How to Raise Goats: Everything You Need to Know

How to Raise Goats is the third edition of the FFA guide first published in 2009. Reformatted and updated, this edition is due to be released 11th June 2019 by Quarto on their Voyageur imprint. It's 224 pages and will be available in paperback format.

The FFA textbooks and guides have always been high quality and sensibly written in my opinion. I've reviewed a number of them previously on my blog.  Between them and the Storey's publications, folks wanting to increase their food security and self sufficiency have a rich selection of good guidance at their fingertips.

Smallholders and suburban landowners are more aware than ever of goats as a possible small stock animal and intelligent, feisty, and fun pets. Their small stature and generally agreeable nature make them a natural choice for smaller plots of land as well as being less challenging to move and interact with than larger meat and dairy animals.

This guide is written sensibly and accessibly with good clear explanations and realistic descriptions of expectations and challenges in modern goat husbandry.  The introductory chapter  (20% of the page content) covers the anatomy and some breed information. There's a good subchapter on goat societies and registries slanted toward the reader in North America. Sidebars include points of interest such as coat patterns and jargon differences between goats and sheep.

The following chapters give a good overview of choosing goats to fit the reader's purposes, preparing for and housing the animals, breeding and rearing kids for the dairy herd, troubleshooting problems and protecting the health of the herd, as well as living with goats.  There's a short but very useful section on goats for fibre with good basic definitions of fibre breeds and classifications. This info gives a good basis for further reading.

There are several good appendices included covering a seasonal calendar list of tasks for the goatherd to manage, a fairly comprehensive list of suppliers and informational sources, with links (again slanted heavily toward the North American reader), and a glossary and index.

I don't imagine any single book can be ALL things to ALL readers, but this one is very very good. 

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.