Working and keeping goats

[Seven Hens Farm]

Hi, Im new here and I have been thinking about getting goats for a couple years now. I have acreage that needs to be fenced yet, but I keep going back to the same question...will I have enough time to care for them knowing I work a full time job with a 30 minute commute?

I know some of you may work outside of the house and Im wondering how you do it?
Do they fare ok by themselves during the day with no one around?

 

[freemotion]

It is very important that you get the best fencing if no one is there to troubleshoot. I use Red Brand horse fencing with a strand of electric on top. This has kept escapes to a minimum and I have not had a coyote come in...the last dog that scaled my fence got into my yard the first time, then the electric strand went up and I got to be there when he encountered it. Yipe-yipe-yipe!!! Although even funnier was when the neighbor's BIL visited her and she warned him not to touch the wire, as it is electric....he said, "No, its not" and grabbed it. Yipe-yipe-yipe!

How much time you need depends on how many goats you get, how old they are, and what you want them for. It takes a lot more time and you probably can't handle the needs of young bottle babies, but more grown goats would be fine. If you want to have dairy, you will need to be flexible around their delivery dates.....I am self-employed and tell clients who schedule near the delivery dates that their appointments are subject to change with very little notice. I had two pregnant does last year and ended up cancelling two days of appointments. I had four this year and cancelled none...the does were strangely more considerate! I did warn them that the lost money would impact their food, though.

You need about 15 minutes to care for the tasks of milking one goat, and maybe another 10 minutes for each additional dairy animal. If you set yourself up the night before, you can pare down the care time a bit, but milking takes a few minutes. I set up feed and fill spare water buckets and such the night before so I can grab'n'go. Always allow a few minutes to deal with unexpected things, like a broken latch, stuck door, whatever.

 

[carolinagirl]

I have sheep now and not goats, but taking care of them is pretty much the same (except for the milking part). I change out all the water buckets in the morning and let them out of their paddock. Takes me 10 minutes at the most. Routine care is the easy part. The time consuming part is fencing, repairing fencing and non-routine chores such as cleaning the barn and taking care of bottle babies. But still, pretty managable with a full time job. If you don't have time to take care of bottle babies, you can always sell them on the bottle or give them to someone who has time to raise them. Just make sure you have good secure fences from the start and that will go a long way in reducing the time it takes to care for these critters.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Yes, you can definitely take care of goats while working full time. Chores don't take long at all, and if you save things like refilling water for the afternoons it will help a lot. I milk 1 doe and have several other sheep and goats, plus chickens and a rabbit. Morning chores take about 20 minutes, and that includes milking and washing up after milking.

If you just want pet goats and aren't wanting to milk, then daily care is a breeze!

 

[TwoGoats]

As mentioned, 10 to 15 minutes per day to ensure that the goats have fresh water and some grain. Our goats are great and give us a much needed AG rating for our land. Build them a house to shelter them from the elements and also build them a playground area to climb on. About 1/2 acre will be fine for 2 goats.

 

[Seven Hens Farm]

Thank you all for your responses. I think I can do it.
We bought six foot cedar posts for the corners and six foot T posts for in between, so I figure about four feet will be above ground? Then, do you think that running a strand of electric wire or rope along the top will suffice? Red Brand horse fencing, what kind of fencing is that?
Also, my husband is planning on digging a small pond...do you think that I should let them have access to it?
My plan would be to get some Nigerian Dwarf goats. I would like to breed one and milk her.

 

[20kidsonhill]

I do the majority of the chores in the evening after work, and just check on everything in the morning and a little feeding in the morning. The winters are the hardest, since we have to take care of frozen water in the morning. As far as having babies, if you aren't home all the time, you should pick the time of year that averages at night are above freezing and day time is in the 50's or higher, so if babies are born when you aren't home, and mom doesn't take care of them they will survive until you get home. It is a lot harder having goats kid out in the winter.

Once you get them nursing and up and going, I personally feel the babies do better in the winter, since there aren't as many parasite issues to deal with. We kid out in January and february the coldest months for Virginia, but you only have an hour or two to help the new born if mom isn't doing her job, before they get too cold and die.


How many are you thinking about getting? What is your goal with them?

We have a herd of 20 breeding does, We spend probably 30 minutes a day on basic feeding/watering chores. Then there are the trips to get feed and hay, ect..... We spend probably 1 entire day every month or a couple times a month(saturday or Sunday), trimming feet, worming, vaccinating, making improvements in the barn, cleaning.

When we have the babies,

We spend a little more time in the barns in the evenings and weekends, since babies need vaccinations, castrating, treating, weaning. All those things take time when you have 30 or 40 babies. right when the mom's are kidding we spend the entire evening, sometimes late into the night and very early in the morning taking care of new borns and assisting deliveries. We go out to the barn every 2 hours through out the night, since we kid in the winter. This is normally around a 2 week period for us. Keeping your does away from your bucks and breeding them when you are ready, so you know when they are due to kid really helps.

We do not milk, we have meat goats, and we sell all our kids between 10 weeks and 4 months of age, except for a couple we keep for breeding stock.

 

[BetterHensandGardens]

Thank you all for your responses. I think I can do it.
We bought six foot cedar posts for the corners and six foot T posts for in between, so I figure about four feet will be above ground? Then, do you think that running a strand of electric wire or rope along the top will suffice? Red Brand horse fencing, what kind of fencing is that?
Also, my husband is planning on digging a small pond...do you think that I should let them have access to it?
My plan would be to get some Nigerian Dwarf goats. I would like to breed one and milk her.

We have Nigerian Dwarf goats, and we both work all day - we've found that keeping them (currently 3 does) is very manageable. The link here: http://www.betterhensandgardens.com/2010/10/24/farm-fencing/ takes you to a post & pictures on what we did for fencing for our does - so far we've not had any problems with fencing or predators. Good Luck.

 

[Hillsvale]

Hi, Im new here and I have been thinking about getting goats for a couple years now. I have acreage that needs to be fenced yet, but I keep going back to the same question...will I have enough time to care for them knowing I work a full time job with a 30 minute commute?

I know some of you may work outside of the house and Im wondering how you do it?
Do they fare ok by themselves during the day with no one around?

We have full time jobs, leaving the house at 6:45 and returning anywhere between 6:30 and upwards.

We have:
3 pigs
5 goats
9 sheep/lambs
98 meat chicks
11 layer adults
maybe 30 layer chicks
11 meat turkeys
12 dozen poults
2 african geese
3 muscovys
couple of dozen ducklings

Go for it!

 

[Seven Hens Farm]

We have:
3 pigs
5 goats
9 sheep/lambs
98 meat chicks
11 layer adults
maybe 30 layer chicks
11 meat turkeys
12 dozen poults
2 african geese
3 muscovys
couple of dozen ducklings

This is like my perfect future scenario! How many acres do have for all these animals? Is it farmland or woods? What?