From This Side of the Ring: Getting show goats ready after kidding
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Today, I find myself thinking about the kidding season and how I help my show goats recover from kidding so they can be ready for the show ring. Helping does recover from birthing starts before they actually kid. This spring, I’m supplementing my does with Tums as a source of calcium prior to kidding. Two weeks before, I plan to give my girls Tums. As usual, our loose mineral feeder is always full. Last year, we had quite a few cases of milk fever and are trying to prevent it. I always refill my meds prior to kidding season with my vet (this requires that you’ve established a valid veterinarian-client-patient relationship). There are a few over-the-counter medications we can still get, and I’ll be sure to have calcium on hand. A month before kidding, everyone gets their yearly CD&T vaccination, and we have our kidding kit ready.
When a doe kids, we make sure she passes the placenta, and then we give hot molasses water (we like the color of the water to be a very dark tea color) as a source of energy. If we have a doe that doesn’t particularly care for hot molasses water, we offer warm water with electrolytes. You can make your own electrolytes or purchase electrolytes. Once those kids hit the ground, the road to recovery starts.
Typically, our does kid in March, and our first show is in early May, which means we have 9 to 10 weeks to get our show goats back into form. If a doe has a particularly rough kidding, we’ll offer extra grain on the milk stand and let her take her time eating.
Speaking of the grain, everyone has their “special formula,” and I’m not here to tell everyone that my way is the right one, but it has worked well for us. I feed my goats a store-bought sweet feed that’s formulated for goats. Don’t buy a sweet feed that’s mostly crushed corn. Corn is just a cheap filler, and if the producer is skimping on other additives and filling the bag with corn, I don’t want it and neither do my goats.
They get ¾ scoop (we have 3-quart scoops) of the sweet feed, ½ a scoop of shredded beet pulp (dry), and 1 cup of black oil sunflower seeds. My does that milk everything off (meaning they put all of their energy into making milk instead of gaining or holding weight) get an additional ¾ scoop of a senior horse feed (the higher fat percentage and more carbohydrates, the better). If I have a doe getting a little fat, I’ll back off the beet pulp and extra goodies a little.
As far as forage, my goats get second-cut mix orchard/timothy grass hay, and during show season, I’ll find the best third-cut grass hay I can find. Many producers feed their goats good quality alfalfa hay, and I encourage everyone who can because it’s a great source of calcium and protein. I don’t have a reliable alfalfa supplier in my area and my does do just fine without it. If you can’t find a good supplier but still want to include alfalfa in their diet, you can purchase alfalfa pellets at the feed store and offer them on the milk stand with the grain. Getting a doe ready for the show ring after kidding requires good feed intake to help supplement the milk they’re producing and put energy back into gaining some weight.
Throughout this process, I also brush them once a day on the milk stand. The first hair clip from winter is always the roughest, but if I get as much of that undercoat out as possible, it won’t be as bad when it’s time to clip.
I also make sure I milk them properly, which means keeping an eye on my milk machine and ensuring it works correctly. I pre-dip and post-dip their teats, and I make sure the udders are stripped all the way down every milking. I want to keep their udders even, which means being diligent every single milking to prevent lopsided udders. That’s it. That’s the “secret sauce.” If you offer a good loose mineral, forage, and food along with fresh water, your show goats will look as good as their genetics can make them in the show ring. I hope this inspires you to create a list of what you need, things you want to change, and goals you want to achieve this coming season. Prepare now for the future so you’re not scrambling to get it right in the moment.
Jon Kain lives and breathes goats, literally. By day he’s a superintendent of a goat and cow dairy. By “night” he and his family raises a small herd of Oberhasli goats while chasing his 3 year old daughter or talking about goats on his podcast, Ringside: An American Dairy Goat Podcast.
Published in the March 1, 2025 digital edition of Goat Journal
