How do you guys with big herds do it???

[tltater]

I don't know how you guys do it! I only have five does and two bucks. I gave all five does baths today and trimmed hooves and am exhausted! What a woose(not sure of the spelling of that...lol!) I am! We also cleaned all rabbit cages and got the yard looking like a yard again(well sort of...still needs mowed!) I still need to work yet tonight...better get a few minutes of rest or I may pass out working...LOL! What a site that would be. My husband and I own our own business servicing(dust mopping, mopping and burnishing) commercial tile floor and boy wouldn't that look funny sleep mopping!

Ok...done boring everybody to death...LOL!

Tracy
Southwestern, NY

[xbeeman412]

LOL!!

Who gives bathes to all the goats...NOT Us.

[Misty]

why do you give them baths? We only bathe if they are going to show. We trim hooves once a year when we vaccinate....sometimes less that that. We will catch the really bad one's.
www.geocities.com/buckshotboers2003

[Misty]

fence in the goats to eat the weeds.

[tltater]

It's been rainy and muddy hear and I have a couple of girls that think they are part pig I think! I also have one that I believe has mange and part of one of the treatments I read about was to bathe them with dandruff shampoo. So, I gave them all a bath and while there feet were wet from that I trimmed hooves. The last time they all had a bath was ....last year during the warm weather.

Tracy
Southwestern, NY

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Diary goats are dealt with daily, twice a day. So hoof trimming for me starts the first day of the month, I trim one or two girls a day after they are milked, so the adult doe herd gets done quickly. I only keep 6 to 8 doelings each year and can eaisly trim up that amount of kids at one setting. The bucks are done once a month (they don't really need it but if you keep their feet short and do monthly maintenence rather than major hoof trimming every 3 or 4 months it's simply eaiser). With our sandy top soil, humidity and pinestraw woods, we couldn't let even our boers go for a 3 months without having their feet trimmed, much less a year!

When you go larger you have to run the place like a business, I am no longer larger, keep my numbers under 25, but I still use the same practices I used when the herd was in the 80's.

But you are correct, bathing, shaving, trimming feet and showshaving udders, and getting the showstring ready for a show is exhausting...why my showstring was only 3 milkers this spring Vicki

[babygoats!]

I started this "goat thing" as my Jim says, six years ago with one crabby doe and her baby. We're up to 113 goats this year, after having 54 babies this spring. We do NOT bathe the goats. We sell the whethers every year and keep the little girlies for breeding in a couple of years.
BUT...
Because we are up to 113 goats, that I name, talk to, make friends with, and as Jim says, "tuck into bed with a blanket and pillow every night". It's getting to be a bit overwhelming...especially at kidding time. I do believe I'm going to have to sell a bunch of my girls so I can actually enjoy my goats instead of them being so much work.

[GoldenWood Farm]

Lol..I only bath my goats when I need to clip them up or they are REALLY dirty. I try to clip hooves every month. But it really depends on when they look like they need it lol.

I have a herd of about 25 goats. By this time next year I will for sure have more as we all know we must feed our addictions .

So I clip when ever they look like they need it. Boy does my back scream at me when I do. But I am lucky. When ever I clip up, bath, or clip hooves on my goats I just put them on the milk stand. All my goats will go on the milkstand no problems what so ever. I start putting my kids on it like at 4-6 weeks when I first have to clip hooves. Just to get them used to being on it and standing to clip hooves.

When I first started in goats I would have to lay my 3 on their side to clip hooves....it was *he**!! Luckly they didn't weigh much as they where young at the time.

Ok I am done rambling..

MotherClucker

[Milking Mom]

Try making your chores not a chore. When you put the girl on the stand to milk, milk her and let her stand there and finish her grain while you grab the clippers and trim up her hooves. Do a couple today and a couple tomorrow. Now baths, I like to give baths to my goats. But I do it the same way. I don't try to do all of them on the same day, especially now that I have 10 milkers, 6 doelings and 2 bucks. I use Johnson's baby shampoo so I can wash their face without worrying about getting soap in their eyes. I use a hand held scrub brush and scrub them really good and rinse well. I have the radio on and pick a nice warm or hot sunny day, I put on shorts and I don't care if I get soaking wet or not. The water feels good to me too. They probably get like 3 baths a year. Now the ones that will go to shows get bathed and trimmed and clipped before each show.

[Tracy in Idaho]

I handle mine the same way -- hooves are trimmed a few sets at a time as they come in to be milked. Bucks usually the day after they are done, and then I move on to the kid pasture.

I don't even bathe my girls before shows -- it's just too darn cold here in May/early June. A little Cowboy Magic shower in a bottle works wonders.

Tracy