Just moved onto acres with goats: the first 90 days
Goats are the animal people buy for the weeds and keep for the personality. They are also the animal most likely to be standing on your car by the end of the first week. The first ninety days with goats are mostly about the fence, then the feet, then the worms — in that order, because that's the order they'll find you out in.
The first week — the fence is the whole job
Assume every fence is a suggestion until proven otherwise
A goat goes over a fence it can climb, under a fence it can lift, and through a fence with a gap the width of its head. Mesh or netting to about 1.2 metres, tight at the bottom, with nothing leaning against it to climb, is the standard. Walk it with the goats loose and watch which section they test first — they'll show you.
Water they can't foul
Goats won't drink water with droppings in it, and they're good at getting droppings in it. A trough at chest height, or a bucket hung on a bracket, checked and tipped daily. In heat, twice.
Shelter from rain, not just sun
Goats hate being wet in a way sheep don't. A three-sided shed with a dry floor, facing away from the weather, is not a luxury — a goat that stands in the rain all night is a goat that gets sick.
Walk the place for the plants that poison goats
Goats browse rather than graze — they eat upward, into shrubs and trees — so the plants that hurt them are often garden plants: oleander, azalea and rhododendron, and a few others by district. Anything ornamental within reach of the fence gets checked against the list linked below.
The first month — the routines
Feet every six to eight weeks
Goat hooves grow fast on soft ground and curl under if left. Trimming is a job you can learn — ask the person you bought them from to show you once — and it's due about as often as a horse's farrier visit.
Worms: get an egg count, don't guess
In warm, wet districts, barber's pole worm can take a goat down in weeks, and it shows as pale gums and a bottle-jaw before it shows as anything else. Vets and some produce stores do faecal egg counts. Ask your vet what the local pattern is and what to check, and write down every treatment with the date and product.
Minerals: the sheep ones are the wrong ones
Goats need copper in a way sheep can't tolerate, so a mineral lick made for sheep is wrong for goats. Ask for a goat-specific one, and if you run both, keep them apart at the lick.
Find a vet who'll see a goat
Plenty of small-animal clinics won't. Ring around now, while nothing is wrong, and ask specifically. Ask about vaccinations for your district while you're there.
In Australia, get your Property Identification Code sorted
A PIC is required before you move goats on or off a property, and they may need tags. The rules and the tags vary by state; your state department of agriculture's website is the place, and it's a ten-minute form.
The first season — what the weather does
After a wet fortnight, look at feet and gums
Wet ground brings footrot and worms together. A goat limping after rain gets its feet checked; a goat looking pale or slow gets its lower eyelid checked for colour, and a vet if it's pale.
Grain is a treat, not a diet
A goat that gets into the feed bin can bloat, and a wether on a lot of grain can develop urinary stones. Feed lives behind a door they can't open. Bloat — a tight, drum-like left side — is a vet-now situation.
Kidding, if you're expecting it
If a doe came to you in kid, ask the vet now what normal looks like and what isn't. A doe straining for a long time without progress is an emergency, and it's a lot easier to know that in daylight in advance.
Ring a vet now if
Ring a vet straight away if a goat has a tight, swollen left side; is straining to urinate or to give birth without result; has pale or white lower eyelids; is grinding its teeth and standing hunched; is breathing hard at rest; or has eaten something from the poison list. Goats hide illness until they're very sick, so a goat standing apart from the others, not eating, is already a phone call.
Write down today: the vet who'll see a goat, the date of the last worming and what with, and the day the feet are next due. Then go and lean on the fence again.
The rest of this list turns up by itself
The farrier date, the worming record, the trough check on the hot day, the fire rating on the bad one — the app builds the week for your place and your animals from your own weather, and puts each of these on the right day. Nothing waits on you remembering a guide.
General guidance for someone new to keeping animals on acreage, written to be careful rather than complete. It is not veterinary advice, and nothing here replaces a vet who has seen your animal. Rules about identification codes and tags vary by state and change; check with your state department of agriculture.