My daughter wants to do 4h with our goats this year. When I was at the county fair they had all the 4h goats in a shed on display and I was looking at them and petting them and then suddenly I got all paranoid that I would bring something nasty home to my goats so I scrubbed my hands and changed my clothes before I saw my goats that evening.
We drink our milk raw, so I've been meticulous about only buying from closed herds and so on.
At any rate, if my daughter did 4h does anyone know if she HAS to display the goat at the fair, and/or how risky does anyone think that would be for my herd?
Or do we just have to buy a pastuerizer then, if she's gonna do it? Or is the herd actually at bigger risk than us catching something through the milk (like they catch something that doesn't affect us).
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Rules for 4H vary from county to county, even within the same state, but I've never heard of one that said you had to show your goats if you were signed up for the goat project.
The most common thing for people to bring home from fairs and shows is probably pink eye because it's spread by flies goes from one goat to another and to the manure piles and back into goats' eyes and so on. As my daughters were unloading the goats from one of the last shows they ever attended, they said they thought one of the goats had pink eye, and over the next couple weeks about half of the herd got it. It's not really a health concern for people -- use common sense when handling any sick animal -- but the goats are miserable and can wind up blind, although it's usually temporary. Thankfully, all of my goats did recover their vision. Ringworm or sore mouth are also a possibility as children go from goat to goat petting them.
I do know someone who is adamant that his goats contracted CAE at a show because someone put contaminated milk in their water bucket, so that is a risk, although probably pretty small.
There really isn't any reason you would have to start pasteurizing the milk if you showed. When we were at shows, we would just save the milk to use in soapmaking because we didn't have means to be as clean with milking as when we're home, and we didn't have a good way to properly chill the milk.
Juliana,
I was in 4-H for 11yrs, and showed goats for last 7 of those years. Most county fairs require you to keep your goats there the whole week of the fair. As far as health concerns, I always made sure that they had plenty of water, got extra hay, and would also offer baking soda on the last day. I'm not sure why, but giving them baking soda and some free choice minerals always seemed to lower the stress the they were feeling by the end. But other than that, there was never really any health concerns. You might ask the county fair people if there are signs posted for people not to feed the goats. That was the only thing we ever had to watch out for. I was (and still am) on the goat project committee for my county and we always made sure there was someone watching the barn ---- helped that we shared the barn with the rabbit people!
As far as milk goes --- I never bred my Nigerian girls, so I am not familar with milking. However, the people with Toggs and Nubs at my fair always milked at the fair with no problem. Seems like the Toggs dumped it out....but its only like three days, so throwing out a little milk might not be a bad idea.
Hope that helps --- let me know if you have any more questions!!!
-WG4