Author Topic: Sourcing and Keeping Goats...Questions (Read 2747 times)

silkwoodzwartbles · « **on:** July 22, 2019, 09:53:16 pm »

I've always really wanted goats as pets. I've got Zwartbles sheep which are pretty much the same thing (

) but after a day at the Royal Welsh, I'm back to wanting goats.

Trouble is, our sheep are MV accredited so I think I'd need to source MV accredited goats to keep them on the same holding? I've searched the SAC database and only come across one breeder with MV accredited goats (British Saanens). Surely there must be others? Or do goats not need MV accreditation to be kept with MVA sheep? What is CAE accreditation? Is this instead of MV accreditation but to the same standard (ie could I buy goats from a CAE accredited herd and keep them with our MV accredited sheep?)...

What about TB testing? Is this mandated for goats or is it merely advisory?

Grateful for your thoughts, thanks!

Buttermilk · « **Reply #1 on:** July 23, 2019, 08:43:10 am »

I used to have British Alpine goats and now have Zwartbles sheep. The sheep are far easier to keep.

pharnorth · « **Reply #2 on:** July 23, 2019, 08:10:32 pm »

MV and CAE are distinct, but closely related small-ruminant lentiviruses. I keep non MV sheep (Coloured Ryelands) and CAE accredited goats (angoras). The goats are accredited under the SAC scheme. Not sure about the apparently MV accredited British saanans as my understanding is that the two viruses are not expected to cross the species barrier so I was not aware there was such a thing as MV accredited goats. As you have MV accreditations for the sheep it would be best to phone SRUC and ask them about the implications of keeping goats.

pharnorth · « **Reply #3 on:** July 24, 2019, 01:00:58 am »

[member=132794]Scarlet.Dragon[/member] that was my take too. I did check with SAC before I got my non MV sheep and was told they did not impact on the goat CAE accreditations

fsmnutter · « **Reply #4 on:** July 24, 2019, 10:08:19 am »

Quote from: pharnorth on July 24, 2019, 01:00:58 am

[member=132794]Scarlet.Dragon[/member] that was my take too. I did check with SAC before I got my non MV sheep and was told they did not impact on the goat CAE accreditations

That's really odd, as when I first got my goats, I decided not to go cae accredited as I would have had to keep the sheep all separated by 3m double fences, different equipment etc etc, and mv accreditation was not something I wanted to seek for hebrideans

silkwoodzwartbles · « **Reply #5 on:** July 24, 2019, 03:03:25 pm »

Thanks everyone for the input and advice! Really good to understand the MV/CAE piece. It would be a massive pain at our place to try and put a 3m gap in between our sheep and any goats so if I do go down that route they would have to be accredited. I hadn't realised about the vaccinating requirements being different so that's also a consideration, especially if I only had very small numbers as vaccines aren't cheap and the sheep are on Heptavac.

Anke · « **Reply #6 on:** July 25, 2019, 07:12:41 am »

Trying to get stock from CAE accredited goat breeders maybe a bit of a hurdle as the number is so low that you will soon struggle to get males... exception maybe Boers.
For anyone with a small to medium sized herd of goats the CAE accredited scheme is not financially worthwhile, and in my opinion so is the MV scheme for sheep. These schemes were designed for sheep farmers with 1000+ flocks..., and fortunately for most smaller scale sheep enterprises the marked in non accredited sheep is acceptable too.
The BGS runs a CAE monitored herd scheme that is the best in my opinion wrt costs and outcomes re buying new stock. Enough goatkeepers on that to maintain herd with new males every so often.

Also if you are accredited you cannot use non accredited straws for AI (which is another good option for goats nowadays), and there are none (as far as I am aware) available for the time being.

pharnorth · « **Reply #7 on:** July 25, 2019, 09:59:26 am »

Rereading my post is misleading sorry- no accreditations impact because they were kept entirely separatly but given recent tightening of rules I may reconsider accrediting the sheep as it would help with flexibility

Anke · « **Reply #8 on:** July 25, 2019, 05:56:10 pm »

Believe me I have done the figures - whole herd testing every other year with associated fees to BGS and SAC, compared to even triannual testing of the same number of goats (most peoples numbers are too small to allow for testing only a portion of the herd, so you are still stuck with whole herd testing) and SAC membership fees - the BGS scheme is miles cheaper!

Never mind that the number of sheep breeds in the MV scheme is quite small and doesn't include any of the traditional breeds most often kept by smaller scale sheep enterprises. Or none of the hill breeds either - so it is very selective. The jury is still out in my opinion if the financial outlay actually represents value for money and the relatively small number of sheepflocks in the UK in the scheme suggests that most sheepfarmers have done the calculations too.

Johnes is an altogether different issue, and if you have sheep and goats on the same holding than you cannot join the scheme as sheep are not covered by it.