Goats continue to gain weight

Keedysville, MD, 6:30 a.m. -- The goats were worked today by Jeff Semler, Mary Beth Bennett, Cindy Mason, and Susan Schoenian. FAMACHA© eye anemia and body condition scores (BCS) were determined by Susan Schoenian. The goats were weighed by Jeff Semler.

Despite the increase in rutting behavior, the goats continue to gain weight. Among individual goats, average daily gain ranged from 0 to 0.643 lbs. (292 g) per day (only one goat lost weight) for the past 14 days. The group average was 0.258 + 0.132 lbs. (117 g) per day. Average daily gain over the 84-day test period ranged from 0.122 to 0.354 lbs. per day, for a group average of 0.235 + 0.043 (107 g).

Internal parasites continue to be a non-issue with this year's test goats. No goat required deworming today. FAMACHA© scores ranged from 1 to 3 and averaged 1.79 + 0.469. Two weeks prior, they averaged 1.94. Body condition scores ranged from 2.00 to 3.25 and averaged 2.77 + 0.180. Body condition scores vary more between goats than with individual goats who stay relatively constant, despite variations in rate-of-gain.

A different goat now leads the test in growth performance. One of James Barnes' goats (from Kentucky) is averaging 0.354 lbs. (161 g) per day. This 77-lb. (35 kg) Kiko buck has gained 0.538 lbs. (245 g) per day since August 17.

The second fastest gaining goat in the test is the Don Smith goat mentioned in the last blog entry. Smith's Kiko cross buck is gaining 0.341 lbs. (155 g) per day. Two goats are tied for third fastest growing at 0.317 lbs. (144) per day. These are goats consigned by Bill Lowe (PA) and Robie Robinson (VA).

Since very few goats have been dewormed in this year's test, another set of fecal samples was obtained from the goats. The samples were collected on ice and will be mailed to Delaware State University for fecal egg count determination using the McMaster procedure.

While not having to deworm a goat (based on good FAMACHA© scores) is a valuable trait, it is also important to favor bucks with low fecal egg counts, another heritabable trait. Goats that do not require frequent deworming may still pass significant numbers of worm eggs onto the pasture, resulting in contaminated pastures which may cause clinical parasitism in the more susceptible animals.

After the goats were worked today, they were moved to the field of pearl millet. They were very anxious to return to this field. While they don't seem to like the millet all that much, there are parts of the field that contain a lot of forbs. They will eat the forbs before grazing much of the millet.

All of the pasture fields are now green and full of new growth. Wetter grass has resulted in softer feces in several of the goats. The goats never really touched the hay that we put out for them, only played on it. They continue to eat down the supplement in the nutritional tubs.

The test is set to end the first week of October.

Download September 12 report