Reading Time: 8 minutes
Goats can be found pretty much everywhere people are and some places where people aren’t. However, although they’re adaptable to most situations, we still need to understand how different climates can affect them. Raising goats in summer heat requires special attention to their care, depending on your climate. Since they aren’t free to choose their own habitat, as their keepers, it’s our job to know what they need, whether we live in a hot and dry climate or a hot and humid one.
Raising Goats in Hot and Arid Climates
Located on 32 acres in Prescott, Arizona, Donna Trigilio raises Angora and Nigerian Dwarf goats on her Curly Goat Ranch in the notoriously hot and arid climate. She has around 50 of each breed, depending on if you ask before or after kidding season. Raising goats in the summer heat, where it’s hot and arid, has many advantages and a few potential risks that can be fixed or avoided based on proper planning.
In desert climates, the days can be exceedingly hot and the nights surprisingly cold. Trigilio sees 25-to-30-degree temperature differences daily. Both of her goat breeds do exceptionally well in her climate.
“The Angora goats do very well in this environment, but they need to be sheared twice a year,” Trigilio says. “You’ve got to be prepared for that. They’re a little more high-maintenance than sheep because most sheep only get sheared once a year.”
Benefits of Raising Goats in Hot and Arid Climates
- Low Parasites. Most of Trigilio’s herd was born at her ranch and rarely needs deworming. The animals she must medicate often are brought in from other places, as the worm load is higher in hot, humid climates. “The biggest benefit is you can have the goats out on pasture,” Trigilio says. “Of course, you want to rotate and do what’s best for the land. Our environment is hands down ideal for raising goats, in my obviously biased opinion.”
- Grazing. In arid climates, brush is prevalent and ideal for goats to graze on. Unfortunately, one pest plant, foxtail (Hordeum murinum), is a problem in Trigilio’s region, where the seedheads can get stuck in the faces of animals and she had to take measures to get rid of it.“I think for the first year in four years, I won’t have foxtails this spring,” Trigilio says.
- Fire Prevention. One of the primary goals for her goats in summer heat was to act as a firebreak by eating and clearing brush and reducing the “fuel” for the fire. “We’re in a partnership with NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) and did a clearing of my property that’s supposed to be a firebreak that needs to be maintained. And the goats are the perfect tool for that job.”
Problems With Potential
Uneven Land.
Trigilio’s location is rocky, and nothing is flat unless she makes it that way. Getting temporary fencing anchored securely so the goats can mow certain areas can be challenging.
Shelter.
A three-sided run-in shelter is a nice thought to protect the animals from prevailing winds. However, Trigilio quickly learned that the lack of airflow in the shelter was problematic during the hottest part of the summer. Thankfully, she started small. When she was ready to upgrade, she made the back of the barn have a garage door that could be rolled up to allow proper airflow depending on the season. This ensured her animals were comfortable.
Water.
In a hot climate, hot water can prevent animals from drinking. Goats in the summer heat need a lot of water. During the summer months, Trigilio changes the water in the afternoon to reduce the heat it absorbs during the day. In the winter, changing the water in the mornings keeps it unfrozen and drinkable.
“When you do your animal chores, the water may look clean and fresh, but if you don’t put your hand in it to see what the temperature is, you may be making a huge mistake,” Trigilio warns. “This is a bigger problem for bucks than it is for does. Once they get dehydrated, if you’re feeding any amount of grain, just the lack of water in their system can help them develop stones, and you end up with urinary calculi.”
Fire Risk.
When living in a high-risk fire area, having an evacuation plan for your goats is important. This plan should include a team of people who can help move them and a place picked out where they can stay until it’s safe to come back.
Raising Goats in Hot and Humid Climates
In the summers of the southeast, it’s hard to imagine any domestic animals thriving amid the intense heat and daily summer rains. However, many goat breeds are well-adapted to these conditions and will produce plenty of milk, meat, and fiber with just a little forethought.
Breeds
“Selecting appropriate breeds is always important for both sheep and goats,” Dr. Leyla Rios de Alvarez says when choosing a climate-compatible livestock animal. Rios is an Assistant Professor of Extension & Research at the Mississippi State University.
“The goat breeds we use here in the south are breeds that are very popular and have been raised for so long in the States that they’re adapted to our conditions, heat, and humidity.” She adds, “Some of them also have a background coming from tropical environments.”
Rios, a sheep and goat specialist with the university, works with farmers who, on average, have 50 animals or less. A fascinating statistic is that her sheep and goat farmers are, on average, 10 years younger than the average U.S. farmer, and slightly more than 50% of correspondents are female farmers. The most popular breeds in these southeastern homesteads are Kiko, LaMancha, Spanish, and Nubian goats.
“Kiko goats are very adapted to the southeast, and we’re working on that breed with the farmers doing parasite tests,” Rios says. “Spanish goats are also very adapted to our conditions.” On the dairy side, LaMancha and Nubian goats are originally from tropical conditions and easily adapt to the southeast.
“The breed is important, but always keep in mind that the higher the productivity of the animal, the higher their requirements and the more sensitive the animal is going to be to any extreme environmental condition.”
For example, breeds from Switzerland’s mountaintops are heavy milk producers. But in the southeast, they’ll have higher nutritional requirements and require extra care to keep them producing optimally in the hot and humid weather.
Humidity and Parasites
In general, she says that it will never be too hot for goats. What complicates things is the combination of high heat and humidity.
“People raising wool animals like sheep, or hair animals if it’s on the goat side, in very dry and hot weather do perfectly fine,” Rios explains. “But here, high humidity and high temperature is a problem for us because it’s so unique that it becomes a great environment for parasites.”
With the long warm season, parasites have more time to live, reproduce, and travel. With no freezing temperatures until January or February, managing the parasites sustainably is trickier for goats in the summer heat.
“We need to always keep an eye on the FAMACHA score, checking the eye of the animals regularly,” Rios endorses. “We need to keep rotating our animals from paddock to paddock to avoid and minimize the problem.”
The main focus is on barber pole worms (Haemonchus contortus), which favor warm and humid conditions. According to Purdue University, it’s the most economically significant parasite of goats throughout much of the world due to the severity of the parasitism and the emerging anthelmintic resistance. The life cycle of barber pole worm is like other roundworms and can cause gastric hemorrhaging and heavy infections, which can lead to sudden death. Keep track of the FAMACHA and do fecals. Consult your veterinarian on which anthelmintics (antiparasitic drugs) are recommended and when it’s best to deworm.
“I’m an animal scientist, I’m not a vet, but I’ve seen very little ectoparasites here in the southeast,” Rios says. “We can get cases of ticks, for example, but it’s not that common or as huge a problem as barber pole worm.”
Keeping the farmers informed is a big aspect of Rios’s job. Vaccinations are cheap and will save the farmers money in the long term.
“We normally recommend CDT for goats. That’s the normal vaccination that everyone uses. They’ll probably not have to use anything else, unless they get a particular disease in their region.”
Hoof Care in Humid Environments
Hoof care is another issue for goats in the summer heat where it’s humid. “There are lots of problems with the humidity here, and when it’s rainy season in the summer, we get a lot of calls asking for help on the hooves,” Rios observes. “We basically have foot scald and foot rot.”
Foot rot is a highly contagious disease caused by exposure to contaminated soil. It results in the animal having a fever, loss of appetite, and hoof deformity. Foot scald is non-contagious and caused by microorganisms from ruminant feces. Lameness, reduced weight gain, and grazing on the front knees are symptoms of food scald.
Shelter
Shelter from the rain and shade in the paddocks are two important things Rios thinks are important for farmers to provide. Water, hay, and grass quality are another consideration. If farmers have good plant forages available, 100% grazing is possible. Mineral supplements should be available every day. In addition to consulting your local extension office, Rios recommends goatherders follow the guidance of the American Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control at Wormx.info. They now have new information available in Spanish that Rios has helped translate.
KENNY COOGAN earned a master’s degree in Global Sustainability and has published over 400 articles on pets, livestock, and gardening. He lives on a 1-acre homestead with a flock of Pekin ducks, managing a permaculturestyle landscape. Coogan also runs a successful carnivorous plant nursery in Tampa. Listen to Coogan co-host podcasts by visiting Mother Earth News and Friends Podcast.
The post Raising Goats in Summer Heat appeared first on Goat Journal.