Heat

The central and eastern part of the country are (we hope) nearing the end of an extended period of ridiculously high temps, low rainfall and generally gross weather.  Being the Nervous Nelly that I am, I came home from work early Friday in order to keep an eye on the goats and ducks.  Of course, everyone was fine.  When things aren't fine is generally when you think they are.  Lesson 1 of farming. 

Our goats have been holding up like champs.  When my husband designed our pen/housing/milking cottage, he arranged things so that the pen gets a lot of shade during the summer and much sun during the winter.  Our goats always have a shady spot in the worst part of the day.  Whether they are smart enough to go and find it is a different story.  I refill their water bucket a couple times a day to make sure the water stays cool as they are uninterested in drinking warm water in 100 degree weather.  Not so dumb after all, eh?

When I let the goats out to graze, they will sometimes get frisky, and run and leap around.  This makes them pant and it does take a while for them to return to normal.  This completely freaked me out at first, but I realized this is their "normal" and not something to be overly concerned about.  Of course, this is normal for my goats and yours may be different.

Here is an excellent article on heat stress in sheep and goats from the Maryland Small Ruminant  website.  The site is AMAZING in its comprehensiveness.  When you have a week or so, check it out.  The info is endless.

This article was linked to on the Virginia Dairy Goat Facebook page.  It is full of helpful discussions and information. Just search for it on Facebook and join up!