Glossary

Abomasum—the fourth compartment of the ruminant stomach

Accredited herd—one annually tested for tuberculosis and certified TB-free

Afterbirth—fetal membranes expelled after the birth of kids

AI—artificial insemination

American—in American Dairy Goat Association terminology, a fifteen-sixteenths purebred buck or a seven-eighths purebred doe (e.g., American Saanen)

Artificial rearing—raising kids on milk or milk replacer

Band—(noun) a strong rubber band used to castrate kids; (verb) the act of using an elastrator to apply one of these bands

Billy—an outdated word denoting an uncastrated male goat; today’s goat fanciers and breeders strongly discourage the use of this term

Blind teat—a nonfunctional teat

Body condition score—a rating from 1 (very thin) to 5 (obese) used to estimate the condition of goats

Bolus—a large, oval pill

Breech birth or breech delivery— one in which a kid’s hind feet come first

Broken mouth—an old goat with missing or broken teeth

Browse—(noun) edible woody plants such as twigs or saplings and wild berry canes; (verb) the act of eating browse

Buck—an uncastrated male goat

Buckling—an uncastrated male kid

Buck rag—a cloth that is rubbed on a buck’s scent glands, then kept in a closed jar to hold the scent, and later presented to a doe to determine if she is in heat

Burdizzo—a tool used to castrate bucks and bucklings by severing the cord without breaking the skin of the scrotum

Butt—(verb) to bash another goat, a human, or an object with the forehead or horns

Cabrito—(Spanish, “little goat”) the meat of pink-fleshed, milk-fed kids

Capretto—(Italian, “little goat”) same as cabrito; sometimes used in international goat recipes

California mastitis test (CMT)—an easy, do-it-yourself home mastitis test

Caprine—having to do with goats

Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis

(CAE)—see the Appendix

Caseous Lymphadenitis (CL)—see the Appendix

cc (cubic centimeter)—a unit of fluid medication measure equal to one milliliter

Certified herd—one annually tested for brucellosis and certified free of specific serious diseases

Chevon—(French, “goat meat”) any type of goat meat, especially that of fairly mature goats

Chevre—soft French cheese crafted of goat’s milk

Club kid—a kid raised as part of a 4-H or an FFA project

Coccidiosis (Cocci)—see the Appendix

Colostrum—a doe’s first milk; it contains antibodies that protect her kids through their first few months of life, at which point they develop disease resistance of their own

Concentrates—the nonforage portion of a goat’s diet; particularly grains, meals, and commercial goat feed

Confinement housing—the act of confining goats to a barn and exercise area in lieu of keeping them on pasture

Conformation—an animal’s physical characteristics

Creep—a feeder designed to allow kids to enter and eat while keeping larger goats out

Crossbred—an animal with parents of two different breeds

Cud—a glob of regurgitated food that’s rechewed and swallowed again

Cull—(verb) the act of removing undesirable goats from a herd; (noun) a goat removed as part of the culling process

Dairy Herd Improvement Association (DHIA)—a milk testing program administered at state levels, under the jurisdiction of the USDA

Dairy Herd Improvement Registry

(DHIR)—a milk testing program administered by dairy goat registries in cooperation with the USDA

Dam—an animal’s female parent

Dehorning—the grisly removal of horns from an adult goat

Dental palate (dental pad)—a goat’s firm upper palate

Disbud—to destroy a very young kid’s horn buttons by burning them with a hot iron

Disbudding iron—the electric or fireheated tool used to disbud young kids

Dish face—a concave profile common in Pygmy goats and Swiss dairy breeds

Doe—a female goat

Doeling—a female kid

Drench—(noun) liquid medicine given orally; (verb) to administer a drench

Dry doe—a doe between lactations

Dry off—to cease milking a doe

Dual-purpose breeds—breeds developed for both milk and meat production (Nubians are dual-purpose goats)

Elastrator—a tool used to apply thick rubber bands to bucks’ or bucklings’ scrotums for castration

Elf ear—a type of LaMancha goat ear that is up to 2 inches long

Emasculator—a tool used for docking and castrating bucks and bucklings; it has a crushing effect, which helps reduce bleeding

Ennobled—an honors classification attainable by registered Boer goats

Enterotoxemia—see the Appendix

Estrus—heat; the period during which a doe is receptive and can conceive

Fleece—raw fiber, usually in one piece, as shorn from a single fiber goat

Flushing—increasing a doe’s nutritional level prior to breeding season

Fly-strike—a condition caused when blowflies lay eggs in wounds or wet, filthy fleece; maggots develop and consume the host’s flesh

Footbath—a chemical mixture that goats walk through or stand in, designed to prevent or treat hoof disease

Forage—fibrous animal feeds such as browse, grass, and hay

Free choice—method of feeding when food is made available 24-7

Freshen—to give birth and come into milk

Gestation—the period of pregnancy beginning at conception and ending at birth

Goatling—(British) an older kid

Gopher ear—a type of LaMancha goat ear that is free of cartilage and is 1 inch or less in length

Graft—the act of persuading a doe to adopt another doe’s kid or kids

Guard dog (llama, donkey)—an animal who bonds with and stays with goats to guard them from predators such as coyotes, wolves, bears, cougars, and eagles

Gummer—an old goat with no teeth

Halter—headgear used to lead or tie an animal

Handle—how fleece feels to a spinner

Heat—estrus; the period when a doe is receptive to a buck and can conceive

Hermaphrodite—a sterile goat having both male and female reproductive organs

Hog butt—the heavily muscled hindquarters of well-conformed meat breed bucks

Horn buds—two small forehead lumps from which kids’ horns emerge

Hybrid vigor—the extra strength, hardiness, and productivity exhibited by animals whose parents are of two different breeds

Intramuscular injection (IM)—an injection inserted into muscle

Intravenous injection (IV)—an injection inserted into a vein

In kid—pregnant with kids

In milk—lactating, giving milk

Johne’s Disease—see the Appendix

Jug—a cozy mothering pen used by a single doe to bond with and watch over her newborn kids in peace

Keds—bloodsucking, wingless flies sometimes called sheep ticks

Ketones—compounds found in the blood of pregnant does suffering from pregnancy disease (ketosis)

Kid—a baby goat of either sex

Kidding—giving birth to kids

Lactation—the period during which a doe produces milk

Let down—release of milk by the mammary glands prior to milking

Linebreeding—the breeding of closely related goats; used to fix the type and intensify the characteristics of shared ancestors

Liver flukes—tiny leaf-shaped parasites that dwell in bile ducts and liver tissue

Livestock guardian dog (LGD)—a dog of specific livestock guardian breed background that lives with goats and protects them from predation

Lungworms—parasites that infest the respiratory tract and lung tissue

Mastitis—serious inflammation of the udder

Mating capacity—the number of does a buck can impregnate in a season

Meconium—the first manure passed by a newborn kid

Metritis—inflammation of the uterus

Microorganisms—microscopic creatures; bacteria, protozoa, and the like

Milking stand—an elevated platform fitted with a head stanchion, upon which a doe or dairy ewe stands to be milked

Milking through—milking a doe for more than one year

ml (milliliter)—a unit of fluid medication measure equal to one cc

Nanny—an outdated word denoting a female goat; today’s goat fanciers and breeders strongly discourage the use of this term

Nose bots—larvae of the botfly living in the nasal passages of a goat

Omasum—the third compartment of the ruminant stomach

On test—enrolled in the DHIA milk testing program

Open doe—a doe who isn’t pregnant

Orifice—the opening to a teat

Ovulation—the period when an egg is released from an ovary and a doe can conceive

Oxytocin—the hormone that controls milk letdown; oxytocin shots are sometimes given to help does expel afterbirth tissue

Papered—registered

Papers—registration certificates

Pasture kidding—the act of allowing does to give birth at pasture instead of in a barn

Pedigree—an animal’s “family tree”

Pelt—a hair-on, tanned goat hide

Percentage—crossbred; a term used among breeders of meat goats to denote how much Boer, Kiko, or other breed appears in a crossbred’s pedigree

Placenta—afterbir th; fetal tissue expelled after a kid is delivered

Polled—naturally hornless

Precocious milker—a doe who produces milk without being bred

Probiotics—oral gels and powders (such as Probios and Fast Track) fed to goats to help repopulate their rumens with beneficial bacteria that were lost due to antibiotic therapy, disease, or stress

Progeny—offspring

Purebred—an animal whose ancestors for a set number of generations were registered and all of the same breed

Recorded goat—a partbred or crossbred dairy goat whose pedigree and particulars are recorded in a dairy goat registry’s official herdbook

Registered goat—a purebred goat whose pedigree and par ticulars are registered in a registry’s of ficial herdbook

Rennet—an enzyme used to set curds for cheese making

Reticulum—the second segment of the ruminant stomach

Roman nose—the arched profile typical of Nubian, Boer, and Savanna goats

Rumen—the large first stomach compartment of a ruminant where feed is broken down into usable elements

Ruminant—a cud-chewing animal with a four-compartment stomach

Ruminate—the act of chewing cud

S/T/Tr—shorthand for single, twin, and triplet births

Scours—diarrhea

Scrapie—a serious, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy malady much like mad cow disease

Scrub goat—goat of mixed ancestry commonly used for land clearing; also called a brush goat

Scur—a misshapen horn caused by improper or failed disbudding

Septicemia—an infection of the bloodstream that affects the entire body

Settle—to get pregnant

Shearing—the act of removing fiber from Angora and Pygora goats

Silent heat—being in heat without showing outward signs

Sire—an animal’s male parent

Stanchion—a head restraint used to contain does while milking them

Standing heat—the period during which does are receptive to the buck

Stocking rate—the number of animals grazed on an acre of land

Subcutaneous injection (SQ or SubQ)—an injection inserted directly under the skin

Tag—(noun) a dreadlock of manureladen fiber; (verb) the act of clipping tags from a fiber goat’s fleece

Tapeworms—long, ribbonlike flatworms dwelling in the gastrointestinal tract

Tubing—the act of passing a tube through a goat’s esophagus to deliver milk or liquid medicine directly into the digestive tract

Udder—the female mammary system

Unrecorded grade—a goat, often of unknown ancestry, whose pedigree has not been recorded

Urinary calculi—stones formed in the urinary tract

Vaginal prolapse—protrusion of part or all of the vagina in late-gestation does

Wether—(noun) a castrated male goat of any age; (verb) the act of castrating a male goat

Whey—liquid left after removing curds from curdled milk

Wisconsin mastitis test (WMT)—an easy, do-it-yourself home mastitis test

Yearling—a goat of either sex between one and two years of age