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External Parts of the Goat
The picture at the left shows the external parts of the dairy goat. It is important that you learn the basic external parts of the goat so that not only you can relay information, but also so that you understand the underpinnings of breed conformation characteristics. Generally, the better conformed (conforms to breed standards) a goat, the more productive life you will get out of the animal. This is especially important for breeders, for those who participate in goat shows and production programs, and for those who are producing products (i.e. milk) from the animals. We will not talk about goat conformation here, but you can find more information about this subject in later sections. |
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Skeletal and Muscular Structure of the Goat
Also important and interesting is understanding how a goat is structured, both in it's skeletal and muscular composition. You can click on the picture at right to open it in a new window. Particularly interesting about the internal anatomy is the way the front end assembly is put together. Notice the shoulder assembly in relation to the elbow, and the complexities of the fetlock, pasterns and hooves. If you will be freshening does, pay careful attention to the location of the broad sacrotuberal ligament. This is the ligament that slackens as kidding draws near, and if you learn to externally palpate that ligament, you can determine when your doe will kid more accurately. More on this later in the kidding section. |
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Digestive System of the Ruminant
Goats are ruminants, which means they have highly specialized four chamber stomachs to digest food. The following is a crude explanation of how food is digested.
Food (plant matter) is chewed and swallowed by the goat and it first enters the rumen where it is partially digested. As the food digests, it is layered into solid and liquid matter. The solid matter in the rumen then travels to the reticulum where it is regurgitated (cud) so that the goat can mix the undigested solids with saliva. Goats chew their cud on a regular basis and when they swallow it again, the cud enters the omasum for further processing. The food in the omasum then moves to the abomasum and onto the small and large intestines and out through the anus. At the same time, liquids are processed into urine and exit through the urethra. Goat poop exits as round, hard, rather dry little pellets, very similar to rabbit pellets.
Goats are ruminants, which means they have highly specialized four chamber stomachs to digest food. The following is a crude explanation of how food is digested.
Food (plant matter) is chewed and swallowed by the goat and it first enters the rumen where it is partially digested. As the food digests, it is layered into solid and liquid matter. The solid matter in the rumen then travels to the reticulum where it is regurgitated (cud) so that the goat can mix the undigested solids with saliva. Goats chew their cud on a regular basis and when they swallow it again, the cud enters the omasum for further processing. The food in the omasum then moves to the abomasum and onto the small and large intestines and out through the anus. At the same time, liquids are processed into urine and exit through the urethra. Goat poop exits as round, hard, rather dry little pellets, very similar to rabbit pellets.
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Goat Teeth
The teeth of the goat are worth mentioning, because they are interesting and unique. Goats do not have teeth in their upper jaw, only their lower. Their upper lips are highly animated, and are used to grab and pull foliage off of trees and weeds. They have a smooth dental pad in the tops of their mouths, and also sharp molars in the back of their mouths on the top and bottom jaws which are used to shred sticks and twigs. Kids are usually born with teeth or with at least the emergence of teeth. Their first teeth are called milk teeth. You will probably never see a lost goat tooth in the goat yard, but they do, in fact, lose their baby teeth, which are replaced with full adult teeth in their fifth year. The illustration at the left shows the approximate age goats receive their adult teeth. This graphic is particularly helpful if you do not know the exact age of a goat. As long as the goat is under five years of age you can approximate their age by looking at their teeth. |
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Doe (Female) Reproductive System
The illustration at the right shows the left side of the reproductive system of an open (unbred) doe. Notice that the doe has two ovaries and also a divided uterus with a right and left horn. We will delve further into the reproductive and mammary systems of the doe in further sections, but this provides an introduction. Buck (Male) Reproductive System The intact buck has two large testicles between it's legs which produce semen to impregnate does. When the testicles are removed either by banding or surgical procedure, the buck can no longer reproduce. A castrated buck is called a wether. More on castrating later. The penis of the buck is sheathed inside the body. The penis extends outside the body for reproduction and when the buck is excited and urinating. The penis is extremely long and can extend far forward towards the front legs. Bucks regularly urinate on the backs of their legs and on their beards and in their mouths when they are excited. They do this to create the bucky stench that does go crazy for. I've always thought that the buck stench smells most similar to scorched plastic, though I'm sure other breeders have other descriptions. |
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