Goats Behaviour And Welfare

Goats are not like sheep :
The first thing to accept is that  goats  are very different from sheep in their behaviour, and we sometimes forget this when trying to handle them.
The goat is found on all the continents of the world, and is one of man's most important animals as more people in the world eat goat meat than eat sheep meat.
Goat remains 10,000 years old (or of their early ancestors) have been found in central and West Iran, and domestic  goats  existed in other parts of the world for 8,000 years.
Some authorities suggest that  goats  were companion animals long before dogs. The goat has also caused many of the world's deserts through man's ignorance and stupidity resulting in over grazing.
The goat was domesticated early along with sheep and adapted well to man's nomadic lifestyle as well as in established farming.
goats  are a different species to sheep with different numbers of chromosomes (sheep 27 pairs and goat 30 pairs). Hybrids between them are often reported (Geeps or Shoats) but are not viable and don't breed.
Products from  goats  :
Meat : called Chevon
Dairy produce : milk, cheese, yoghurt
Skins : Fibre - mohair, cashmere, cashgora (Cashmere x Angora), and beard hair.
In some cultures they are sacrificed for religious reasons.
Companions and pets.
Goat senses
Sight :
Sight is very similar to sheep (see sheep)
goats  have a similar blind spot at their rear, but they are more difficult to catch using this area as they are generally more alert than sheep and are not blinded by wool on the head and around the eyes.
They can distinguish different colours - responding best to orange and worst to blue.
Hearing :
goats  are very sensitive to a range of sounds from the high pitched squeals of kids to low pitched snorts or foot stamping on the ground.
They have an ability to move their ears to locate the source of sound.
Smell :
Being browsers and highly selective grazers,  goats  have a keen sense of smell which aids in diet selection.
goats  will not eat mouldy or musty feed, and generally avoid poisonous plants unless they are wilted and then are more palatable.
Ingestive  behaviour  ( Grazing , Feeding , Drinking & Rumination ) :
goats  are ruminants but don’t have a split upper lip like sheep so don’t graze as close to the ground as sheep.
goats  are classical browsers and are used by farmers to graze out weeds if no chemical sprays are wanted.
They are effective ruminants relying completely on pasture by about 15 weeks of age when they synchronise their grazing  behaviour  with their dam.
goats  seem to be less concerned about prickly plants suggesting their lips are different to sheep.
They eat a lot of roughage that includes weeds, woody shrubs, leaves and bark. They are well known for ring barking trees. They have been shown to digest cellulose and lignin in plants more efficiently than sheep.
They eat plants from tip down to base - that's why they are so good at killing gorse and thistles and stopping them seeding.
goats  will also stand on their hind legs to reach up high to browse and will use their front legs to hold branches down. They'll even climb trees to get at leaves.
They do not like clover so goat pastures end up being very clover dominant.
Dairy  goats  are fed grain to maintain their production, as they generally cannot eat enough pasture to maintain high yields (around 6Litres per day).
A study of NZ feral  goats  showed they spent 30% of their day feeding with their first period being from dawn to 10.30am, then resting till more grazing from 11am to noon.
Then there was another rest period till a grazing spell from 2.30pm - 3.30 pm followed by another rest spell. The final grazing spell was for 3 hours before sunset.
Of the total feeding period, 34% was grazing and 65% browsing. Ruminating took up 10% of the total time with 46% resting. Most resting took place in winter and least in autumn when mating.
About 12% of the goats' time was spent traveling about 3km/day while grazing or going to water.
They were seen to defaecate 3.4 times/day and urinate 5times/day, but these are very dependent on the diet.
Social  behaviour  :
goats  are a flocking species but they don't flock as tightly as sheep.
Feral  goats  are hard to muster as individuals (especially males) keep breaking back and prefer to escape rather than herd with the mob.
Sheep stick with the mob for safety unlike  goats  that seem to more keen to take a chance on their own.
goats  will herd together better when you get them off their home range. It's a good idea to have some sheep in the goat mob to encourage flocking during mustering.
goats  are a "lying-out" species like cattle and deer which is a big contrast to sheep.
Males join harems of females in autumn and feral bucks will travel up to 20km to find does. But the rest of the year they are in bachelor groups or live as solitary males. They sort out a social order in these groups by bunting and horn wrestling.
So most of the year, an alpha female leads a small family group of females suckling their current kids, with any previous adolescent females still in the group. A dam may suckle a kid till the next one is born.
Younger members of the family or tribe are submissive to higher-ranking females.
As most feral  goats  in NZ have horns, they use these along with head butts to sort out their social status.
In farmed milking goats, you see them bunting and biting each other in the milking bail to sort out their differences, especially in competition for any feed supplements.
At mating the buck is the harem leader and fights off any on-comers. These may be younger lower-ranking males in the group waiting for an opportunity, but the old buck is the boss and does the mating.
Mature bucks sort themselves out by serious head butting, rising on their hind legs to attack with horns and heads. They also use their horns to side-rake their opponents
Climbing and digging :
Goats are remarkable in their ability to climb and can move safely along narrow mountain paths to graze among the rocks.
You often see a roadside goat standing on the ridge of their A-framed shelter.
The contrast between  goats  and sheep is best seen at school pet days, where the goat kids are tested in extra exercises like climbing and walking over a see saw which would be a much greater challenge to a lamb.
This ability can be a problem in farming, as  goats  will climb fence stays to jump over. So electric fencing is necessary to run goats, especially at the high stocking rates needed to make them eat weeds.
Goats will also dig holes below fences to escape. They also like to dig areas to lie in and enjoy the sun's warmth in winter. They do this especially on North facing slopes which then start eroding.
The female (Doe or Nanny) :
goats  are seasonal breeders coming into heat in autumn as daylight declines.
They reach maturity at about 5-6 months old but well-reared milking-breed kids can show heat earlier (4 months) so they have to be watched to avoid too-early mating.
Once the doe starts cycling she will come on heat every 17 days like sheep, and stays on heat for about a day. But these times can vary greatly.
Feral does seem to prefer old mature high-ranking bucks in preference to young ones. But this may be because the old bucks are more aggressive and chase the young ones away.
Signs of oestrus :
Vocalisation - especially if a lone goat.
Urinating a lot - crouched with rear legs set open.
Tail fanning.
Showing aggression to other  goats  and biting them in the milking bail.
Some mounting of other  goats  - or their friendly owner!
The doe is stimulated to cycle and ovulate by the smell of the buck.
Pregnancy in  goats  is about 5 months like sheep.
goats  can show pseudo-pregnancy and it can be a problem mainly in milking herds.
The male (Buck or Billy) :
Male  goats  have a thick beard but so do females so the beard is not stimulated by hormones.
Male  goats  reach puberty about 4-5 months old, but you should not assume that younger males will not be fertile.
Mature males show a definite "rut" period and the first sign of it is when they start to smell strongly. This smell is made worse for humans (and better for does) by the goat spreading a thin jet or urine from his erect penis along the belly, chest and on to his beard.
This is called "enurination" and is seen regularly where bucks are tethered, or when kept separate from does waiting for mating to start. Bucks, especially male goatlings run in groups, can use up so much energy in this activity that it impairs their efficiency when joined with does.
Bucks twist themselves around so they can get their penis into their mouth where the urine stimulates a Flehmen reaction. They will often even masturbate and ejaculate on their bellies and beards - all adding to their aroma which stimulates heat and ovulation in the does.
Does often are very interested in this  behaviour  and stand and watch attentively.
Before mounting, the buck sniffs the doe's side and genital area. He chases her making "gobbling" sounds with his mouth, and flicking his tongue in and out like a ram does.
If the doe urinates he tastes it and gives a Flehmen response. He may have a false mount or two and then a proper mount with ejaculation when he thrusts forward and leaps off the ground.
Following ejaculation - he may lick his penis, and show a Flehmen response again.
Doe  behaviour  at birth ( Maternal  behaviour  ) :
Just before birth a doe is often more fretful and nervous.
Feral  goats  will separate from the main group and find a birth site in a quiet sheltered spot but milking  goats  in a herd may not have space to do this.
Near birth the doe will have "bagged up" and may show a mucous discharge from the vulva.
Udder swelling will be much more obvious in milking  goats  than in feral  goats  with smaller udders.
If kept indoors, the doe will paw the bedding and try to make a birth site.
Birth should take about an hour but problems can arise with multiple births as in sheep.
The doe should get up quickly and turn to chew the membranes and lick the kids. The kicking of the kids usually bursts any membranes covering them, but you can get deaths from a piece of membrane left on the nose.
Afterbirths are passed soon after birth but may be delayed for up to four hours. There seem to be fewer problems with retained foetal membranes in  goats  and sheep than in cattle.
The doe recognises its kid first by smell and then by both sound and sight.
Fostering alien kids to does has the same problems as in sheep, and the same tricks are needed to fool the doe. (See sheep behaviour).
Kids  behaviour  at birth ( Neonatal  behaviour  ) :
Once on their feet, kids should start their teat-seeking behaviour.
They nuzzle the doe's side to find some warm bare skin and hopefully with a teat.
Good mothers will stand still and encourage the kid to do this by nuzzling the kids rear end, rather than keep turning head-on to lick it.
Survival depends on getting enough colostrum within the first hours after birth.
Kids do not follow their mothers all the time like lambs so have fewer suckling periods when the doe goes back to feed them.
Cross fostering lambs on  goats  and vice versa highlights this behavioural difference, with lambs on  goats  growing faster than their kid mate as they followed the doe and suckle more. The ewe with a kid kept often loses it as the kid goes to lie on its own.
In the first few weeks after bonding is strong, a doe will go back to its hiding kid and feed it 4-5 times a day. This intense hiding  behaviour  lasts from 3days to several weeks till the kids are eating pasture when they follow their dams more.
Dairy kids are kept in mobs and fed on milk replacer diets where they can feed ad lib, along with supplemented hay and meal.
Disturbance at birth will cause bonding problems, and the doe may take off leaving a twin behind.
There is a high death rate among feral kids and you regularly see a doe with twins at birth with a single a week or so after birth.
With farmed goats, providing shelter is very important for does and kids during the first weeks of life.
During the first weeks, kids will start playing together but will still stay close to their dams. They often climb on their parents' backs and seem to be tolerated.
Kids start to nibble grass by 3 weeks of age, and after 8-9 weeks are very effective ruminants.

Dr Clive Dalton