Mary Berry

Dish towels come to mind. Ikea has the best ones currently available in the USA because they are woven in Sweden. Unless you weave your own. Which I do.

Alice, I beg to differ. It's a plain medical fact that a goat's urinary tract is not as developed at 2 weeks or 12 weeks as it is at 6 months. It's also known to be a strong probability that, if you feed grain, your goats are going to develop urinary calculi. It's also a plain medical fact that if they can't pass those stones, they will die a horrible painful death. My goats may live to be 13-15 years old, and while we don't feed the wethers as much grain as we feed the girls, I prefer not to borrow trouble. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

Doug, since you're going to eat them anyway, I wouldn't worry about potential urinary problems. Urinary calculi develop when the goats are older. It is a horrible, painful, death for the goat, and there's nothing you can do about it but have them put down.

f you were raising boy goats for other reasons (like I do - for fiber), you would not want to wether them until there were at least 6 months old. This allows time for their urinary tract to develop more fully so that they can pass stones if they develop. Also, it's not a problem at all unless you feed grain to the wethers.

At 6 months old, the best way to wether them would be with a burdizzo. I've been able to band some of mine at 6 months, but it's painful for them.

We have about 40 goats (mostly Angoras, but with a few Navajo and Nigoras mixed in), 40 sheep (mostly Shetlands, with a couple of Border Leicesters), and 24 Suri alpacas. I raise them for their fiber. We don't eat the goats or the sheep, although I have occasionally sold a lamb or two to other people for food and strangers constantly stop and ask whether I sell the goats for meat. Just can't do it. They're too darn cute!

Great system IF you have enough land!