Found Some Boar-Spanish Doe Goats

[thankful_k]

So I found a ranch with many female Boer-Spanish goats for sale, at $325 per head.

The outfit is Hanging M Ranch in Ardmore OK. 4.2 rating on FB, what I see seems organized/clean/professional.

I plan to buy 4. I have a 16x16 shaded enclosed stall that they will share with the donkey, a gentle 4-5 year old standard gelded male. Their area is a 2-acre fenced pasture with a few trees and a stock tank I keep filled with well water. I have three large bales of alfalfa hay ready. The fence is sheep & goat fence, 4ft high with a strand of barbed wire 6 in above that. The maximum gap under any of the gates is about 6 inches.

I am a total goat newbie, and I have heard that boers are hardy and good for beginners. For now I am going to simply have 4 females, and borrow a buck when I am ready to handle kiddos.

Challenge I see is keeping the goats out of the donkey hay and the donkey out of the goat hay. Of course I will be clearing out all the equipment that's in there, and I will close off that gap behind the trash can.

 

[Pearl]

So I found a ranch with many female Boer-Spanish goats for sale, at $325 per head.

The outfit is Hanging M Ranch in Ardmore OK. 4.2 rating on FB, what I see seems organized/clean/professional.

I plan to buy 4. I have a 16x16 shaded enclosed stall that they will share with the donkey, a gentle 4-5 year old standard gelded male. Their area is a 2-acre fenced pasture with a few trees and a stock tank I keep filled with well water. I have three large bales of alfalfa hay ready. The fence is sheep & goat fence, 4ft high with a strand of barbed wire 6 in above that. The maximum gap under any of the gates is about 6 inches.

I am a total goat newbie, and I have heard that boers are hardy and good for beginners. For now I am going to simply have 4 females, and borrow a buck when I am ready to handle kiddos.

Challenge I see is keeping the goats out of the donkey hay and the donkey out of the goat hay. Of course I will be clearing out all the equipment that's in there, and I will close off that gap behind the trash can.

View attachment 88955View attachment 88956View attachment 88957

Goats can be escape artists, so really watch them the first days! Keep the horse and donkey out of the alfalfa. Looking nice!! Keep us updated!

 

[thankful_k]

UPDATE: So I got the goats (four female spanish-boers) and they seem fine. They are active, alert, no dirty butts, or runny poops that I have seen. I've been trying to bond with them, and this is about as close as they let me get. I want to get them where they trust me, rather than having to fight/wrestle them. So I have a little red scooper with treats that I rattle. The white/black one in the foreground is sort of the alpha, she will come up to me if I have food/treats. The brown one a little further away will barely come up and put her nose in the scoop with me holding it on the ground. The other two: NOPE. WE'RE OUT.

I need to get them to trust me fairly soon, I want to evaluate/treat them if they are anemic from worms.

The current plan is to rake out all the dropped hay/poop etc from the stall every weekend and just let it cook in front of the barn in the sun. Also do FAMACHA scoring and hoof checks/trims every six weeks, and I need to take the online class and get a card. But I need to catch them and take a video checking two animals to pass. Also got a flock number from the state and scrapie tags are on order.

Here are their quarters (the red gate keeps the donkey out of their hay, but lets them pass under). Hopefully this will be a small enough area that I can catch them. The only problem is whether there will be enough light to check their eyelids properly. But I plan to get lights in here anyway.

Turning to the left is the donkey's feeding area:

 

[thankful_k]

One other thing. I need to weigh them to get the correct dose for wormer. Does anyone know of a good scale that I can stand on with the animal that has a reading I can see from standing. Or is just a walmart bathroom scale good enough?

 

[Pearl]

Weighing them will be a task!! Hope someone has some good ideas. I used to guesstimate when I had goats. Looks like a great set up you've got!! I bet they get friendly if you keep the snacks going!!

 

[Bacpacker]

One other thing. I need to weigh them to get the correct dose for wormer. Does anyone know of a good scale that I can stand on with the animal that has a reading I can see from standing. Or is just a walmart bathroom scale good enough?

Walmart scale would work, weight yourself, then hold the goat. If it'll let you of course

 

[Neb]

Walmart scale would work, weight yourself, then hold the goat. If it'll let you of course

The are scales used in shipping to weigh boxes larger than scale itself. It has a latching mechanism to lock in a reading.



Ben

 

[Bacpacker]

I was think maybe set a piece of plywood on and walk the goat onto it.

 

[Pearl]

Boer does can weigh up to 250#!! If you can pick it up, will the scale go that high with a person and a goats weight!?

 

[Bacpacker]

Probably not

 

[Magpie]

I love goats, had them when we were children. Planned on getting them here but never had enough fencing. Keep us posted and best of luck!

 

[Magus]

Starve it 24 hours, get a carrot, lead it to the scale. if it holds still, give it the carrot.

 

[Pearl]

Starve it 24 hours, get a carrot, lead it to the scale. if it holds still, give it the carrot.

For me, instead of a carrot, I'll get on the scale for cash or beer!!

 

[Magus]

Just looking, not knowing your height, 125?

 

[Pearl]

Just looking, not knowing your height, 125?

Gonna need beer or cash to answer

 

[Magus]

Pizza and a 6 pack of Amsels?

 

[thankful_k]

Ok, so a bunch of stuff has happened. Sold the donkey, and bought a female Great Pyrenees pup, 4 months old. Right now the dog runs around the pasture in the day, and the goats are penned up in the barn 24/7. A big oscillating wall fan constantly runs and water is changed 2x day. The dog stays with them at night , in a separate pen to keep the goats from harassing her. The idea is, for a couple of weeks, for them to bond with the dog and to have the only food the goats get is what I bring them, so that ‘human‘=‘good guy’. Right now, apparently ‘human’=‘satan’. Also when I bring them a flake of alfalfa, I stand the next to the feeder, constantly reaching out and touching them as much as they’ll tolerate before bolting.

it’s been a week of the this, and only one goat isn’t terrified of me. Seriously … the other three think I’m the devil. I‘m sure I can ever get them to trust me. I’m just not sure I’m the “goat whisperer”.

It‘s getting to a decision point. One goat, the one who trusts me, has hooves that are starting to roll under. She needs a trim, and I have to learn to do this myself.

I need a way to:
a - channel and direct the goats to a milking stand, trimming station, drench, etc.
b - (gently) restrain the goats in place while I drench/trim/inject/etc them. I cannot risk a jerking twitching animal with a syringe in my hand. Nope. Too much.

so, I suppose I need a set of sheep/goat panels, that I can link together (Romex building wire, I have noticed, seems to work great for this), and direct the animals into a fixed chute that has whatever ’tool’ at the end of it that I need. Like a tilt table, milking stand etc etc.

For restraint, on the cheaper end I have seen grooming slings for big dogs, but also have seen a priefert calf table (~$1500) and also a really nice spin table for about $2700. I plan on eventually have up to 10 goats, so I think maybe the spin table will be where it’s at. It’s purpose built for sheep & goats, and I can do everything there, ear tags, drench, shots, and hoof trim.

thoughts?

 

[Pearl]

Smart move selling the donkey!! By yourself some type of grooming sling would be a great idea for the goats. I always trimmed hooves myself (had angoras), flipped them, sat on them, trimmed feet! Mine were easy goats! Curious what you come up with!!

 

[sonya123]

Just saw this post...we have about 40-60 goats depending on time of year. They are Kiko, Kiko Boer mixes and a few Spanish/Kikos.
If you want the goats to cooperate for anything, teach them with grain. We get bags of gluten, whole corn and soy hulls from the feed store and mix it ( half the corn ) . Start by giving them just a little or they will get sick ( handfull). I take my goats free ranging up our mountain, and when I call them they will all come running and follow me driving the Ranger down because they know they will get fed.

Dewormers: we do FAMACHA , and when we do deworm them, we use all 3 dewormers , one after the other. ( Valbazen, Cydecting and Prohibit). We took a class at an actual vet school and are also in a club that has once a year classes on all that stuff. It is better to slightly overdose than underdose. It won't hurt them. Our does weight around 130-160 and you can estimate by measuring their circumference but I don't do that anymore. I know approx how much they weight and give them a slightly higher dose of dewormers.
We have never yet lost a goat to worm or any other parasites. We do weight the little ones by picking them up and standing on a regular cheap bathroom scale.

But it looks like you are in a dry area, so most likely you don't need to deworm at all or rarely. We only deworm some of ours maybe twice a year and I deworm the does after giving birth but we are in a really wet area

Any questions on goats feel free to ask.
Goats are browsers they love to eat brush and tree leaves , blackberries , stuff like that

 

[Magus]

Ok, so a bunch of stuff has happened. Sold the donkey, and bought a female Great Pyrenees pup, 4 months old. Right now the dog runs around the pasture in the day, and the goats are penned up in the barn 24/7. A big oscillating wall fan constantly runs and water is changed 2x day. The dog stays with them at night , in a separate pen to keep the goats from harassing her. The idea is, for a couple of weeks, for them to bond with the dog and to have the only food the goats get is what I bring them, so that ‘human‘=‘good guy’. Right now, apparently ‘human’=‘satan’. Also when I bring them a flake of alfalfa, I stand the next to the feeder, constantly reaching out and touching them as much as they’ll tolerate before bolting.

it’s been a week of the this, and only one goat isn’t terrified of me. Seriously … the other three think I’m the devil. I‘m sure I can ever get them to trust me. I’m just not sure I’m the “goat whisperer”.

It‘s getting to a decision point. One goat, the one who trusts me, has hooves that are starting to roll under. She needs a trim, and I have to learn to do this myself.

I need a way to:
a - channel and direct the goats to a milking stand, trimming station, drench, etc.
b - (gently) restrain the goats in place while I drench/trim/inject/etc them. I cannot risk a jerking twitching animal with a syringe in my hand. Nope. Too much.

so, I suppose I need a set of sheep/goat panels, that I can link together (Romex building wire, I have noticed, seems to work great for this), and direct the animals into a fixed chute that has whatever ’tool’ at the end of it that I need. Like a tilt table, milking stand etc etc.

For restraint, on the cheaper end I have seen grooming slings for big dogs, but also have seen a priefert calf table (~$1500) and also a really nice spin table for about $2700. I plan on eventually have up to 10 goats, so I think maybe the spin table will be where it’s at. It’s purpose built for sheep & goats, and I can do everything there, ear tags, drench, shots, and hoof trim.

thoughts?

Back to my loading ramp:
Have one wall that slides, gently press in so the nanny can't move, while she's trying to figure out what's going on, give her the shot. make sure whoever is putting the squeeze on her can hold her tight without hurting her and give the goat a nice big apple when its done, maybe a lump of sugar.

How to make sugar treats:
Spray a common ice tray with PAM or some such cooking spray and wait 5 minutes.
fill the cells with sugar.
add a mixing spoon full of water and let dry a week in a hot car or covered with a cloth on a shelf.
Pop out the sugar bombs and store in a cool dry place.
Once the goats (or horses) associate the loading chute with a treat, they'll line right up.