Goat Wise | Meat Goats, Feeding Goats, Goat Fencing, Livestock Management

This year we stopped routine iodine navel dipping on newborn kids, something we'd been testing for a couple seasons and finally committed to fully. And then at about five to six weeks of age, some of the kids showed up with goiters. My first thought was that we'd possibly caused it by stopping the iodine on the navels. I went and looked it up. What I found was more interesting than I expected, and the actual cause turned out to be something I already knew and just didn't do. Let's get to it. Related Episodes: 17 | Do My Goats Need Mineral? How to Meet Their Micronutrient Needs and Keep the Herd Healthy 65 | We Made It Through Kidding, Now What? The 6 Biggest Health Risks to Your Goat Kids Until Weaning Time Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

Two weeks ago, I gave you the field report on what we're seeing in the sagebrush with the virtual fence. Last week I covered the biology, why goats eat brush, how the MFO enzyme system builds tolerance, what Cedar Eater genetics tells us about browse as a heritable trait. Today I want to talk about what all of it means for winter feeding strategy, land improvement, and why reducing purchased feed costs might be the single most important thing any livestock producer can do for their operation's long-term profitability. Let's get to it. Mentions: 124 | Virtual Fence in Action: A NoFence Progress Report from the Sagebrush 125 | Why Goats Eat Brush: The Biology Behind What We're Seeing in the Sagebrush NoFence affiliate code: BradshawGraze10 (capitalization matters) for 10% off your NoFence order. Here’s the link .* Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice. *Some links and codes in these notes are affiliate — I earn a small commission if you use them, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting Goat Wise.

Last week I gave you the field report on what we're seeing with the virtual fence in the sagebrush. Today I want to answer the question I get asked all the time: When will goats eat brush, and does season matter? What I've learned is that for goats, that question has a very different answer than most people expect. And the biology behind it is more interesting than I anticipated. Let's get to it. Mentions: 124 | Virtual Fence in Action: A NoFence Progress Report from the Sagebrush NoFence affiliate code: BradshawGraze10 (capitalization matters) for 10% off your NoFence order. Here’s the link .* Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice. *Some links and codes in these notes are affiliate — I earn a small commission if you use them, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting Goat Wise.

Back in Episode 114, I told you our NoFence collars had arrived and what we were hoping they'd open up. Today I want to give you the first real field report: What's working, what we had to work through, what the sagebrush looks like after the goats have been in it, and why this tool is changing what's possible on this ranch. This is a progress report, not a verdict. But so far, it's better than we imagined. Let's get to it. Mentions: 114 | Drought, Hay Prices, and Why We Bought Virtual Fence NoFence affiliate code: BradshawGraze10 (capitalization matters) for 10% off your NoFence order. Here’s the link .* Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice. *Some links and codes in these notes are affiliate — I earn a small commission if you use them, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting Goat Wise.

Last week in Episode 122 I gave you the framework: The two phases every goat herd goes through and the three strategies for building toward what you actually want. Today is the story behind why that framework matters. The show goat era, the Montana doe kids that survived a brutal winter, and the contrast that finally made everything clear. And I’ll also tell you what our replacement criteria look like today, because that might help you set your replacement criteria and help you reach your herd goals faster. Let's get to it. Episode Mentions: 122 | Building a Goat Herd Strategically: Two Phases, Three Strategies, and Why Herd Growth Projections Are Almost Always Wrong 105 | Two Reasons Why People Quit Goats: Fence and Genetics Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

Back in Episode 105 I talked about why people quit goats, and genetics was one of the two big reasons. Today is the follow-up: not why genetics matter, but what to actually do about it. I want to walk through the two phases nearly every goat herd goes through, three different strategies depending on your situation and goals, and why the math people use to project herd growth is almost never realistic. Let's get to it. Episode Mentions: 105 | Two Reasons Why People Quit Goats: Fence and Genetics 11 | Should I Tag My Goats? What You Need to Know About Government Requirements and How to Use Tagging to Benefit Your Herd 50 | Get Ready for Kidding: Order Your Tags in 4 Easy Steps Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

I know this is a goat podcast. But I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't tell you what we're doing with our cattle herd, because it's part of the same system, and the philosophy behind the decision is exactly the same philosophy that shaped our goat herd. Today I want to talk about why we're switching to Dexter cattle, how we got here, what we were actually evaluating when we looked at breeds, and why multispecies grazing is central to what we're building at Dry Creek. Let's get to it. Episode Mentions: 107 | Goats vs. Cattle: The Financial Comparison Nobody's Doing Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

Yesterday I was watering the goats in town, put fresh water in the trough, one of the does took a drink, and right after she drank, she did the flehmen response. That funny lip curl. No bucks around. Middle of July. Not breeding season. And I realized I didn't actually know what was going on. I thought I did. So, I looked it up. Today I want to tell you what the flehmen response actually is, because it turns out it's a lot more interesting than most of us think. Let's get to it. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

A couple of weeks ago in Episode 117 I talked about how our market evolved away from the sale barn. Today I want to talk about why the auction can be a great place for meat goat producers to start selling their goats, and for a lot of producers it's the right long-term market. Today I want to talk about how to use the sale barn well, the research, the timing, the relationship building, what to do when you pull in, and what I learned over several years selling this way. Let's get to it. Episode Mentions: 117 | Selling Meat Goats: From Sale Barn Auctions to a Waitlist 11 | Should I Tag My Goats? What You Need to Know About Government Requirements and How to Use Tagging to Benefit Your Herd 50 | Get Ready for Kidding: Order Your Tags in 4 Easy Steps Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

Today we're talking about heat management in goats, the basics that actually matter, what I learned during one brutal kidding season, some coat science that surprised me, and a practical tool I wish I'd had sooner. I’m also going to tell you about the time I dunked a kid in a water trough. Let's get to it. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

Today I want to tell you how our goat market evolved from sale barn auctions to direct-to-consumer meat sales to something I stumbled into sort of by accident that turned out to be a much better fit for the goats we've been raising. There's a mental block I had to work through in there too, and I think a lot of producers run into the same one. Let's get to it. Mentions: Idaho Goat Grazers (Zak) VS Goat Grazing (Virgil) Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

Back in Episode 46, I talked about early versus late banding of buck kids. We went through the full debate, the urinary calculi argument, the research, all of it, and I reported on a small test group we'd banded at birth. I said I'd follow up when we did it at scale. We've now done it at scale, and this is that follow-up. Let's get to it. Episode Mentions: 46 | Early Banding vs Late Banding in Buck Kids: Will Your Goats Be Healthy if You Band Them Early? Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

This is a question I get asked a lot, and honestly, one I've wondered about myself for a long time. Freemartinism is something every cattle producer knows about, a female born twin to a male that ends up sterile. But you almost never hear about it in goats. Today I want to get to the bottom of why that is, because the answer isn't that goats are immune to it. It comes down to anatomy, and it's actually pretty interesting once you understand what's happening. Let's get to it. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

Our NoFence collars showed up on Friday, shipped all the way from Norway, and they've been sitting in boxes since they got here. Today I want to talk about why we finally pulled the trigger on virtual fence after years of waiting, what it opens up for us, including over two hundred acres of brush ground we've barely been able to touch with goats, and how it fits alongside the electric netting we've relied on for years. This isn't a replacement story. It's the next piece of the system. Let's get to it. Episode Mentions: 109 | Electric Netting in Freeze Country: The Afternoon Teardown Fix 13 | Using Electric Fence with Goats? What You Need to Know to Keep Your Goats Contained and Alive with Electric Netting Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

We are one week into kidding season. Forty does have kidded, seventy-eight kids on the ground, two sets of quads, four sets of triplets, and we have not assisted on a single birth. Not one. Today I want to tell you about day two, when four does kidded in a rainstorm, and the harder question that was sitting underneath all of it: how do you know where the line is between trusting your animals to do it themselves or intervening? Let's get to it. Episode Mentions: 110 | Kidding Management: How Our Kidding System Evolved, PART 1 of 3 111 | Kidding Management: Selection Pressure and Behavior Reshaping, PART 2 of 3 112 | Kidding Management: Building the Right System for Your Operation, Part 3 of 3 100 | Management Flexibility: Why Helping Too Much Hurts Your Livestock Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

We've spent the last two weeks on how our kidding system evolved and what it took to reshape the herd through selection pressure. Today is Part 3, and this one is for you. We're going to walk through the factors that actually determine your kidding system, genetics, weather, business model, predator protection, and labor, so you can stop second-guessing your setup and start making decisions that fit your operation. There's no single right answer here, and that's the whole point. Let's get to it. Episode Mentions: 110 | Kidding Management: How Our Kidding System Evolved, PART 1 of 3 111 | Kidding Management: Selection Pressure and Behavior Reshaping, PART 2 of 3 105 | Two Reasons Why People Quit Goats: Fence and Genetics 13 | Electric Netting Fence for Goats Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

Last week we started this series with the story of how our kidding system evolved — from show goats and January barn kidding through commercial Boers, and then the Spanish goats arriving and refusing to work in the system we'd been running for years. Today is Part 2, and this is where we get into what that shift actually took. How do you move a herd that's been bred for intensive management toward something completely different? What does culling look like when you're selecting for a new system? And how long before you actually see the results? Let's get to it. Episode Mentions: 110 | Kidding Management: How Our Kidding System Evolved, Part 1 of 3 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

Today we're starting a three-part series on kidding management, how a system actually works, why it matters which genetics you're running, and how to build an approach that fits your operation. Part 1 is the story of how our system evolved from show goats and January barn kidding in twenty-below weather, through commercial Boers, and then the moment the Spanish goats arrived and showed me something I hadn't seen coming. Let's get to it. Episode Mentions: 105 | Two Reasons Why People Quit Goats: Fence and Genetics Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

This year we went out on grass almost six weeks earlier than we ever have, and right after we did, it started freezing hard again. Today I want to talk about what that actually looks like operationally, specifically what happens to electric netting stakes in a hard-freeze climate, why that matters, and what we changed to make it work. I'll also tell you what the does look like on pre-kidding green forage, which is something we've not had access to in the past with electric netting. Let's get to it. Episode Mentions: 13 | Using Electric Fence with Goats? What You Need to Know to Keep Your Goats Contained and Alive with Electric Netting Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.

Two years ago, I hit publish on the very first episode of this podcast, not really knowing if anyone was going to listen or if I'd make it past ten episodes. Today we're marking that — 50,000 downloads in 115 countries, and I still have days where that doesn't feel real. In this episode I'm going to talk about what these two years have actually looked like, what shifted and what I learned, a concept I think explains a lot about how I got here and how I know when it's time to change course, and where this podcast is headed. Let's get to it. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts + grab your free Kidding Due Date Chart: https://www.goatwise.com/kidding-chart Join the insider email list: https://www.goatwise.com/join Email: millie@drycreekpastures.com Instagram: @drycreekpastures More from the ranch: https://www.drycreekpastures.com This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice.