Lately I’ve been asked about keeping kids warm when they are born in very cold weather. Living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan gave a whole new meaning to this problem.
First Dry the Kids
When a goat kid is first born, it is covered with fluids. Its fur is sopping wet. Wet fur loses heat fast. The first problem is to get that kid dry, really dry.
I’ve seen recommendations for wiping kids off with newspapers. I tried it. The paper did scrape off any membranes and squeegeed off some liquid. The kid was left wet.
Old towels are my choice for drying off newborn kids. They clean the kid off like newspapers. Towels are made to absorb liquid. Rubbing off a kid leaves it damp.
This is not good enough. Up north, we had no electricity. Heat lamps were not an option. Here in the Ozarks the barn is a hundred years old and a tinderbox. We brought the kids in and stashed them by the wood stove. It didn’t take long for the kids to be dry.
Dry kids can take a lot of cold, if they have protection. I have two approaches to keeping kids warm.
Second Get Kids Warm
The easy one is a goat coat. My big goats have sweatshirts. My kids get coats made from the sleeves I cut off. These work very well in the Ozarks.
Up north coats help, but are not enough. In really cold weather we kept the kids in by the wood stove taking them out every so often to nurse. In a week, these kids were ready to stay out in the barn even at zero or below.
My other solution is a cubby hole. I place a line of three hay bales, two high against a wall. Two more bales are placed in front of these with a gap slightly smaller than the length of a bale between them. Another bale is placed over the hole. Using a board under this bale is a good idea.
In no time the cubby hole is keeping kids warm as they pile in.