How to Trim Goat Hooves

Video Transcript

"Tom Boyer, Chalk Creek Boers talking about how to trim a goats feet. Most important part or one of the most important parts of trimming a goats feet is adequately securing the goat. So that either you or the goat doesn't get hurt in the process. This stand is a great way to do that. You can run them up the alley, run them through here, open the door, and be able to trim the feet. And you can open the door from either side. This system works well if you have a large number of goats. If you have only a few goats, then tie them to a fence and pick up their feet, maybe someone there to help stabilize the goat. But you can do it by yourself also. On the back feet straddle the goat, and lean over the back picking up the foot, and squeezing the body together with your legs to secure it so that you or the animal doesn't get hurt. Then either use these kinds of hoof trimmers, these are an ARS brand that is very, very handy to trim goats feet with. If you have large numbers of goats, then the air powered ones are the way to go. One of the key parts in actually trimming the goats feet is to make sure that it's level, from the heal of the hoof out to the toe. So make sure it's level and there is no excess hoof on either the inside or the outside of the hoof. The other thing to keep in mind is that if you run your goats on hard surfaces where there's a lot of sand, rocks, gravel, hard top, those kinds of things. Often the goat will trim there own feet, and you'll never need to trim their feet. If they're in a soft pasture or in snow, in soft areas in a barn, then their feet will grow. And particularly if you have them on a real high protein ration, their feet will grow, and you'll need to trim them quite regularly."