Goats have provided humankind with essential products for centuries; indeed, they bear the noble distinction of being the first domesticated farm animal. From providing milk and meat for sustenance and fiber and hides for clothing and shelter to carrying packs and clearing brush, there isn’t much that goats cannot do. Managing goats successfully requires an understanding of how nature designed them to thrive, including nutritional and psychological needs, as well as how to identify a problem and intercede before it’s too late.

For more than a decade, Gianaclis Caldwell and her family have operated Pholia Farm Creamery, an off-grid, raw milk goat cheese dairy. In Holistic Goat Care, Caldwell offers readers a comprehensive guide to maintaining a healthy herd of goats, whether they are dairy goats, meat goats, fiber goats, or pet goats. Holistic Goat Care will empower even novice goat owners to confidently diagnose and treat most of the ailments that goats might experience. For the experienced goat farmer, the book offers a depth of insight and approaches to treatment not found in any other book. Caldwell places special emphasis throughout on holistic, natural, and alternative approaches to caring for goats, including information on:

• Handling and managing goats using their natural instincts as an asset
• Developing good farm management practices, such as appropriate housing and fencing systems and manure and mortality management
• Making feeding decisions based on understanding goats’ ruminant digestive system and their evolutionary needs
• Growing forage and garden crops as feed and utilizing wild browse
• Troubleshooting health problems based on assessing symptoms
• Implementing advanced health procedures such as pain control, fecal testing, and transplanting rumen microbes from healthy to sick goats
• Diagnosing, treating, and preventing more than 75 common goat ailments

Whether your herd is two or two hundred, this first-of-its-kind, comprehensive book will help you keep your goats healthy, safe, and productive, and give you a deep and enjoyable insight into the wondrous creature that is the goat.

Welcome to a “wool” new world! The perfect starting point, Raising Animals for Fiber focuses on four different fiber animal species to tackle all of your questions and curiosities. Understand the basics of keeping livestock for fiber, then progress into detailed information on raising sheep, Angora goats, alpacas, and Angora rabbits (and discover which would be the best fit for you).

Learn tips for grooming, housing, feeding, shearing, breeding, and more for each animal, plus get ideas on how to use the fiber you harvest. Author and fiber farmer Chris McLaughlin began her journey out of a simple curiosity that converged with her hobby of raising and showing rabbits. The same can go for you, too!

Storey's Barn Guide to Sheep provides clear, step-by-step help, visible from several feet away. Graphic presentations guide farmers through trimming hooves, administering injections, assisting with lambing, bottle feeding, milking, shearing and every other situation that might arise during the normal course of a sheep's life.

Fiber crafts, such as knitting, weaving, and crocheting, continue to surge in popularity, with sites like Ravelry (a social media community for the wool obsessed) gaining more than 6 million members. Artists are seeking quality, raw materials in greater numbers. The cottage industry of supplying not only raw fleece but handcrafted yarns is strong.

Janet Garman has a small fiber flock (including Pygora fiber goats) and shares her expertise, as well as interviews, tips, and advice from fiber farmers and craftspeople across the country.