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Today we're talking about how to plan a complex livestock working day. The kind where you've got multiple groups of animals that all need to move somewhere specific, and if you lose track of a step, things end up in the wrong pen or without a place to go. We'll cover why big working days pile up in the first place, the actual system I stumbled onto that made our most recent one the smoothest we've ever had, and why getting it all on paper before you move a single animal changes everything about the day. Let's get to it.
Hey there, welcome to Goat Wise. I'm Millie Bradshaw, Animal Scientist and rancher. Here we talk meat goats, feeding strategies, goat fencing, and livestock management that holds up in real life. If you care about raising goats well and building systems that actually work, you're in the right place. Let's talk livestock.
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Here's what's happening on the ranch.
We had another big rainstorm last week and the mud shut us down for a day. Always grateful for the moisture, and this storm was a good contributor to ground moisture levels. We're freezing at night now, so the pasture regrowth has slowed down, but things are looking really good out there.
We were working on a fence on a part of our place that I don't get a close look at very often, and I was shocked at how much feed we have over there. That's really good to know as we head into late fall and winter.
The big doe herd is still out grazing on our upper pastures, and Zoe, the livestock guardian puppy, joined them this week. I hope she burns off some energy, because that dog is intense. She's going to be really good, she's just a lot to manage right now. The other two dogs will school her, which is honestly the best training she'll get.
We had the big goat sorting and working day on Saturday, and it was good to see weights on everything and get a close-up look at all the kids. We did a preliminary selection for replacement does, and that should be finalized by the time this episode airs. But we're in a good situation with pens and space where I can take my time on the final decision if I want to.
Alright. This is a different kind of episode. It's not about goat biology or nutrition or management. It's about planning. Specifically, how to plan a complex working day so that when you're in it, you can actually focus on what matters.
Let me back up and tell you how we got here.
We don't like to have these complex working days. We really don't. But more often than not, it’s just the way it works out. Because once you start moving animals around, other things need to be moved too. All of these tasks just pile up.
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It's like the debris in a ditch getting pushed a little way by the water until it all backs up and stops the water. And then finally, we have to just get them all done so things can move forward.
Why do things stack up? Because we run a ranch and we have a busy life and we have the fence business. This time of year, summer through late fall, fence takes priority over everything else. We have made commitments to people to get their fence done. We try to manage expectations and not overcommit ourselves or overpromise, because we always want to underpromise and overdeliver. The other part of this is that fall is a busy time for livestock too. It's time to make decisions, sort, and sell. I really want to have all of the sale goats out of here by the end of October. And I don't think that's going to happen this year.
I wanted to get all of the kids weighed when we weaned them. It just was not realistic. I acknowledge that. I think I even talked about it on the podcast. I don't have a weight on them. And that's just, it just is what it is. Part of that is setting up the equipment, moving the scale, and then running everything through to weigh. I can't do that by myself. It’s a two- or three-person job.
So, we ended up with a big working day this past weekend. Multiple groups of animals that all needed to move somewhere specific. And here's what happened while I was planning the work day in my head: I was trying to figure out where everything was going to go, and I was thinking we were going to have to build two electric night traps just to have a place to hold everything while we sorted. There were too many things that needed to happen. I couldn't track all of the different groups of livestock in my head. So, I had to get it on paper.
I feel a little ridiculous talking about this part on the podcast. But we're keeping it real here.
I took an easel board and I drew a map. Obviously not to scale or anything fancy. It just included every pen we had available: all of the night traps, all of the buck pens, the bottle kid pen, the town pasture, a barn pen we had available for temporary holding, and a little pen we had to build to put the bucks in that came from Texas, all drawn in relative location to each other. Then I took mini sticky notes and I wrote on each one what was in each pen. Kids, cull does, bucks, bottle babies, whatever we had in different places. Including the livestock guardian dog puppy, Zoe. Where everything currently was.
Then I split the groups into what they ultimately were going to be, so I could move the sticky notes around freely. The bottle kids, I split into bottle kid wethers and bottle kid does. The weaned kids that were in one big pen, I broke that out into what the group was going to end up being: the wether kids that were selling, the replacement does we're keeping, the breeding does to sell, and the two buck kids.
Then I took a different color of sticky notes and I started making steps. What we needed to do. I rearranged things as I went when I hit a conflicting point with pen space. I also added in work steps that needed to happen before we started a specific task, like setting up the panels and the scale, gathering supplies. By the time I got all the steps in, we had 20 different moves or setup tasks. Twenty sticky notes of things that had to happen.
Now let me tell you what's actually in those steps, because it's not just move goats from pen A to pen B. There are constraints that have to factor in before you can figure out where anything goes.
We have the livestock guardian dogs, and they need to be in with the right group of goats. Zoe can't be in with kids yet. She's still a puppy, still puppy-level enthusiastic, and she can hurt the smaller goats. We also don't want any bucks in with does right now. It's not breeding season and I'm seeing a lot of mature does in heat. So, we have to be careful about where we put bucks, far enough away and behind secure enough fence that they can't get in with the does. And we have cows and horses. Can't be putting goats where other livestock are penned.
Then there was the alfalfa situation. The wether kids, we decided to take them to town and put them on pasture. There is fresh growth in that pasture, and it has a fair amount of alfalfa. With all this rain it's regrown really well. Fortunately, there's a lot of grass in there too, so it's not straight alfalfa. But we wanted to be smart about taking those kids in there to avoid any risk of bloat. We wanted to make sure they had a really good fill of hay before we took them in. That keeps them from overeating alfalfa. We wanted to take them late in the day when their bellies were full. So, while we were doing all this sorting and moving, those kids needed to be in a pen where they could eat their fill of hay before we took them to town.
The bottle kids added their own layer of complexity. We needed to notch their tags and put them in with the big groups. But once you do that, it is a pain in the butt to deal with them, because bottle kids don't herd. They are always in the way. They won't move. They don't load easily. And when it’s time to unload, they jump out of the trailer and then they jump back in. It's just a lot. So, one goal was to wait as long as we could to put the bottle kids into their new groups so we wouldn't have to handle them as many times.
The equipment part is where the map really proved itself. This time, when I was going through the planning process, I wrote sticky notes specifically for equipment. Find the ear notcher, I had no idea where it was. Kind of knew the vicinity it should probably be in. But our barn is still a disaster from County Fair and State Fair. Set up the scale. Set up sorting panels. Make sure I have the ear tagger, tags, syringes, needles, basic medications just in case. I went through every step, and while I was building the steps on the map, I was also making notes of everything we needed to have on hand. We didn't once have to stop
for me to run and get something. We had everything we needed right there the entire time we were working animals. And that was really fantastic.
Because inevitably, no matter how hard I try, when I keep it all in my head, I forget something. We're in the middle of working goats, we've got a goat there that needs something I don't have, and then I have to go take twenty minutes to find what I need and get all the pieces and parts and go back. Then we're out of our groove. It's frustrating for everybody. Nobody wants to sit around and wait.
Not this time. I had everything we needed when we needed it.
As we would hit a stopping point in the day, I would go to the map, X out the sticky note when the task was done, and actually physically move the sticky note of those animals to where they went. So, when Zoe left the night trap pen and went up with the older dogs and the big doe herd, I moved her sticky note up to the big herd pasture. When we hauled the wethers into town, three different sticky notes from the groups they all came from went onto the town pasture on the map.
Because this was a lot of work, we also needed good places to stop for the day, where everything would have feed and water and be just fine for the night, and then we could pick up where we left off. Those stopping points can be built into the plan when you do it this way. You can see on the map if you’re in a good place to stop or if you need to take care of some things first.
We did the whole day with three people plus a little help from a fourth person. Me, Stacy and my son, Ray, did the majority of the work, and my youngest, Darcy, helped us load when we needed help. Ray and I did the first sort by ourselves while Stacy did some skid steer work on a pen while it was empty. With our working facility, we can accomplish a lot more with fewer people and a lot less stress on everyone.
I sat down and went through all the mental part of it early. So, when we were working animals, I could actually just focus on what we were doing. When we were looking at does and making preliminary decisions on replacements, I was able to give that my full attention. When we were running the wethers through and getting weights on them, I was able to be totally plugged in. When we were setting up the facility, I was able to say, “this is something to make a good note about for next time.” I was way more present because my mind wasn't tied up in the logistics of making the day happen. And that made it enjoyable for me.
I've never physically mapped out a working day before this one, but it was the best thing I've done in a long time. Is this possibly a ridiculous episode? Maybe. But we're keeping it real here. And I'm never not doing this on a big working day now. It made my life so much easier. If you decide try it out, you don’t have to admit it.
One more thing: I'm going to put a photo of the actual map and sticky notes in Friday's newsletter. It is a lot less impressive in person than it probably sounds right now, which is maybe the whole point. If you want to take a look at my new favorite planning tool, get on the email list at goatwise.com/join. See you next week!
Hey there, thanks for listening today. If this episode was helpful, share it with another producer who’s raising goats. And if you haven’t already, leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts. It helps more serious livestock owners find the show. As always, this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for veterinary advice. I’ll see you next week here on Goat Wise.