GOAT-RAISING IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



13 



the present demand to unload worthless goats at high prices on unsuspecting buyers. 

 Remember, in buying a milk goat, that it is milk you want, and, if possible, see the 

 goat milked once or twice, bearing in mind the length of time she has been milked 

 and the number of times she has kidded; a goat is not at her best till she has had 

 her third kid, when she will frequently double the yield she gave at her first kidding. 



Goats after freshening will usually increase in milk for the first month or two. 

 and thereafter will gradually decrease, until at nine or ten months after kidding 

 she will dry up. Occasionally, however, there are goats which refuse to dry up. 

 and there is a case on record in British Columbia of a goat which milked steadily 

 for twenty-six months. 



A good milking goat should have a large, well-shaped, and soft, pliable udder. 

 with reasonably long teats set wide apart and pointing outwards. The udder should 

 be globular in shape and carried well forward, and when empty should shrink to 

 small size and be easily crumpled in the hand. Pendulous udders of little width 

 are inconvenient to milk and cumbersome to the goat, and sometimes are actually 



Imported Nubian buck, " Harborough Volunteer." Courtesy of D. Mowat, McKay, B.C. 



repulsive in appearance. Do not judge the udder by looks alone, because a large 

 udder may be fleshy and have little room for milk. If the goat is not in milk, the 

 buyer must depend on the seller's statements, though examination of the goat's dam 

 or sisters should give some indication of what she may be expected to do. 



A good milk goat should have a large and capacious stomach, with arched and 

 well-sprung ribs, to allow for abundance of feed. As in good dairy cows, the neck 

 should be long and thin, the withers sharp, with well-developed spine, high rump, 

 thin thighs, and fine bone, together with soft skin and fine coat. 



Beginners are frequently deceived into 'buying a goat said to be in kid, but 

 which does not kid, because goats that have liberal feed blow themselves out to such 

 an extent that they seem to be pregnant. Buyers should bear- in mind that it is 

 difficult to say whether a goat is with kid or not until about six weeks before she 

 is due, when the hard head of the kid may be felt by pressing the fingers against 

 the goat's flanks. 



