own--keep in mind, our goal is to create excellent goats, by the ADGA's evaluation. So, the best way to evaluate a goat's conformation is through LA. But if a kid is too young to have LAed, take a good look at her topline (should be fairly level), rump (should be level and wide), legs (should look...normal), and dairyness (she should be rather 'dainty', and not coarse, especially around the shoulders). We can talk more about this when it comes time for the LA post. Another way to evaluate conformation is to average the goat's mother's and father's scores in each category, to get an idea of where she probably falls. Keep in mind, LA scores generally improve as a goat ages. 

  5. Height. If a goat is over height, she probably shouldn't be part of our program, since our goal is goats that conform to the breed standard. This can be overridden in some cases--there are some farms that use over height bucks. 

  6. Heat obviousness. It's great if a goat has really obvious heats, since it makes driveway breeding really easy. A doe who doesn't seem to ever come into heat, or has "silent heats" should probably be reconsidered. On the flip side, though, one doesn't want a goat who is obscenely loud when in heat, either. 

  7. Milk production. The more milk the better! 

  8. Kid production. Goats who have more kids can be either an asset or a liability, depending on how well they can feed all their kids. Having to bottle feed 2+ kids per year is no one's idea of a good time. 

  9. Use of feed. If two goats eat the same (or similar) amount, and one of them is better conditioned, consider concentrated on the goat which is better conditioned, or more "thrifty"--can use less food for more production.

  10. Parasite resistance. This is also possibly hard to figure out for our goats, but for kids, if some have persistent problems with coccidiosis (which we hope doesn't happen, because we'll keep the kidding pen clean!), and one doesn't, it's possible the one is naturally resistant, which is a good thing. The same thing applies with adult goats, only, it's harder to see in a small herd. 
Of course, you are welcome to contact me for advice, Legolas! 

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