12 BULLETIN 149, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



range costs per goat are usually greater, and with herds of more than 

 1.200 grown goats more care is required in herding, and a greater 

 number of bed grounds must be used to keep the goats in good 

 condition and avoid damage to the range. 



The breeding does should be grazed separately from the dry does, 

 wethers, yearlings, and weaned kids. This allows the does to graze 

 more quietly while with their kids and insures their being in better 

 condition, which is especially important at breeding and kidding 

 times. Range kids should be weaned at about five months of age. 

 Buck kids older than this should never be allowed to run with the 

 does, as the} T will often breed and otherwise cause much annoyance 

 to the does. Wethers also anno} 7 does at breeding time, and just 

 before kidding may worry them sufficiently to cause abortions. 



HERDING. 



It is sometimes stated that a herder is not needed for goats, and 

 it is true that a poor herder may be much worse than none at all. 

 Small herds of a few hundred head or less na&y be watched success- 

 fully by a well-trained dog if there is an abundance of good range for 

 the goats ; but when the herds are large, and the range fully stocked, 

 a herder is absolutely necessary to secure proper utilization of the 

 forage, and to prevent trailing of the goats and loss from straying, 

 accidents, and predatory animals. 



Too often the method of range herding has been to keep the goats 

 in a compact band and trail them over the range throughout the dnj 

 with the object of keeping the entire herd together and in sight at 

 all times. The herder and his dogs fall in behind the band and con- 

 tinue to push forward the rear goats, which are ordinariry the kids 

 and the weak and crippled old ones. Such herding causes unneces- 

 sary traveling and prevents the rear goats from obtaining sufficient 

 feed. The feed they do obtain is dirty and of inferior quality. The 

 majority of the herd are kept in a medium or poor condition, the 

 growth of a great many kids is stunted, and the running and bunch- 

 ing of the goats by dogs causes many cripples and a loss from leaving 

 goals on the range. 



Instead of being driven the goats should be grazed slowty, quietly, 

 and openly, and the leaders should be held down to the rate the rear 

 goats desire to take. As the goats leave the bed ground in the morn- 

 ing the leaders should be turned in the direction the herder wishes to 

 graze the goats that day. Throughout the morning they should be 

 allowed to drift slowly away from the bed ground. In the warm part 

 (;f the day most of the goats will take shade under trees and bushes, 

 but a few may graze intermittently during the entire day. In the 

 afternoon the leaders should be turned into the herd and started 

 toward the bed ground selected for the night. By taking the goats 



