The Farm Journal

No wormer is licensed for goats in the UK. What faecal egg counting is for, why the published intervals disagree tenfold, the worm that causes no diarrhoea, and feet.

How much space goats need indoors and out, which bodies publish a figure and which do not, and why a goat with no dry ground is on its way to being ill.

DEFRA requires at least 1.2 m and the RSPCA specifies 50 mm apertures. The stock netting everyone recommends is 80 cm with 150 mm gaps, and misses both figures.

You need a CPH number before goats arrive, then an APHA herd mark, a holding register and movement reports. Goats do not need electronic tags, and there is no pet exemption.

Goats live 12 years or more, but no government or veterinary source publishes a figure. Where the number comes from, what shortens it, and the rules at the end of a goat life.

Miniature goat is not a recognised British breed. What the word covers, how big a pygmy gets, why Nigerian Dwarfs are absent from the UK, and what the law asks before you buy.