Animal Guides
Chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, quail, rabbits, goats, sheep, pigs, cattle and bees: getting started, housing, feeding, care and health.
Raising Chickens →How-To Guides
Step-by-step guides for every animal, the garden, orchard, pasture and compost: getting started, housing, feeding, daily care, breeding, health and harvest.
Garden and Land Guides
The vegetable garden, orchard, pasture and compost — with the key numbers and links to the trackers that keep your records.
Growing a Garden →Raising Goats
Goats give milk, meat and brush clearing. They are clever, social and famously good at escaping, so fencing and company come first.
- Pregnancy
- about 150 days
- Heat cycle
- every 18–21 days
- Milk
- Nigerian Dwarf ½–1 gal a day; full-size 1–2 gal
- Hoof trim
- every 4–8 weeks
1Getting started
- Dairy: Nubian, LaMancha, Alpine, Nigerian Dwarf. Meat: Boer, Kiko, Spanish.
- Never keep a goat alone — buy at least two (a doe and a wether are a good start).
- Buy from tested herds (CAE, CL, Johne’s) and ask to see the test results.
2Housing and fencing
- A dry, draft-free shed with about 15 sq ft each, and a place up off the floor to sleep.
- Fence with woven wire or no-climb 4–5 ft, plus a hot wire if they lean on it.
- Goats hate rain — give shelter they can reach from the pasture.
- Keep bucks in their own pen; they smell, and they’ll breed does too early.
3Feeding
- Goats are browsers: brush, weeds and hay first, grain only for milkers and growing kids.
- Loose goat minerals with copper, free-choice — not sheep minerals.
- Wethers and bucks: little or no grain, to prevent urinary stones; keep calcium to phosphorus about 2:1.
- Poisonous to goats: azalea, rhododendron, mountain laurel, yew, wilted cherry leaves.
4Breeding and kidding
- Most breeds come into heat in fall; Nigerian Dwarfs can breed year-round.
- Breed does when they reach about 70% of adult weight (often 7–10 months).
- Make sure kids nurse colostrum within the first few hours.
- Disbud kids at 3–10 days if you want them hornless — ask a vet or experienced keeper to show you.
5Health
- Barber pole worm is the main killer: check eyelid color (FAMACHA) and deworm only the goats that need it.
- Vaccinate yearly with CD&T, and give does a booster a month before kidding.
- Bloat (swollen left side) and a goat that won’t get up are emergencies.
- Know a vet who sees goats before you need one.
6Milking
- Milk twice a day at about the same times; a doe milks about 10 months after kidding.
- Clean the udder, strip the first squirts, milk into a clean steel pail, strain and chill to 40°F within an hour.
- Selling raw milk is regulated or illegal in many states — check before you sell.
Space guide
For each animalFencing: Woven wire or no-climb, 4–5 ft — goats test every fence
- Miniature breeds need about 10 sq ft indoors
- Kidding pen about 5 × 5 ft per doe
- Keep bucks in their own pen
Rules of thumb — more room is always better, and breed, climate and local rules can change what you need. Sketch it out in the Barn & Garden Planner.
Put it to work
These free tools keep the records for you once you’ve made an account:
These are rules of thumb from university extension guidance. Breed, climate and your state’s rules change the details — your county extension office is the best place to ask, and you can find it on the selling rules page by ZIP code.