GoatProj

School Science Lessons
Goat Project
Updated: 2009-04-11
Please send comments to: J.Elfick@uq.edu.au
See: Interesting websites
See: Calculate the gross margin for sheep, goat and cattle enterprises, Queensland Department of Agriculture (website)

Table of contents
1.0 Advantages and disadvantages of keeping goats
2.0 Parts of a goat
3.0 Different ways of keeping goats
4.0 Breeds of goats
5.0 Planning the goat project
6.0 Rearing a kid
7.0 Building a house and making a fence
8.0 Planning to buy adult goats
9.0 When the goats arrive
10.0 Behaviour of goats
11.0 Caring for goats
12.0 Feeding goats
13.0 Breeding goats
14.0 Diseases of goats
15.0 Milking goats
16.0 Post-mortem, digestive organs
17.0 Reproductive organs
18.0 Understanding the records

Preface
Goats, Bovidae capra, are quite useful animals because they can produce meat and milk for the people to eat and drink. It has been said that goats are bad animals to keep because they eat the leaves of shrubs and young trees as well as grass, and can be very destructive. However, if they are managed properly they are not so damaging. For instance on some of the atolls, goats have been released on only one of the small islands around the lagoon. They cannot escape from this islet, and so they cannot damage the other islets. On large islands it may be possible to build a fence around a goat pasture, then they cannot escape and run away into the hills. However, it must be remembered that goats can live quite well by themselves in the wild state. Most of the world's goats are found in India, China and East Africa, but large numbers are also found in Turkey, Lebanon, Greece, Iran and Brazil. In the Pacific islands, goats have done well in Fiji and some of the other high islands. It has been shown that they can also live well in Kiribati. Pure bred goats of the European milking breeds are not recommended for tropical regions. because they have a high mortality from diseases. Male goats are called "billy goats" or bucks and the females are called does. New born young goats are called kids. It takes five months from the time a doe is mated to kidding. It takes three months from kidding to weaning when the young kids are taken from their mothers and fed on grass.

1.0 Advantages and disadvantages of keeping goats
1. Advantages of keeping goats
1.1. Adaptability
Goats can adapt or adjust themselves to different situations. They can live and gather food from cold windy mountains or from hot dusty deserts where few plants grow. They can live quite well on all kinds of Pacific islands. They do not like to be wet and cold, but if they are given a good dry house, they can live in these climates.
1.2 Sure-footedness
Goats can walk quite well on land that is far too steep or rocky for other kinds of farm animals. This means that they can gather food
from places which other farm animals may not be able to visit.
1.3 Browsing
Goats are able to eat grass quite well, but they can also eat the leaves of most kinds of bushes, trees and shrubs. They can also eat plants like thistles, giant mimosa and briars which have sharp thorns or prickles. Goats have very tough mouths, even young goats can eat prickly plants quite easily. Goats can make use of food that other animals may not touch. It is this ability to eat almost any plant that has given goats a bad name, because if food is scarce, they may strip leaves from bushes and young trees. However, if they are carefully managed, this severe damage should not happen. Do they think goats might be a threat to the land? Do they think there would be enough green feed for the goats where you live?
1.4 Diseases
Goats do not seem to catch many diseases and they do not have many pests. So they are tough animals that do not cause much trouble in keeping them. The main trouble is that they may get a lot of worms growing in their intestines, but this trouble can be stopped by using some worm medicine for the goats to swallow, such as Nilverm.
1.5 Provide good food
Goats are able to provide the people with two kinds of valuable food meat and milk. Goat milk is very good for children because it does
not contain disease germs. The meat is also good and is just like sheep meat.
2. Disadvantages of keeping goats
2.1 Goats need a very large amount of food each day. They need much more food than a sheep needs, and more food than cows on a body weight comparison. This is a problem on small islands. Also, goats need to find a lot of protein, so they must be able to find some legumes or other food rich in protein.
2.2 Goats will eat almost any kind of green feed. So if young trees have been planted, they will be eaten by the goats unless they are protected in some way. Also goats may strip many leaves from slow growing shrubs. Unless they are fenced out, they will also eat all kinds of green vegetables in a garden.
2.3 If goats are not fenced in or kept in such away that they can be brought back to their house at night, they may escape and live in the wild state. Then it may be very hard to get them back because they can run very fast and can easily run over very rough ground.
3. In your region or island do they think there would be enough green feed for the goats?
Male goats are called "billy goats" or bucks and the females are called does. Newly born young goats are called kids. It takes five months from the time
a doe is mated to kidding. It takes three months from kidding to weaning when the young kids are taken from their mothers and fed on grass.

2.0 Parts of a goat
See diagram 57.2: Parts of a goat, musk glands
The head: The dark pupil of the eyes is extended sideways. The mouth contains grinding teeth or molars at the back of both jaws, but at the front of the mouth the sharp incisor teeth are in the lower jaw only. There is a hard pad at the front of the upper jaw. The goat grasps leaves between the teeth in the lower jaw and the hard pad on the upper jaw and tears off leaves by a sharp movement of its head. The breathing nostrils are just above the mouth. On the chin just underneath the mouth there is a tuft of hairs called the beard, but some goats do not have this.
At the back of the lower jaw, some goats have two pieces of skin hanging down. These are called tassels or "bells". Nobody knows why some goats have these bells and it is not known if they have any use.
Horns are found in some breeds of goats, but other breeds are hornless. In most breeds it is important for the males to have horns or the kids may not be a normal sex, but may be half male and half female. If the horns are present, then it is important to look at the skin which lies behind the polls on the back of the head. In this position there is a strip of skin about 1 cm wide which is the place where the musk gland is found. If this gland is working then the skin will be raised a little and folded and will look thickened and glistening as if it is wet. This gland makes a bad smelling substance called musk which gives goats a special smell. The billy goats rub their heads on other goats to put this smell mark on other goats.
The ears of goats are of special interest because they are of special shapes in the different breeds. The ears vary a great deal in length and also how they are held. In some breeds the ears are fairly short and are held up. In others they are held out sideways, but in others they hang right down on the side of the face.
The body: The body of the goat has a large belly or abdomen, because of the large amount of food it eats.
At the top of the chest are the withers which mark the top of the shoulder. The heart girth is the distance right down and around the chest just behind the
front legs. It is important for the chest to be big here so that the animal can breathe easily when it is climbing hills or running.
The rump is the back part of the body and goes from the hip bones to the butt of the tail. In some goats this rump slopes down a lot as you see in diagram A.
The tail of the goat is short and usually has a fringe of long hairs on it.
The udder of a female goat can be very large in size. It has only two teats, but these are often of very large size. This makes is easy to milk these goats.
In front of the udder are two large veins which can be seen running along the underside of the
belly or abdomen. These are the milk veins and it is good if they are large.
Legs: It is important that the legs of the goat are strong and the animal stands straight on them. There should be some strong muscle on the upper part of
each leg, the forearm and the thigh on the back legs.
The bottom of the feet ends in two half hoofs, because goats belong to a special group of animals that are called "ruminants". These animals have two
special features:
1. They are cloven footed animals with the hoof split into two halves.
2. They chew their food twice, once when they first eat it, and then again when they are lying down after feeding.
There are other things to notice about goats.
The size of the body may be large, medium or small.
Fully grown goats in tropical regions are about 25 to 30 kg and live to 7 to 10 years.
Some goats are called dwarfs because they are so small.
White goats can be burned by the sun so they need shade.
1. Observe the head, the eyes, the nostrils and the beard.
2. Open the mouth and see the two kinds of teeth and also the bony part at the front of the upper jaw.
3. Observe the horns, if present. Look closely for the signs of the musk gland.
4. Observe the ears.
5. Observe the withers, the hip bones, the rump and the tail. Observe the chest, heart girth and the large belly or abdomen.
6. Observe the udder, the teats and the milk veins.
7. Observe the feet and the hooves.
What is the name of a female goat? A. Doe.
What is the name of the scent gland at the base of the horns? A Musk glands.
What is the name of the grinding teeth at the back of the mouth? A. Molars.
What is the name of the bits of skin that hang down under the jaws of some goats? A. Tassels or bells.

3.0 Different ways of keeping goats
See diagram 57.3: Housing goats
1. Subsistence goat keeping
This is where a man keeps just a few goats for his own family to use. They may use the goats for meat and milk. The goats may be allowed to gather their feed over the man's land, or they may be tethered for feeding in different places. However, the important thing about this way of keeping goats is that only a few goats are kept enough for just one family.
2. Extensive goat keeping
In places where there is not much rain or where it is too hard to build a fence around goats, or where there may be just a short wet season, the goats may be allowed to feed over a large area of land. The owner may build some houses for the goats, and if he does, the goats may return to these houses at night time. These goats will spend all day looking for food which may be hard to find.
3. Intensive goat keeping
In this system all the food the goats need must be brought to them each day. It will be important to give them some shrub leaves as well as soft green feed. The only reason for keeping goats this way is if you had a lot of milking does and you could sell the milk in a town or village. This money would pay for some of the food supplements you may have to buy for them.
4. Semi-intensive goat keeping
In this system the owner builds houses for the goats and gives them some special rich food supplements as well, but he also lets the goats go out each day to gather their own food. This means the owner has to buy less food supplements. However, if this is done, the owner must keep control of the goats they must not be allowed to run away wild. So it is necessary for the owner to build some kind of fence. Where a long piece of land goes out into the sea, only a short fence may be needed across a narrow part of this land to keep the goats inside.

4.0 Breeds of goats
See diagram 57.4: Breeds of goats
Anglonubian.
The Anglonubian is a large goat of the meat type. It is suited to hot climates. This breed of goats comes partly from Egypt and India and so it stands heat well. It is a very big goat and is very easy to recognize because its ears are very long and hang down alongside the head. It may have no horns in either sex, and the nose is rounded. There are many possible colours but white and roan are common. This goat produces milk of good quality, and a yield of 2.2 pounds or 1 kg of milk a day is an average figure. Although the udder of this goat is not a very good shape, it is held up higher than in most other breeds and so it does not get caught on objects near the ground. The coat is flat and there is a layer of fat just under the skin. This enables the goat to stand high and low temperatures well.
British Saanen
The Saanen is a smaller white breed and is the best milk producer of all goat breeds. This is a milk breed which grows well in tropical climates, although it may suffer from sunburn. When mating goats of this breed it is important to use horned bucks if available. If this is not done, the kids may be born as intersexes, half male and half female. Such kids are useless and are usually destroyed at birth.
British Alpine
The British Alpine is a large black goat with white on the legs and face. It produces a lot of milk. This is another milk breed which can live well in the tropical countries. It is easy to tell because it is black in colour with white patches on legs, udder, hindquarters and face. The udder is large and may hang down low, but a large quantity of milk is produced. An average doe may produce 2.9 pounds or 1.3 kg of milk a day. The British Alpine is a big goat with long legs. It is able to live well on rough pastures.
Toggenburg
This is a small brown and white breed which does well on rough pastures, but it is not as suitable for tropical climates as other breeds.
Angora
This is a breed of goats which produces long hair which can be cut off and sold, but it is not a popular breed in the tropics.

5.0 Planning the goat project
If you want to have goats at the school, there are many ways of doing this, and you must decide which way you will use. You can have a very young kid that has been with its mother for 3 or 4 weeks. Or you may have a kid that is over 3 months old and is no longer having any milk at all: or you can buy young adult goats. You must decide what kind of goat you want, but to decide these things there are some facts you must know.
1. Until they are two weeks old, young kids must have their mothers milk, because this milk has foods in it that make the kid strong and keep diseases away. So you can never have a very young kid unless you buy its mother too.
2. Kids must have some milk until they are three months old. Female kids need 1 kg of milk each day. Male kids need 1.5 kg of milk.
You can give kids:
1. Some cow's milk each day,
2. Some goat's milk each day,
3. Some milk substitute from powdered full cream milk or skim milk.
It is not easy to make up powdered milk properly.
3. Some people feel that it might be too much trouble to rear a kid and look after it properly, so they decide to buy some older goats, perhaps a male and a female that are one year old. It is cruel to keep one goat by itself, because goats are family animals, they like to have some other goats near them. So it might be best to order one male and one female.
Be careful to ask for a horned male: then there is less chance of having kids born that are intersex, both male and female, which cannot breed.

6.0 Rearing a kid
This lesson can only be used if a kid is brought to the school. For the first two weeks the kid must be left with its mother, but after that it can be
separated from her. To rear a kid it is necessary that it is given some milk.
1. It can be given some cow's milk. This milk must be warmed before it is given to the kid. If the kid was 7 pounds or 3 kg when it was born, then it
should have one pint or 20 fluid ounces of milk each day. This should be given in 4 or 5 feeds a day. Each day the kid can be given one more ounce of
milk, but it must not be given more than 60 ounces (or three pints) of milk each day.
2. It is much better if the kid can be given goat's milk instead of cow's milk, but the milk must be warmed before being fed to the kid.
3. If it is not possible to get real milk the kid can be fed on warmed artificial milk made from skim milk or from powdered full cream milk. To this milk
must be added a very small amount of vitamin oil (not more than 1/4 teaspoonful per day). After 4 weeks of age the kid should be given a little of the
food which is chewed twice by a doe. If there are no goats, then a little of the chewed food of a cow will do. This is done so that the microbes of the
doe's stomach can be put into the stomach of the kid. These microbes can then help the kid to digest leaves and grass.
4. If there is a doe nearby, some of its chewed food can be obtained this way:
Keep quiet and wait until you see that the doe has brought some food up from her stomach into her mouth. Then use one finger to hook out a little of the food. Put this into the kid's mouth. The feeding of a kid is difficult because if it is not done properly the kid will get sick and may die. The best way to feed the milk is to use a bottle and a rubber teat to put over the mouth of the bottle. However, the bottle and the teat must first be cleaned. Do it this way:

7.0 Building a house and making a fence
A gate must be built in the fence.

8.0 Planning to buy adult goats.
You may decide to buy adult goats and not to try to rear kids. These notes may be helpful to you if you decide to buy older goats.
1. Goats are family animals. They like to have the company of other goats. So it is cruel to keep only one goat. It is better to buy two goats, either two
females or a billy and a doe.
2. The first thing to be done is to gather some food for the goats. It is not a good idea to feed goats only on soft green feeds. They should also have some
tough leaves and twigs from bushes.
3. Goats will also need some clean water to drink.
4. Goats will also need a warm dry house to sleep in. The house can be the same design as the one built for kids, but may need to be a little bigger.
5. It may be necessary to provide a fence for the goats to keep them near the house until they have got used to being moved. This fence must be big enough to include some grass, some shrubs and some shady trees.
6. If it is desired to build a fence to keep a billy inside the fence must be strong and must be at least five feet or nearly two metres high. There must be no holes low down because goats can easily get down on their knees and walk between loose wires low down in a fence. To keep does inside, a fence must be at least four feet or 120 cm high. If you wish to keep a billy and a doe, then there should be two yards, one for the billy with a high fence and one for the doe with a lower fence.

9.0 When the goats arrive
If the goats are two small kids, keep quiet so as not to frighten the kids. The kids must also be handled gently. The kids should be fed with milk as soon as possible after arrival. If the goats are adult, tie the male goat or billy to a tree before you let pupils go near him. Billy goats can be quite dangerous to children, so be careful with them. This is a good opportunity to show the parts of the body in the goat. Spend a long time looking at the head to see the scent glands, ears, horns and teeth.

10.0 Behaviour of goats
See diagram 57.10: Forcing a goat, A flock queen inspects a strange plant,
One of the best ways of getting to know about goats is to learn something about their behaviour, that means, the kinds of things goats do. There is also a lot the pupils can find out just by watching goats.
Goats are family animals, they like to live together in groups. They do not like being alone. So it is cruel to keep just one goat by itself. It will be very unhappy.
Goats are also easily upset by people who rush at them or push them. They like quietness.
Moving goats from one place to another upsets them. When they are upset, goats go off their food and do not eat much food, or make much milk.
As soon as goats are brought together as a group, they form a social order. That means they will fight among each other to find out which one is the
leader or boss and which ones come next right through the group. The does and the billy goats form different social orders. If a group of goats go wild and live in the bush, there will be two leaders in that group:
1. The king billy is the leader of the male billy goats. He usually walks along in front of the flock with the flock queen near him. He is ready to guard the
flock. He is always ready to fight dogs or other male goats or any animals that may hurt the group.
2. The other leader is the oldest leader of the does. She is the top of the female social order. She is called the "flock queen" because she always helps to
lead the whole flock of goats to new places for feeding each day. If she comes to some new plant, she stops suddenly with her front feet propped stiffly in front of her. She goes up to the new food and takes a leaf in her mouth. If she doesn't like it she spits the leaf out and then tries to scratch of the plant by stamping on it. None of the other goats will eat that plant. However, if she likes this food, she chews it up and eats more leaves. Then all the other goats will copy her. They too will eat this food.
However, they will not eat any of this new plant until the flock queen tells them it is good food. When an enemy frightens a flock of goats, they scatter. They do not all run together in one direction as cattle may do. If the ground is uneven, goats always expect enemies to come from below them. They feel that there is always safety above them. So if an animal gives goats a fright, they will usually run straight up to the highest part of the land. Goats cannot be driven as other animals can. If you try to drive them to go in one direction, they will probably scatter.
3. The best way to manage them is to try to be quiet and friendly with them and try to lead them in the way you want them to go. Because goats are family animals, they can accept a man as one of them. This can happen in two ways:
3.1 If a man milks the does each day, then he will be taking the place of a kid and will be accepted by the does.
3.2 If a man sometimes forces goats to go to a particular place, he will be accepted because he is taking the place of the billy goat.
If there are several billy goats in a group or flock, they will fight until one is found to be the "boss" or King billy of that group. This billy can be a nuisance, because he may try to chase away people, and he may attack children. If this happens, there is only one way of stopping it and that is that a man must go into the yard and meet the billy. He must take the billy by the ear and the tail and force them together. This will force the body of the billy to bend round in a half circle.
It may be possible from this position to push the billy down onto the ground and to push his nose into the ground. This treatment shows the billy that the man is his boss, and he will usually stop his attacks on people. ne thing that billy goats do may not be liked by people, but is quite natural for the billy goats to do it. When billy goats come into the mating season, they like to spray themselves with their own urine. This makes them smell a lot. They do it because the smell attracts the females and makes them come on heat. However, this is not liked by people. All animals have their own way of acting or doing things.

11.0 Caring for goats
11.1 Castration
See diagram 57.11.1: Two methods of castration
Castration: When only one male is needed for breeding, young male kids are usually castrated. This stops them fighting with other males and they grow more quickly. Castrate between 4 and 5 weeks of age. They soon recover from the operation.
There are two ways of doing castration:
1. One way is to use strong rubber rings that are used for castrating sheep. The rings are placed high up around the stalk of the scrotum. This stops blood going down to the testes and they soon die and drop off. This only hurts the kid for a short while. It is probably the best way of castrating kids because there is no blood and it doesn't look so bad.
2. The other way is to get a sharp knife, and some antiseptic fluid, e.g. "Dettol". Hold the kid with its back resting on the top of a fence or a gate. Hold the back legs very firmly. Cut off the tip of the scrotum or sac. Then squeeze out the testes one by one. Use the knife to scrape down across the cords which hold them. Do not cut straight across the cords because they bleed more. After removing both testes, use a clean cloth to put antiseptic solution on the cut tip of the scrotum. The kid will bleed for about 3 or 4 minutes but this will then stop.

11.2 Paring the hooves
As a goat grows, the hooves on its feet also grow. If the goat has some rough rocky ground to walk over, the hooves will probably be worn away just as fast as they grow out of the foot. So they do not get too long. However, if the goat only has very soft grass or ground to walk on, then the hooves may grow too long. Unless they are trimmed or pared or cut off shorter, they may grow so long that it stops the goat walking properly. To do the paring, catch the goat and lie it on the ground. Use a sharp knife to cut off the long part of each hoof until it is the proper length. Do not try to do this all at once. It may be necessary to cut the hoof away a little at a time until it is the right length. However, be very careful to make the two half hooves the same length. If you make a mistake and cut off too much, you may cut the growing part and make it bleed. If this happens, be sure to put some antiseptic, e.g. "Dettol", on the foot, and put the goat on some clean straw or grass in the goat house.

11.3 Tethering
Some people like to make sure that a goat does not run away, so they tie it up to a tree or a fence post by a length of rope. Never leave goats tied up like this overnight. It may be all right to do it for a short time in the day. Never tie a goat up and then go away and leave it for a long time. Go out and see it to make sure that it has not become tangled up in the rope, unable to move or feed, or has been attacked by dogs. You may need to move the goat from time to time because goats will not eat grass that has been soiled by urine or droppings. Be especially careful to watch the goat if there are dogs nearby. Dogs can easily worry a goat and bite it because when it is tethered by a rope it cannot get away.

11.4 Drenching
When a goat gets a lot of worms inside it, it becomes sick and may not want to walk about much or eat food. Sometimes you know a goat has too many worms because you can see the worms in the droppings. Other worms may be there but are too small to see them in the droppings. To kill the worms inside the goat you have to give it some worm medicine. This is called drenching the goat.
To do this you need
1. A small bottle with a long neck. Olive oil bottles or drink bottles may be suitable.
2. A small amount of blue stone (copper (II) sulfate crystals). Put one teaspoon of this blue chemical into 0.5 litres of water. Then you can use a little of this for the goat. Give the goat a little of this solution first. What this does is that it closes a tube which might let the worm medicine go into the large first stomach or rumen. Here it would get mixed with so much food that it would be weakened and unable to kill the worms. However, if you first give some copper (II) sulfate, it closes the opening into the rumen. Then the worm medicine goes straight into the proper stomach.
3. The worm medicine that you will give the goat. If you read on the label of the bottle or tin, you will see how much of this medicine to give the goat, but it is not very much. Effective worm medicines incluse "Nilverm" and "Wormguard".
4. Drenching the goat
Put your left thumb inside the mouth and put the fingers of the left hand underneath the lower jaw of the goat. Put the right amount of the drench into a bottle and push the mouth of the bottle into the right side of the mouth. Tip up the bottle and let the worm medicine go in slowly, a little at a time. If the goat coughs while this is being done, it means that some of the drench has gone into the wrong place into the windpipe. Change the position of the bottle.

11.5 Dehorning
See diagram 57.11.5: Disbudding
Sometimes people like to take off the horns of goats, because this makes them less dangerous to handle. However, in schools it might be a good
idea not to do this. If it is to be done, dehorning is best done in male kids before they are 7 days old, and in female kids before they are 10 days old. At this time the horns have not grown but the horn buds are there.
You can use two methods:
1. Slightly moisten some caustic potash (potassium hydroxide). Then spread some of the moistened caustic potash right over the horn bud which will later turn into a horn. This substance burns the horn bud and soon the horn bud is destroyed. The horn will not grow in that place.
2. Use a hot iron which has a circular end. This is heated on a fire and then pushed down onto the horn bud and held there for a few seconds, until the whole area is burnt on both sides. It is good if the iron can also bring away the yellow musk forming skin. Do not leave the hot iron on the horn bud too long, because the heat may injure the brain. If there is no proper disbudding iron, one can be made by welding a one inch steel nut onto the end of a rod of steel or iron. The scab that forms over the place where the iron has burnt out the horn bud, lifts off after 5 or 6 weeks and does not leave a big scar.

11.6 Deodorizing
See diagram 57.11.6: Deodorizing a kid
Some goats have very active musk or scent glands at the base of the horns. The smell made by these glands can often affect the taste of the milk. Glands are present in both females and males, but are not usually active in the female. The male has the habit of rubbing his head on the does and leaving them with his smell. If the goat has been dehorned, the glands are in the position where they would be if the horns were still there. The simplest way to remove these glands is to burn them away with a dehorning iron or a similar piece of iron. Apply a hot iron to the area where the musk glands are located. The iron must not be left on too long, but just long enough to scorch the gland area to a bone like appearance. Great care is needed not to burn the area of skin between the horns, because if this is done, the healing will be very slow.

11.7 Weaning:
There comes a time when all young goats must be weaned, that is to say, they must be taken away from their mothers. It also means that the kids must learn to eat plant foods like leaves and learn to drink less milk. However, there are some important things you must know about weaning: When a kid is taken from its mother, it should still be able to see her. If this is not done, the kid will make too much noise calling for its mother. Goats can be weaned at early ages but they still need some milk until they are 3 months old. At the age of two weeks kids should be given a box containing some clean soil or am in mineral lick. If this not done the kid will try to get some iron and copper by eating some soil outside the house. This soil may also have some eggs of a bad tape worm which may make it sick. The kid of two weeks of age will also want to eat a little dry plant food like hay. So it is a good idea to cut some green grass and leave it in the sun until it is dry. Then put it into the kid's house on the floor. It is important to have some practice in drenching because this is usually needed for all goats.

12.0 Feeding goats
Diagram 57.12: Stomachs of a day old kid and 3 months old kid fed on fibre
12.1 Food needs of kids
Until they are 3 months of age, kids must be given some milk each day. They should have proper milk at first, but after they are 4 weeks of age milk made from powdered milk can be used instead of proper milk. You do not have to worry about what are the food needs of kids because milk is a perfect food and contains everything the kid needs. This is especially true of proper milk from a cow or a doe. A kid needs about 4 pints of milk (or 2 litres) a day in four feeds. Billy kids may need an additional pint or half a litre per day. If you keep feeding a kid on milk only, the milk will go into its 4th or proper stomach. However, the first stomach or rumen, which can digest leaves, will not grow properly. In order to make the rumen grow properly the kid must be given some fibre us foods like tough leaves and dry grass or hay. The kid must also be given some of the chewed food which a doe has brought up from her rumen for chewing. This food will put into the rumen of the kid the microbes which it will need when the rumen starts to digest foods.
Feed needs of a 25 to 30 kg tropical goat per day
Starch equivalent 0.4 kg
Protein equivalent 0.02 kg
Dry matter capacity 1.1 kg
However, goats survive well on ordinary grasses but must have clean water.

12.2 Food needs of adult goats
They need four kinds of foods: energy foods, protein foods, minerals, vitamins.
12.2.1 Energy foods
Goats need energy foods for maintenance and production.
1. Maintenance
Goats need 9 pound of starch equivalent for every 100 pounds of body weight.
2. Production
Goats need 1.4 kg of starch equivalent for every gallon of milk produced. A starch equivalent is the amount of a food which is equal to the energy contained in one pound of pure starch. So an average goat might need about 1.8 kg of starch equivalent per day.
Starch equivalents of some common foods (S.E.)
wheat grain 72
young green grass 70
fully grown grass 40
old dry plants 10
So the energy in 70 kg of starch equals the energy in 100 kg of green grass.
So the energy in 1 kg of starch equals the energy in 70 = 1.4 kg of green grass.
So a goat needing 4 kg of starch equivalent each day can get it by eating 1.4 x 4 = 5.6 kg of dry matter in green grass. However, you have to multiply this by 5 or 6 because of the water in green grass. So this goat needs 5.6 x 5 = 28 kgs of green grass each day. it would also need 50 kg of fully grown grass each day.

12.2.2 Protein foods
Goats need some protein for maintenance and some protein for producing milk.
For maintenance they need one part of protein to every 10 parts of starch equivalents of energy food. For producing milk they need half a pound of
protein for every gallon of milk they make. Most legumes and some weeds contain about 20% protein, so it would not be hard for a goat to get
the amount of protein it needs each day.

12.2.3 Minerals
Goats have a high need for minerals, especially these:
Salt: Goats need a lot of salt. They may get enough of this if they live near the sea and eat leaves that have sea spray blown onto them. If goats do not
get enough salt they can be given salt licks or boxes that contain solid salt.
Calcium and phosphorus are both needed by goats for making bone and for forming milk. In most green leaves there is enough calcium to balance the phosphorus, but there may be a shortage of phosphorus in the soils. It may be necessary to put some superphosphate on the local soils or put a little bone meal into the feed for the goats. Sometimes there is not enough cobalt in the local soils. If this is so, stir one ounce of cobalt sulfate into half a pint of water and use this to wet 3 kg of salt. let this dry and then let goats lick it.

12.2.4 Vitamins
These are substances needed in small amounts by all animals. Vitamin A is needed for health but it is contained in green leaves. Also goats
can store Vitamin A in their livers. Goats usually get enough Vitamin A. The B vitamins are also needed, but these are made for the goat by the microbes living in its intestine. Other vitamins are not usually needed by goats.

13.0 Breeding goats
Male goats (billy kids) may be ready to mate when they are only 45 months old. The does are able to mate a little later, between 41/2 and 6 months of age. However, it is very important not to let the does mate until they are 910 months old. At this age they have grown a big enough body. If you want to stop the does from mating too soon, you must keep the billy away from them.
When is a doe ready? A doe will not mate at any time. She only mates when she is in "heat". It is very easy to tell when the doe wants to mate. She wags her tail a lot and calls out. Also there is a water discharge from her birth canal. The period of heat lasts 13 days, but many does have another heat 78 days later. However, the usual cycle is periods of heat 21 days apart. It is best to mate the doe towards the end of her heat period, because this is when the egg comes down.
The average gestation period is 155 days. The first heat (oestrus) after birth of young is 1 to 3 months, then the 21 days cycle. for 1 to 3 days. The lactation period varies according to living conditions. Multiple births are less common in goats used in tropical areas compared to European breeds.

13.1 Choosing mates
It is best to mate a good doe to a good billy goat (male goat). It is very wise to use only billy goats that have horns. However, it may not be possible to get a billy goat with horns in the Anglonubian breed. Then there will be few intersex kids born that are no use and have to be destroyed at birth. Gestation is the length of time between mating and when the kid is born. In goats this period is 146 days near enough to 5 months.

13.2 Kidding
Does which have been mated and which are coming close to kidding must be given good food. They need some food rich in protein, such as legumes, and they also need a teaspoon of bone meal every day. Then the kids will be strong and the doe will have a lot of milk for them. As soon as the kids are born some of them may have to be destroyed. If the goats are being used to produce milk, then the male kids may not be needed and they may be destroyed at birth. In goats twins are common. If twins are born, it is important to look at them closely, especially the females. If any of these are not proper males or proper females but are a mixture of these two, then they should be destroyed because they cannot breed. Most kids weigh about 7 pounds or nearly 3 kilos when they are born.
First life strong and healthy. It keeps disease away from them. If the kid is very weak when it is born, the teacher may be able to hold it up to its mother and help it to have some colostrum.

14 Diseases of goats
Diagram 57.14: Where to cut to treat bloat
14.1 Mastitis
This is a very bad disease and may infect any goat that is in milk. It is a disease which attacks the milk making glands in the udder. The signs of the disease are that the udder is swollen, hard, red and sore and the goat gets a high temperature. One sign may be that the milk contains small pieces of a semisolid substance. This is pus coming from the swollen sore part inside the udder. Sometimes part of the udder may go black and become dead. If this happens the goat may die quickly within 24 hours. Another sign is that the goat may lie down and cry out. Mastitis must be treated quickly or you will lose the goat. These are treatments: 1. Keep the goat warm and give it 8 sulphamide tablets to swallow. 2. Give the goat large doses of Ampicillin or tetracycline. You will need an officer from the agriculture department or a doctor to help you do this.

14.2 Bloat
This is a disease that can happen suddenly to a goat if it eats a lot of soft wet grass and herbs. It is caused by millions of bubbles in the first stomach that cannot burst and form gas to be belched out. The whole rumen swells up and may kill the goat. Treatment is to give the goat half a pint of linseed oil. If the bloat is very bad, you may need to use a knife to make a cut in the left side of the abdomen to let out the gas.

14.3 Worms
This is probably the commonest disease in goats.
Goats may be infected with the following parasites:
1. Nasal bots which live in the nose,
2. Large and small lung worms which live in the lungs,
3. Liver fluke in the liver,
4. Barber's pole worm which lives in the fourth stomach,
5. Black scour worm which lives in the small intestines,
6. Nodule worm which lives in the large intestine.
The commonest treatment for most worms is to give the goat a drench with Nilverm, Wormguard or some other worm medicine. Ask the agriculture officer which medicine to use. Give the goat a little blue stone solution first.

14.4 Pregnancy toxaemia
This may be called "twin kid disease". It only affects does that are carrying a big kid or twin kids. It only happens if the doe is not getting enough good food and enough exercise. This makes a big strain on the doe and her body may use up some of the fat to make enough food for the kids. However, the fats may also be turned into some poisonous substances that make the doe sick. The pregnant doe becomes sick 4 weeks before they are due to give birth. Treat the doe with exercise, a diet of shrubs and legume plants, Vitamin A and Vitamin D supplements, and a drenching with glycerine.

14.5 Foot rot
Some goats get a bad germ coming into the soft part of their feet. It rots this soft part, makes a bad smell, and makes the goat very lame. Use a knife to cut away the loose horn on the hoof. Soak the goat's foot in antiseptic solution. If a goat gets this disease she will probably spread the germs over the grass where she has been walking. So you must watch other goats carefully to see if they get sore feet.

14.6 Food poisoning, enterotoxaemia
Goats can get sick because they have eaten too much of one kind of food. There are some microbes that always live in the intestine, but they do not grow too fast and cause trouble because the food passes down the intestine quickly. However, sometimes if a goat eats too much of a soft green food, the food may not pass quickly enough along the intestine. Then these microbes grow very quickly and make a poison. The goat will stagger about and lose control of its movements. It will lie down and struggle, but first it gets diarrhoea and makes lots of runny manure. The goat will die unless it is treated. Treatment is to inject pulpy kidney serum. Kids can be protected from this disease if they are injected with a pulpy kidney vaccine when they are young.

14.7 Milk fever:
his disease sometimes affects goats which are close to kidding or have just kidded. The goats that are most affected are usually ones that have a lot of milk in the udder. Affected goats lie down and gasp for breath. The best treatment is to give the goat an injection of calcium borogluconate into a vein. The agriculture department may have some of this substance you could use.

15.0 Milking goats
See diagram 57.15: Milking platform for goats
After a doe has given birth to a kid or twins, the young goats must be left with the mother for two or three weeks. The very first milk or colostrum is especially important for the kids. After this time the kids may be taken away from the mother and reared on milk or milk substitute given to them from a bottle. Then the mother may be milked and the milk used as food in the home or sold. Because goats are so close to the ground, a special milking platform must be made for them. This place must have some bails at the front so that the goats head can be kept still. It is a good idea to have a small tray in front of the head bails so that the goat can eat while she is being milked. This helps to make her quiet. It is usually best to milk the goat from the right hand side. A clean wet cloth should be used to wash the udder. Mud and dust must be removed before milking. Also rubbing the udder for 30 seconds or a minute is good because it causes the goat to let her milk come down into the udder. The milking should be done as quickly as possible. It is best to milk does at exactly the same times each day. Milking twice a day is better than once.

16.0 Post-mortem, digestive organs
See diagram 57.16.1 Killing a goat and hanging it up for post-mortem | See diagram 57.16.2: Digestive system of the goat
16.1 If a goat has been grown for meat, look at its organs after it has been killed. The best way to kill the goat is to push it onto its side and then kneel on its side. Then a long sharp knife is used to cut the throat and let all the blood drain out of the body. The head must be bent backwards before the throat is cut. After killing the goat may be hung up by the back legs and skinned. Then it may be possible to dry the skin in the sun and sell it later.
In taking out the digestive organs, cut a large hole in the abdomen and pull out all the organs onto the ground. Find the food tube which leads through the chest into the first stomach, tie a piece of string around it and then cut it off. Also tie a bit of string around the last part of the intestine and cut it off too. Lift all the digestive organs onto a clean grassy place and look at these parts:
16.2 The rumen is the very large "first stomach". When the goat eats some leaves, they frrst chewed to a rounded lump, a bolus. The bolus is swallowed down into the rumen where bacterial fermentation ocuurs and some nutients are absorbed. Later on the goat will regurgitate some food form the rumne and chew it again as the cud. This process is called rumination. When the food is chewed the second time, it is in very small pieces. Also it is mixed with a lot of saliva from the mouth, so it is very runny. Cut open the rumen and tip out the contents. Find some food in big pieces not yet chewed, and some of the food that has been chewed a second time. The goat has a large rumen where it can store bulky plant material that can be attacked by the microbes.
16.3 The "second stomach", the reticulum, is smalleer trhan the rumen and its lining has a honey comb appearance. Here foreign obects swallowed during feeding arte separated from the food.
16.3 The "third stomach", the omasum, called the Bible or book, has a lining folded into pages for removal of water and some fatty acids. It is quite small. When it is cut open it can be seen that it contains many flat leaves. Here the food is fairly dry, and not wet and runny like the food in the rumen.
16.4 The "fourth stomach", the abomasum or "true stomach" is similar to the stomachs of non-herbivores, e.g. cat, dog and hunan. It contains glands in the wallth at secrete hydrochloric acid as gastric juice that makes the food wet and "runny" again, kills and digest bacteria, and digests food by acid hydrolysis.
16.5 The food remaining in the abomasum passes through a thickened valve into the duodenum. The duodenum is a small sized tube about 25 cm long. When the liquid food goes through it, the food receives digestive juices from two organs:
1. The pink pancreas puts some strong digestive juices into the food.
2. The liver makes bile which is stored in the green gall bladder and then put into the food as it goes through the duodenum.
16.6 The small intestine: The food next goes into a very long tube called the small intestine. The digestive juices soften the food and digest it. Then the food can go through the walls of the small intestine and into the blood. Then the food can be taken all around the body and given to all the parts of the body. The caecum is a large bag at the end of the small intestine. Some of the food which has not been digested goes into this bag. Here there are many millions of microbes that digest a little more of the solid food.
16.7 The large intestine consists of several different parts. Here water is taken out of the food until it becomes semisolid. This is no longer useful to the animal and is made into little lumps called faeces or the manure. It then passes out of the anus.

17.0 Reproductive organs
See diagram 57.17: Male and female reproductive organs
You can see organs after you remove the digestive organs.
17.1 Male organs
The most important of the male organs are the testes which are found in a sac called the scrotum outside the body. Open the scrotum and notice these things about the testis: 1. It is supplied with blood by a very twisted artery which lies in the stalk of the testis. As blood comes the long way down this artery it loses heat and gets cooler. The testis needs cool blood to grow properly. 2. If a cut is made across the testis it can be seen that it contains separate divisions. The male cells or sperms are made in these divisions. 3. The sperms made in the testis pass into a long sperm tube, and the top end of this tube lies over the top end of the testis. It goes down the side, turns and then passes up in the stalk and takes the sperms into the body. The sperm tubes join together in the body and join with the water tube near the bladder. However, the sperms go through a gland which puts a fluid with them. This fluid makes the sperms swim. Then when they are needed the sperms go down along the water tube (or urethra) through the penis and then into the female.
17.2 Female organs
The most important of the female organs are the two small ovaries. The eggs are made in these ovaries. When the eggs are made by the ovaries, they are set free in the abdomen. They find their way to the openings in the end of two long twisted tubes. These tubes lead down on each side to a strong muscular organ called the uterus. This is where the young animals are made. At the end of the uterus is a very narrow hole which leads out into the vagina or birth canal.
At mating, sperms from the male are placed in the upper end of the vagina. The muscles in the walls of the female organs take the male fluid and the sperms up through the uterus and into the tubes at the sides of the uterus. Here the sperms meet the egg or eggs. When a sperm has joined to an egg and fertilized it, this egg moves down into the uterus. It sinks into the wall of the uterus and begins to turn into a kid.

History
The contents of this page were written by Dr J. Elfick in the Solomon Islands for the Pacific islands Agricultural Curriculum Development Project funded by the Australian Development Assistance Bureau