Better gains, worms still in check

6:30 a.m. -- The goats were worked today by Jeff Semler, David Gordon, Mary Beth Bennett, Jeanne Dietz-Band, Pam Thomas, and Susan Schoenian. Weight gains were the best of any period so far, and internal parasites (primarily barber pole worm) continue to be kept at bay.

FAMACHA© eye anemia, body condition, and coat condition scores were determined by Susan Schoenian. Data was recorded by Pam Thomas. Individual and pooled fecal samples were collected by Susan Schoenian and Mary Beth Bennett and sent via overnite mail to Delaware State University and the University of Georgia, respectively.

The goats were weighed by Jeff Semler and David Gordon. For the previous 13-day period, weight gain ranged from -2 to +10 lbs. (0.9 to 4.5 kg) and averaged 4.3 lbs. (2 kg) or 0.327 lbs. (147 g) per day.

For the period, the fastest gaining goat was a Kiko buck consigned by Merritt Burke (DE). It gained 10 lbs. or 0.769 lbs. (350 g) per day. One of Craig Adams's (IL) Kiko bucks gained 9 lbs. or 0.692 lbs. (315 g) per day.

For the first 70 days of the test, weight gain has ranged from -5 to +30 lbs. (-2.3 to 13.6 kg) or -0.07 to 0.435 lbs. (-32 to 198 g) per day. The top-gaining goat is a Kiko buck consigned by Merritt Burke. It has gained 30 lbs. or 0.435 lbs. per day while on test.

Four out of five of Craig Adams's goats are gaining over 0.30 lbs. (136 g) per day. Merritt Burke has three goats that are gaining more than 0.30 lbs. per day. John Smith (VA) has two goats that are averaging more than 0.30 lbs. per day.

The next best goats are gaining 0.29 lbs. (132 g) per day. There are three of them: two consigned by Dana and Kendall Barnes (KY) and one consigned by Sky and Deborah Shivers (OK). All of the top gaining goats are Kiko or percentage Kiko.

For the August 13 collection, fecal egg counts ranged from 0 to 3,133 eggs per gram and averaged just 493 eggs per gram. Two weeks prior, eggs counts averaged 663 eggs per gram. No goats required anthelmintic treatment today. FAMACHA© scores ranged from 1 to 3 and averaged 1.8, the same as two weeks ago.

The goats have been and are currently grazing tall fescue. All of the fescue at the test site is MaxQ™. As such, it does not contain the toxic endophyte.

The goats will be worked next on Thursday, September 10th. In addition to the regular data collection, the goats will be scanned to determine their rib fat and rib eye area. Scrotal measurements will be taken. Scrotal splits will be noted and measured. Teats will be counted and evaluated. The goats will also be evaluated for structural correctness (mouths, feet, legs, etc.)

Download August 26 report

Weed or feed?

by Jeff Semler
Extension Agent, Washington County

A plant can be the apple of one person’s eye and the bane of another. One needs to remember that a weed is simply a plant out of place. When it comes to livestock producers, whether a plant is a weed will depend on what type of animal the producer is raising.

To a dairy farmer, fescue can be a weed, but to a beef producer it is high quality winter feed. When it comes to small ruminants such as sheep and goats, the weed designation gets even more unclear. However, if you ask the average farmer if they consider marestail, chicory, lambsquarter and foxtail weeds, the almost unanimous response would be yes. The possible exception would be if you had a goat producer in the group.

Currently at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center, there are 60 goats which are part of the Western Maryland Pasture-based Meat Goat Performance Test. The goats are maintained in a ten acre pasture consisting of five paddocks. The paddocks contain some of the usual suspects such as orchardgrass and fescue, but two paddocks are planted in unusual species.

One paddock contains two annual forages: turnips and pearl millet. The other paddock was seeded to perennial forage chicory three years ago. Finally, there is a paddock that was seeded to sericea lespedeza this spring and was a complete failure, but that is where things get interesting.

We often look at plants from a human perspective, but when we look at these same plants through the eyes and stomach of a goat, we see something completely different. We see food. What we saw as a crop failure, the goats saw as a buffet of marestail, lambsquarter and foxtail. In the chicory paddock, they ate the thistles first. I ask you weed or feed?

Since this behavior, which was not totally unexpected since goats are really browsers and not grazers, piqued my interest I took some forage samples of these perceived weeds and had them analyzed. I didn’t have the thistles tested, but I will get back to that later.

Below is the analysis of these forages. As you can see these “weeds” are of higher quality than most of the hay that is fed to our test bucks herd mates during the winter. As a matter of fact, the chicory tests higher than alfalfa hay, which would be the envy of every dairy farmer.

Why didn’t I take a sample of the thistles? The goats beat me to them. In the chicory field there is a rock outcropping that was rife with thistles. When the goats were turned into that paddock they ate the thistles first. This I believe had more to do with behavior than with nutrition. The rock outcroppings are the high ground in the paddock, and this was the preferred position for the goats to set up camp. Below you can see the before and after pictures of the rock outcroppings.

So, is that plant a weed or is it feed? I guess it depends on your point of view.

Good gains, still no worm problems

6:30 a.m. -- The goats were worked today by David Gordon, Mary Beth Bennett, Jeanne Dietz-Band, Pam Thomas, and Susan Schoenian.

FAMACHA©, body condition, and coat condition scores were determined by Susan Schoenian. Data was recorded by Pam Thomas. Individual and pooled fecal samples were collected by Susan Schoenian and sent via overnite mail to Delaware State University and the University of Georgia, respectively.

David Gordon weighed the goats. For the previous 14-day period, weight gain ranged from 0 to +9 lbs. (4.1 kg) and averaged 4.3 lbs. (2 kg) or 0.306 lbs. (139 g) per day. No goats lost any weight. The goats gained better than any previous period. For the period, the fastest gaining goat was a Kiko consigned by Wes Pinneo (Kansas). The buck gained 9 lbs. or 0.643 lbs. (292 g) per day.

For the first 56 days of the test, the top gaining goat is a Kiko buck consigned by Craig Adams (Illinois). It has gained 21 lbs. (9.5 kg) or 0.375 lbs. (170 g) per day since June 18. The next three top gaining goats are Kikos consigned by Merritt Burke (Delaware). The bucks from Burke's consignment of five are averaging 0.303 lbs. (138 g) per day.

For all sixty goats, weight gain (or loss) has ranged from -4 lbs. (1.8 kg) to +21 lbs. (9.5 kg) and averaged 9.6 lbs. (4.4 kg) or 0.170 lbs. (77 g) per day since June 18. Differences in the goats are narrowing, as some goats that had not been gaining well posted some robust gains this period.

FAMACHA© scores saw an improvement of almost a half of a score. Today's scores ranged from 1 to 3 and no goat required anthelmintic treatment. The average FAMACHA© score was 1.8 compared to 2.2 two weeks ago.

During the previous two weeks, the goats had been grazing chicory and orchardgrass. None of the forage is short, so perhaps this is keeping the goats from ingesting large amounts of infective worm larve.

After being worked today, the goats were given access to a 2-acre paddock that was planted with a mixture of (dwarf) pearl millet and turnips. Neither forage species came up well, thus the field is full of volunteer weeds, which the goats relish.

The goats will be worked next on Wednesday, August 26 -- a day early, due to Maryland State Fair commitments.

Download August 13 report

Egg counts low, but climbing

As of July 30, fecal egg counts (FEC) remain relatively low, despite declines in average FAMACHA© eye anemia scores. However, egg counts are gradually increasing and the weather is ideal for development of the barber pole worm.

On June 6, fecal egg counts ranged from 0 to 8,500 and averaged 1,202 eggs per gram. Per test protocol, all goats were dewormed with moxidectin (Cydectin® 1% injectable; 1 ml/110 lbs.) and levamisole (Prohibit® drench; 1.5x the sheep dose).

The fecal egg count of the pooled sample collected on June 6 was 533 eggs per gram and was 84% Haemonchus (barber pole worm) and 16% Trichostrongylus.

On June 18, fecal egg counts ranged from 0 to 300 and averaged 14 eggs per gram. Anthelmintic treatments on June 6 reduced egg counts by more than 95%. There were not enough eggs in the pooled sample (only 33 epg) for coproculture.

On July 1, fecal egg counts ranged from 0 to 2,400 and averaged 271 eggs per gram. Based on FAMACHA© scores, one goat was dewormed with moxidectin. The pooled fecal sample had an egg count of 300 eggs per gram and was 93% Haemonchus and 7% Trichostrongylus. In the individual fecal samples, the lab technician noted "lots of hookworm and tapeworm eggs throughout the samples.


On July 16, fecal egg counts ranged from 0 to 2,525 and averaged 335 eggs per gram. Based on FAMACHA© scores, five goats were dewormed with moxidectin. The pooled sample had an egg count of 680 eggs per gram and was 80% Haemonchus and 20% Trichostrongylus. According to the Culture ID Report, there was a significant number of unidentified larvae (approximately 15-20%), possibly Bunostomun (hookworm) or Strongyloides.

On July 30, fecal egg counts ranged from 0 to 3,225 and averaged 663 eggs per gram. According to the lab technician, several samples had tapeworm or whipworm eggs. Some had coccidia oocytes. Based on FAMACHA© scores, no goats required deworming.

Fecal egg counts are determined by Dr. Dahlia Jackson-O'Brien's lab at Delaware State University using a modified McMaster procedure. Coproculture (larave ID) is done by Dr. Ray Kaplan's lab at the University of Georgia.

Download July 30 Parasite Report