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WEANING KIDS

The two most stressful times in a kid's life are birth and weaning.   Weaning may even be more stressful because it is the first time that the kid is without the antibodies in its dam's milk that protect from diseases, yet its  immune system is far from fully developed.

Stress can cause illness and even lead to death, so you must work to minimize stress at all times. Intact bucklings must  be weaned at three months of age to keep them from breeding their dams, sisters, or other females in the herd.   Because of pasture limitations, I  leave doelings with their dams  and let the dams wean them.     My experience is that doelings grow better if they are placed in their own herd  no later than six months of age, giving dams time to  re-gain body condition in anticipation of their next breeding.

At Onion Creek Ranch in Texas,  this is my weaning protocol: All kids have been  dewormed, inoculated with  their initial and booster  CD/T and pneumonia vaccinations, and have had  eartags inserted  before weaning.    My  article  "Deworming and Vaccination Schedules"  appears in MeatGoatMania archives and on www.tennesseemeatgoats.com.    Weaned kids are moved to pastures far away from their dams.     Kids and dams calling to each other for days is stressful to everyone.  A common fenceline between males and females is not good management because it allows  access of males to females, resulting in "party girls" who get bred too young through the fence and produce unwanted  matings.

I wean kids early in the morning of a good-weather day (not rainy, very hot, or extremely cold). Morning is chosen so that  kids have time to acquaint themselves with their new surroundings long before nightfall. Kids are separated from their dams at the central working pens. If the distance is great, goats are trailered to their new location. If the distance is short but the alleys are dusty from lack of rain, then the paths  that the goats will travel on foot will be watered to avoid dust-induced pneumonia. The goal is always to avoid stress.

I never wean just one or two kids and put  them into a herd of already-weaned kids. They will be harassed to the point of exhaustion as the pecking order is re-established. I establish a mini-herd of  at least three to five weanlings, then wait five to seven days to introduce this  small but bonded herd  into the larger  weaned group  in the morning of a good-weather day.

Polled (and even horned) bucklings trying to establish their place in the pecking order in hot climates can collapse and die of heatstroke. Horns act as radiators to remove heat from the body. Polled goats are goats that have been born without horns. This is one more reason not to disbud kids.  I check my fences and pastures morning, mid-day, and night  to make sure that newly-weaned kids haven't gotten themselves caught in fences or into other life-threatening situations as the pecking order is re-set and as  they try to find a way back to their dams who are calling to them.  Doelings are not as aggressive as bucklings, but they too will chase and  mount  each other until everyone accepts their new  position   in the herd.

I feed the newly-weaned kids  after they are in their new pastures. Eating together is a group activity that will help distract them from harassing each other and add some routine to the new herd. Kids tend to wander, getting lost from the main group   and becoming  targets for predators. Herding kid goats is like trying to herd chickens.  No one is in the lead.  I put one older goat of the same sex in with the weanlings  for them to follow.

A skilled adult  livestock guardian dog (difficult to find but invaluable - spend the time and money necessary to find the right one) was placed  with the pregnant does and left there while they were  kidding   so that kids got used to its presence. This,  of course, depends upon the availability of an adult  livestock guardian dog who isn't aggressive to young kids. If not already done, introducing the livestock guardian dog (LGD)  is another hurdle that you have to cross.     See my article on Livestock Guardian Dogs on the Articles page of www.tennesseemeatgoats.com and in MeatGoatMania.   Goats are prey animals.  Livestock guardian dogs  are essential in pastures of newly-weaned goats. A livestock guardian dog  should not hurt kids but it can initially frighten them when the dog tries to move a straying kid back to the herd by nudging it or slobbering over its neck and face in its attempt to familiarize itself with its new charges.

Each livestock guardian dog is its own unique individual with challenges that you  must either adapt to, resolve, or change out for one that works under your management conditions.    The dog is not  going to adapt to your needs.  He/she is either a guarder or a patroller and is either a good LGD or not.  Just because livestock guardian dogs are sold  as "raised with goats" or "doesn't  kill chickens" does not mean that they will work in your operation.   Never put pups with goats.   An LGD under 15-18 months old is still a pup behavior-wise.    I do not use Great Pyrenees; my personal experience is that Pyrenees crosses in particular tend to be wanderers.  I also do not use intact males or females.  I want them guarding, not taking time off work to reproduce and raise pups.   I neuter and spay all of my LGD's. My business is raising top-quality breeding stock goats, not dogs.