Buying Healthy Goats and Keeping Them That Way

Starting a goat herd with healthy animals prevents expense and effort eliminating infectious diseases. Pre-purchase testing and examinations are worth their cost because of the savings realized through fewer animal illnesses, increased production, lower medication costs, and reduced culling. Key management practices such as hoof trimming, vaccinating, body condition scoring, and assessing parasite loads are needed to maintain herd health. Biosecurity practices must become routine to prevent the introduction and/or spread of contagious diseases. Several goat diseases are contagious to humans, so biosecurity measures must address this concern. Excellent record-keeping helps producers monitor health and production trends, document treatments, make breeding vs. culling decisions, and produce food products without illegal residues. Starting with healthy animals, reducing exposure to contagious diseases, providing excellent nutrition, reducing stress, practicing management tasks, selecting for healthy animals, and monitoring animal’s daily health results in a goat herd consisting of animals rarely needing medical intervention.