Acclimating your show wether to its new home

Acclimating your show wether to its new home

Matthew Winterholler

2 Apr, 2023

It’s that time of year–spring has sprung, and many 4-Hers and FFAers are picking out their show animals for jackpot shows and county and state fairs. But what do you do with your show wether once the sale gavel comes down and you’re on your way home?

There’s a number of things to consider to keep your show wether healthy, safe and comfortable in its new home.

What you will need 

Your wether’s basic needs

Keeping your wether safe, healthy and comfortable starts with proper shelter, proper equipment and a proper diet.

Shelter & Bedding

Start with the shelter. Each wether will need at least 15 square feet of pen space. Ideally, the wether will have access to both indoor and outdoor space. The pen should have panels/gates that are at least 48 inches (four feet) tall to safely keep the animal in their space and ensure they don’t get into unsafe situations.

The wether’s shelter and/or pen should have some sort of clean, dry bedding. You can use either straw or wood shavings. It’s important to keep the shelter, pen and/or bedding clean and dry to avoid disease and illness.

Equipment

The most vital pieces of equipment are feeders and water buckets. We prefer hanging feeders as they keep feed off the ground (therefore avoiding fecal contamination) and decrease feed waste. Further, you should have a sturdy feed scoop with visible measurements (we like this one that’s clear) so you can ensure your wether is getting the proper amount of feed. 

While any type of water bucket will work, we like to use a flat-backed one so that it will sit flush with the panel. We also use a double-sided bolt snap clip to attach the bucket handle to a panel. This helps avoid your goat spilling or tipping the water bucket over.

Further, have a goat blanket that fits your animal on-hand. When you bring wethers home from a sale, they are often clipped short, so they won’t have the protection from cold weather that they normally would. Nights may still be cold, and there’s still a chance of winter weather, so putting a blanket on your weather (with the ability to lock them inside) will make them much less susceptible to the effects of cold weather (read more about preparing goats for cold weather).

Other equipment that you may want to have on-hand as you will eventually need them:

Feed & Water

Finding a high-quality show feed is imperative to getting the desired results for the show ring. Your feed should be 15-18% protein and 3-6% fat.

As a general rule of thumb, you should start your wether at 1-2 lbs of feed per day, up to 50 lbs; 2-3 lbs of feed per day up to 70 lbs; 3-4 lbs per day up to 90 lbs; and 4-5 lbs per day up to market weight. 

There are a lot of great show feed options on the market, but our recommendations are ShowRite, Moorman’s Showtec, Purina Honor or SunGlo. While a complete feed will likely be enough when you bring your wether home, you may need to add in supplements as show time gets closer.

In addition to the show feed, it’s important to provide some sort of roughage to your wether–after all, goats are ruminants and roughage is necessary for their digestive system to function properly. Providing a handful of stemmy alfalfa or grass hay every other day will keep their rumen functioning properly.

Lastly, it’s vital your wether have access to fresh, clean water at all times. As the fecal-to-oral route is one of the most common ways for your wether to get sick, you should check waters morning and night for any fecal matter and clean them out if there is fecal matter present.

How your show wether will behave

Goats, like most livestock, are social creatures. They feel safe and most comfortable when they’re in a herd, so we recommend having at least two goats at home to ensure they can thrive. 

As you bring your new goats home, it’s important to remember three vital periods: adjustment, introduction and training.

Adjustment

When your goats get to their new pen, they will most likely feel scared and anxious due to the foreign environment. Give the goats at least two days to get used to this new environment before you start to work with them.

Introduction

After the adjustment period, start to calmly enter their pen. Calmly walk around the goats or sit on a bucket. This allows you to introduce yourself to them as a friend. This will begin to show the goats that they can trust you. You should do this for at least two days. Ultimately, focusing on this introductory period will make training your wether much easier while reducing stress on both you and the animal.

Training

Once you’ve completed the adjustment and introduction periods, you can move into the training period–this is where you’ll begin to work with your animals.

Start by putting a halter or collar on your goats to get them used to the feel, pressures and control that these tools offer. Avoid teaching them to lead until they’re used to the tools. We recommend starting with a halter, as halters do not restrict airways like a collar may. This will help the animal get used to you having more control over their actions before introducing a collar. 

Once your wether is used to you, as well as the halter/collar, start to teach them to lead by pulling on them. Pull gently at first, and then slowly increase pressure until they begin to move. Be patient–your wether may dig their feet in, pull back, lurch forward, jump or throw fits at first. This process may take three to four 15-minute sessions (only complete one session a day) before they get the hang of it. Keeping calm and consistent is the key to success when training them to walk.

Try pulling your wether in a tight circle. This will pull him off balance and they are forced to move their feet to keep their balance. They will then learn that when you apply pressure to the lead, it’s time to move their feet. We will go into further detail of how to properly show your animal in future blogs. 

Let us know if you need help!

Raising show wethers can be a difficult undertaking. But, following these initial steps can make the process much easier.
If you have more specific questions, feel free to reach out to us on our contact page or through Facebook.