Over the past few years, I’ve noticed an increasing amount of advice directing goat breeders to routinely intervene in the births of every goat. Not only is this unwarranted, but the risks far outweigh the benefits because it can result … Read More
If fighting internal parasites with dewormers is ultimately a losing battle, what can you do to keep your goats healthy and productive? There are a number of environmental controls that can be utilized to eliminate parasite problems almost entirely. If … Read More
Internal Parasites It is a well-known fact that internal parasites are the leading cause of death among goats. Unfortunately, it is a problem of our own making. You have probably heard of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, which resulted from the overuse of … Read More
I started my herd with three does and a buck. Knowing that goats are herd animals and need company, I was buying my buck from a breeder who was going to give me a wether for company. However, after driving … Read More
Why a Newborn Check? Shortly after each kid is born you should do an initial newborn check to make sure that each kid has all its pieces in the right places. In addition to checking for obvious things, such as … Read More
The decision to dam raise or to bottle raise kids needs to be made before the kids are born. There has been a bias towards bottle raising baby dairy animals for the past few decades as factory farms took over … Read More
One of the hardest things for humans to understand is why goats are so mean to each other. And sometimes the goats that are the most outgoing towards humans are the roughest with other goats. They butt heads and slam … Read More
Every spring I respond to multiple phone calls and emails from people who want a pet goat. They are unaware that goats are herd animals and need to have another caprine friend to be healthy and happy. Here are a … Read More
One of the advantages that goats have over cattle, sheep, and pigs is that the equipment and infrastructure required for them is not nearly as costly. Goats were the first livestock we bought after chickens, and we had to buy … Read More
After reading my post on 5 reasons to milk test your does (or cows), you have decided you want to get started! So, what next? 1. Read the rules If you have goats, you can do DHIR (Dairy Herd Improvement … Read More
Thrifty Homesteader was created in 2012 after the publication of my second book, Ecothrifty. The name was coined by one of my followers because I said that I didn’t want anyone to think that they had to be rich to homestead or live a greener life....
