Goat safety tips help goat owners understand their herds and avoid potentially dangerous situations. Here are six practical tips that can help keep your goats healthy and safe.
Are Goat Safety Tips Necessary?
To the untrained eye, it may appear that goats do not really need safety tips to keep them safe. Especially when you witness a goat butting its head against a barn gate or even a human, it’s hard to imagine that goats can be easily injured.
However, experienced goat handlers know that their herds need protection against many things, such as ingesting harmful materials, bodily injuries, and predators.
Goat Safety Tip #1: Forgo the Chain
Chaining your goat to a stake in the backyard may seem like a good way to allow your goat access to fresh grass, without the work of erecting a goat proof fence (see tip three for more).
While it may seem ideal, avoiding chains is one of the most critical of the goat safety tips. Chains can become tangled by fallen tree limbs, brush, weeds, or goats becoming entangled in the chain,causing injuries or the potential of your goat getting strangled by the chain.
Another downside to staking and chaining your goats outside, is that there is no protection from predators. Coyotes, neighborhood dogs, and even your own friendly pup, can injure and potentially kill a staked goat.
Prevent accidental injuries and deaths in your herd, and never chain your goats out in the backyard, pasture, or in the barn.
Goat Safety Tip #2: Watch the Horns
Watching the horns may sound more like safety tips for handlers, than goat safety tips, but this tip is a two way street. Not only can goats’ horns cause injuries to humans, the horns can also be injured themselves.
A goat can injure or break their horns from incorrect handling, so extra care is advised when dealing with a horned goat. While it is okay to hold a goat gently by the horns if it needs to be guided to the barn, always exercise caution.
Goat horns are filled with blood, and if handled in a rough manner can break and cause significant bleeding.
Other ways to prevent horn injuries or broken horns is by ensuring hay mangers are roomy enough for goats to pull their heads in and out without catching their horns. House intact males separately to avoid fighting injuries.
Goat Safety Tip #3: Install Goat-Friendly Fencing
An article about goat safety tips would not be complete without mentioning the pasture fence. Goats are notorious for climbing fences, chewing through them, jumping over, and even squeezing underneath the pasture fence.
No fence is entirely goat-proof, but there are a few tips to help keep your herd in the pasture (most days anyway). The key is to use electric fencing and think like a goat.
Installing an electric fence is the best way to deter goats from climbing and chewing the fence.
Running non-electric fencing close to the ground should help prevent clever caprines from squeezing out the bottom.
Another thing to take into consideration when constructing your pasture fence is that it doesn’t matter how sturdy the fence is, if your goats can jump right over it. Goats need tall fencing, approximately four to six feet high. However, even when housed in a pasture, with tall fencing, some goats will still find a way to escape. This is where thinking like a goat may come in handy.
Low-lying branches, piles of rock, and goat playground equipment are all things goats will use to their advantage to jump the fence. Relocating playground equipment and rocks to the middle of the pasture is the best way to promote mental and physical stimulation without assisting your herd in their escape. Trim low-lying tree branches to prevent goats from climbing the trees and leaping out of the pasture.
Goat Safety Tip #4: Prevent Hardware Disease
Hardware disease is when a goat consumes a harmful material such as fencing, a loose bit of wire, or a screw, nail, etc. If a goat consumes these or other metal objects, the metal will leach into the goat’s bloodstream, causing them to become sick and die.
This deadly disease is nothing to mess with, and can usually be avoided when practicing good husbandry skills and goat safety tips. Prevent this condition by securing loose wires and fencing, and when making barn and pasture repairs, be sure to clean up any supplies, including fencing, wire, nuts, bolts, nails, staples, etc.
Goat Safety Tip #5: Protect Against Predators
Predator protection can easily be overlooked in our goat safety tips, as you don’t often hear of goats being attacked by predators. Though not as common as a predator attacking a flock of chickens, goats still face predators, and need to be protected should a predator attempt an attack.
Despite their large size, goats and their young (called kids) face a wide variety of predators, including domestic and feral dogs, foxes, coyotes, wolves, bobcats, lynx, mountain lions, bears, feral pigs, and birds of prey.
Protect your goats from a predator attack by never allowing them access to the pasture at night. Investing in a livestock guardian such as a lama or donkey can help prevent attacks, and providing shelter when the females are about to give birth will help keep predators from attacking your herd.
Goat Safety Tip #6: Safe Handling Practices
One of the easiest of the goat safety tips to practice daily is the handling tip. Frequent handling will help goats adjust to being handled and make it much easier to work with your herd.
When handling your goat, always be careful to not cause injury to the horns, and never grab a goat by their legs or tails.
When restraining a goat, use extra caution to avoid pressing around the neck area, as this could cause the goat to choke on its cud or other feed. When lifting, be sure to support the entire body to prevent injury to the goat.
FAQ: Goat Safety Tips
Why are goat safety tips important?
Goat safety tips help prevent injuries, protect your herd from predators, and reduce the risk of illness, ensuring goats live longer, healthier lives.
Can I chain my goat outside safely?
No. One of the most critical goat safety tips is to avoid chaining goats, as chains can tangle, cause injuries, and leave goats vulnerable to predators.
How can I prevent horn injuries in goats?
Handle horned goats gently, avoid rough interactions, and provide enough space at feeders and hay mangers so horns don’t get caught or broken.
What kind of fencing is best for goat safety?
Tall, sturdy fencing combined with electric wire helps deter climbing and chewing. Always think like a goat to prevent escapes and injuries.
How do I protect my goats from predators?
Provide nighttime shelter, consider livestock guardian animals, and secure pastures. Protecting kids during birth is especially important.
What is hardware disease and how can it be prevented?
Hardware disease occurs when goats ingest nails, wire, or other metal objects. Secure loose materials, clean up repairs promptly, and maintain a safe barn and pasture.
How should I handle goats safely?
Support their whole body when lifting, avoid grabbing legs or tails, and handle horned goats carefully to prevent injury. Frequent, gentle handling reduces stress in the herd.
Practicing goat safety tips is an essential part of owning goats and providing them with the best care possible. By practicing these tips, you can prevent stress in the herd and help your goats live longer, healthier lives.
This article about goat safety tips was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.
