Gaining confidence in your goats and yourself

Have you ever spent hours -- or days and nights -- in a cold barn because you thought your doe was in labor? How many times have you wondered, "Is that normal?" How much sleep have you lost when goats were due to kid because you kept running out to the barn to check on them?

My answers to these questions have changed dramatically since 2002 when we bought our first goats. The most frustrating part of "the early years" was spending a couple of days with a doe and then having her kid 15 minutes after I went into the house eat lunch! But it doesn't have to be that way. And you don't have to wait 10 or 15 years to get the experience to know when your doe is close to giving birth or that things are progressing normally.

New and aspiring goat owners often tell me that they wish they could spend a couple of weeks with an experienced goat breeder during kidding season. They are worried that they won't know what's normal or when a doe needs help.

Although we've been offering internships during kidding season for many years, I realize most people don't have the time to come to our farm for a couple of weeks. That's why I created this online course. It includes all of the information that I give students in our on-farm classes about goat birthing and getting started with kids. Plus, it includes extended videos of 20+ kids that were born on our farm -- from labor and birth through nursing, bottle-feeding, disbudding, castrating, tattooing and more.

The birthing videos are minimally edited and heavily narrated. You'll see the good, the bad, the boring, and the ugly.

• We'll start with checking on does who are due. You'll follow me as I check udders and tail ligaments and look at bellies and debate when to move a doe to a kidding pen.
• You'll be there during early labor and hear how I decide whether to head back into the house or stay in the barn longer.
• You'll see normal labors and abnormal labors, as well as normal labors that are different -- and would make most newbies really worried!
• You'll see does pushing out kids. I'll talk about what's normal and why I'm just sitting and waiting.
• I'll also let you know when I'm starting to get worried.
• If I do something, I'll explain the pros and cons, along with what I'm doing and why.
• You'll see normal and abnormal placentas and learn what they mean.

Once the kids are born, you'll see how quickly (or slowly) they get to their feet and start nursing.

• If they don't start nursing in a timely manner, you'll learn what to do.
• When a kid gets hypothermia, you'll see how I get them warmed up and how I get colostrum into them with syringe-feeding or bottle-feeding.
• If a doe has too many kids to feed or if a kid has problems at birth that make it harder to get started nursing, you'll see how to start bottle feeding, as well as the way that bottle-feeding changes in the early weeks.
• You'll learn about normal newborn poop, newborn hooves, and umbilical cords.
• You'll see us weighing kids to determine if they're gaining weight at an acceptable rate.
• You'll see a dehydrated kid that had hypoglycemia and how it was tube-fed.
• You can watch us disbud five kids so you get several perspectives.
• You'll also see several castrations with a Burdizzo and a Side Crusher.
• Another video shows us tattooing several kids.
• One video is devoted to figuring out which kids are polled and which are horned over the course of several days. We even let the horns grow on four of the kids so you can see how fast the horns grow.

Basically you'll get to see just about everything that happens from the end of pregnancy throughout the first two months of a kid's life.