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In short, yes it helps to break them. There are mini-cubes available that are better sized for goats, but even some of those are kind of large for them to handle. We keep a small dull knife in the feed shed and just split them into smaller pieces as needed.

Welcome to the drought club, with its growing membership. The drought maps may indicate improvement in some parts of my world (western north TX), but the maps haven't visited my property or cleaned the bugs and cobwebs out of my unused rain gauge (0.20" of whoop-di-doo rain so far this year, off...

yeah, what Southern By Choice said. We've fed bucks, bucklings and wethers grain-based feeds for years. Never an issue. But, they get minerals, good hay and pasture also...not just feed.

hmm, very interesting. I am going to try that next summer. Pickle breath goats!

My water troughs are about 80 gallon size and I do not specifically measure, but would guess I put around 1/2 cup or less. I just splash some in 2 or 3 areas down the trough. I check the next day and see if I need to add more. And I usually have goats there "helping" me do it, and they drink...

One hint for that situation is to use a dab of Vicks Vapor Rub on his nose/nostrils a couple of times a day so he can't smell the does. We had a buck (the guy in my avatar) in rut a month too early this year for when we wanted to start breeding and used it on him. I was afraid it would perturb...

"Where does the key go in this thing?" (Coco - Boer-Nubian cross and Cypress our guard donkey) - Boer-Nubian cross)

What do you mean I am "what's for dinner"? (Luna - 100% MGR registered Myotonic doeling, and NOT dinner)

Life is pretty stressful on the farm. (Tilly and Fergie - twin Boer doelings)

@lovinglife - "LOL sometimes I just wonder if we are creating more problems than we are fixing by all the "stuff" we feed them," I totally agree. Meat goats can get by with very minimal care, but many tend to overdo it with "loving" care, and maybe doing the breed(s) harm in the long run by not...

In our rainwater tanks, used for watering yard/garden, I have used a little orange oil and it seems to work for keeping mosquitoes out. I don't think the animals would like the orange smell and flavor though. In troughs in the pasture we do occasionally have to splash a little bleach to kill...

The ProZap Insectrin active ingredients are 1% Permethrin and 1% PBO (Piperonyl Butoxide), similar to the product I used this last Spring on a couple of kid goats we had lice trouble with. It works, to a degree, but didn't solve the problem. Many recommend Permethrin-based products for lice...

There is one compelling reason that I can think of to feed at least a small ration of grain to goats (or other ruminants). That is to aid in lessening the chance of nitrate poisoning. If you feed certain hays, especially ones that are advertised as "highly fertilized", like many are, and do not...

I feed winter squash to my goats when I get split ones, or just too many of them. They eat them pretty well if they are ripe. They do not care for the leaves though...so yours may turn their noses up at the vines.

Ditto what OneFineAcre says. We have some foamy chewers. We even have one doe that likes to hold a cud in her cheek like a chaw of tobacco...she leaks foamy green stuff. Her kids were always getting it on them as well.

No immediate book ideas, but check out permies.com for good info on several of your areas of interest.

If it has a good tight stretch on it, that fence sounds very adequate...especially if they aren't nose to nose across it. The shelter should be OK as well for a couple of goats, just make sure it's deep enough to keep rain (and snow) out of there and off of them!

From my experience with Boer and Myotonic goats, the does, when left in the pasture, will separate from the herd and go to a wooded area to be alone. That is one of the sure signs labor and kidding is soon, and we round them up and move them into our kidding pens. Once in the kidding pen the...

Lay him on his side legs pointing away from you, with you sitting on ground with your legs over him - one leg across his neck one across his mid-region. You can pull the leg towards you to trim the hoof. To avoid the wunnerfulness of buck, put an old towel or something like that over him first.

Hopefully AshleyFishy and my additional post cleared up any uncertainties.