Standard body weight

Being new to raising goats, I am wondering if ours are at the right weight. I read the “Body Condition Scores in Goats” resource from one of Deborah’s older posts, and will try to assess our goats’ weight this way. However, I was wondering if there are any standards in terms of how many pounds should an ND weigh at certain ages, based on their type. For examples, we have 6 wethers and 2 doelings, all are 14 months old. Is there a ‘magic’ weight they should be at?

You need to be a member of Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats to add comments!

Join Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats

Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • I agree with your body condition score on the goats. They are not obese. 

  • Pics%20for%20weight%20assessment.pdf

    The files were too large I guess. I took more pictures today of the others, and put them in PDF format, hope the quality is not too bad. It's hard to get these little guys to stand still for pics, so I am hoping these are good enough for you take a quick look at their body for a general weight assessment. 

    Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:

    Stanley's photo did not come through, but I agree with your body condition score on the other two. 

  • Stanley's photo did not come through, but I agree with your body condition score on the other two. 

  • Prada

    Stanley

    Prada and Stanley are doelings born 3/12/2018. They weghed around 55 lbs a month ago, we'll have to weight them again. Last night my husband and I assessed all of our goats using the Body Condition Scoring and we think they're all around 3.5 - 4. 

  • Feel free to post photos on here. It's not as good as actually getting your hands on them, but I can see obese in a photo. The challenging thing to see is slightly underweight because hair can hide that a little in a photo.

  • Thank you, Deborah! Ours weighed between 50 and 55 a month ago when we weighed them before administering the copper blouses based on weight. I will definitely also try the Body Condition Score method from the article you recommended. I just don't want our goats to be overfed. A friend of mine from Romania showed a picture of our goats to a vet who also raises goats (although I bet they would not Ben NDs) and that person said our goats looked obese. I'm pretty sure they are not, but definitely want to learn how to tell for sure what their condition is. 



    Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:

    Yearlings are usually 40-50 pounds, and by the time they're 2, does are about 50-60 while bucks are 60-70. Oddly enough, wethers are sometimes more than bucks. But since height really plays a role in weight, and since there could be a difference of about 4 inches in height (does could be 18 to 22 inches), that definitely affects weight. 

  • Yearlings are usually 40-50 pounds, and by the time they're 2, does are about 50-60 while bucks are 60-70. Oddly enough, wethers are sometimes more than bucks. But since height really plays a role in weight, and since there could be a difference of about 4 inches in height (does could be 18 to 22 inches), that definitely affects weight. 

This reply was deleted.