How hard is it to keep Boer Goats on Tessleymoor Farm

It’s been just over a year since we first introduced Boer goats to my farm.

At first the attraction of a few goats followed by kidding, was what drew me to owning these animals. We started with 3 but quickly increased to 12. In reality the truth was far from the idilic idea I created in my imagination. Yes they are amazing, charactered, animals, but the truth is they are one of the most expensive animals I own on my farm. They have suffered with so many ailments it’s unbelievable. The hardest ailment I’ve had to deal with was foot rot. Unfortunately it resulted in making the hard decision to destroy two of my goats this year, a resolve that wasn’t easy.

I made a commitment when I started on my farming dream to follow through with every process involved in owning animals, so I was present to dispatch my goats. Seeing an animal destroyed isn’t easy. What it taught me was I needed to make sure the planning for the welfare of my goats was in place better. Whilst I’d invested heavily in a new roof for the winter shed and built a huge outdoor summer goat field shelter, I’d not considered the ground under foot for all year round.

Boer goats are South African by origin, so they are used to dry conditions, which means even a small amount of dew in the morning and soft ground was impacting on the goats hoofs. This was then increasing the foot rot and scald. As foot rot is transferred between the herd it made it even more difficult to eradicate.

Thankfully the farming community is one that helps each other. There’s no hostility unlike dog training. Farmers are more than happy to help with any question you may have. So the last few weeks I’ve worked hard to clear out the winter goat shed. I decided on shallow bed and created small hay feeders scatted at different highs on the walls, encouraging my goats to climb, thus ensuring hoofs are kept in better condition.

My goats have now been in for a week, they’ve had a full antibiotic programme to treat any hoof problems, hoof trimming has been done twice, with 4 having serious trim backs to clear out foot rot. Yesterday we mineral drenched whilst doing a full MOT on them all. I’m happy to say they are all looking great, feeding has been adapted for being inside with constant feeding of hay always available.

If you are to consider owning goats, I’d strongly suggest talking to me or another goat farmer to help avoid the pitfalls we’ve all encountered.

Posted: October 20, 2022