Transportation

Transportation

If you are raising goats you will eventually have a need to move them further than you care to herd them. For large quantities of goats a trailer will be necessary, however, smaller numbers can easily be transported in the bed of a pickup.

To prevent the goats from jumping out you can use either a goat tote or a topper. A goat tote is basically a cage made with a galvanized pipe frame and 4″ welded wire mesh top and sides.

During cold and/or wet weather the goat tote can be covered with canvas or nylon to keep the wind and rain out.

Feeders

Unless you live in an area where adequate forage is available year round and you are not overstocked, you will need to feed your goats during a portion of each year. You may also need to provide a mineral supplement to them.

Good feeders are a necessity to maximize the utilization of the feed and mineral you provide. A good feeder should keep the feed clean and dry until the goats eat it. This requires that the feeder be placed in a building or that it come equipped with a cover.

The biggest source of feed contamination is the goats themselves. A good feeder is designed in a way that prevents the goats from climbing in it or pawing the food out of it.

Water Troughs

All goats need a source of clean water. If you don’t have a lake or other body of water that is available year round, then you will need some sort of water trough. I use 55 gallon black plastic troughs with float valves to keep them full.

Algae growth and mosquitoes can be a problem in water troughs. Use both chlorine bleach and copper products (the type they use to control algae growth in lakes) to prevent this problem. If you use these products make sure they are safe for human or animal consumption, and be careful not to add so much that you harm your goats. The copper products can also be helpful if you are in a copper deficient area.

Fences

If you can make the place water-tight you should be able to keep your goats in. Actually, I haven’t found it that difficult to keep goats in under typical commercial conditions. If you are not overstocked/overcrowded goats are usually pretty respectful of a fence. You run into problems when the stuff on the other side of the fence looks better to eat than what you have on your side of the fence.

The bigger problem is keeping them from getting stuck in the fence so you don’t have to spend your entire life removing goats from the fence. I have found a hot wire run about a foot to 18 inches off the ground 8-12 inches inside the fence to be effective in keeping the goats from sticking their head through the fence or rubbing on the fence.