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Serurubele Boergoats, P. O. Box 46057 Gaborone, Gaborone (2026)

11/07/2026

Winter Management …... a reminder to do the basics.. (MID JULY)

The winter period is possibly the most stressful time for your animals, and the recent cold front hasn’t helped. This is the season where your management matters most — small actions make a huge difference in survival, health, and productivity.

Let's quickly check if you are up to the task this winter….

1. Using Sulphur 16 for Newborn Kids
To reduce kid mortality, we give 1ml of Sulphur 16 orally per day
for the first 3 days after birth as a preventative measure.

For farmers following the bottle guidelines:
• 14ml per 10kg body weight as the initial dose
• 7ml per 10kg for the 2 day maintenance period

These same doses can be used for older kids when needed.

Immediately after birth, spray the navel with Orbedine or a suitable disinfectant to reduce infection risk.

2. Provide a Good Winter Lick
Ensure your animals have a quality winter lick available ad libitum. This supports body condition and reduces stress during cold spells. Winter licks not an option. This is the very essence of farming. We have previously shared lick mixes on this page. Please go through our previous posts.

3. Add Vitamin A to Drinking Water
Vitamin A deficiencies spike in winter and can cause pregnant animals to abort when stressed. Add Vitamin A sachets to drinking water for 3–5 days, and allow all animals — including chickens — to drink freely. Change the water daily to keep the vit/water fresh.

You can also dose for Vit ADE as well as for other essential minerals. This is a Non-Negotiable.

4. Boost Energy with Molasses
Add liquid molasses to drinking water for an energy boost or use a molasses block with added protein to support rumen function and overall condition.

5. Extra Feed for Pregnant & Lactating Animals
Pregnant and lactating animals need additional feed during winter. Provide creep feed for kids to supplement milk intake and reduce pressure on their mothers from excessive suckling.

6. Keep Water Warm
Place water troughs in sunny areas to prevent goats from drinking cold water, which reduces intake and increases stress. We also speak often about using water as a vessel to deliver:
• Energy
• Minerals
• Vitamins A, D & E
These are absolutely essential during winter.

7. Keep Newborn Kids Warm
Where possible, follow our earlier instructions on making a small fire to keep kids warm. This simple step dramatically reduces mortality during cold nights.

8. Pay Special Attention to Sick or Weak Animals
Antibiotics alone won’t save a stressed animal. Provide extra feed, shelter, warmth, and close care — this is what gets them through winter.

9. Nutrition Reminder AGAIN — Your Animals Need You Now More Than Ever

Final Note
Please read this again and again so you understand the full routine. We keep our mortality low by managing this ourselves — correct handling of vaccines and correct handling of animals is everything.

We write a lot about animal nutrition, and this is just a reminder that this time of the year requires your full attention. Managing your animals’ nutrition is critical.

Go through our previous posts for simple, affordable tips that make a huge impact. Leave a like and follow the page for more updates.

We hope you continue to farm true.

Happy Farming from Serurubele Boergoats.

11/07/2026

Using Sulphur 16 for kids
As a preventative measure, we use 1ml daily of sulphur 16 orally over the first 3 days after birth for all of our newly born kids.
The bottle prescribes 14ml/10ml body weight as an initial dose and then 7m/10ml for the maintenance period of 2 days. Also use the same doses above incase you want to give older kids.
The other simple solution in addition to using the sulphur 16 is to spray the navel of all kids with Orbedine spray.. or a disinfectant after they are born.
This is our attempt to reduce kid mortality.
As with all usage of antibiotics and vaccines Consult your local vet for further guidance.
Happy Farming

25/02/2026

Quick reminder to dip your animals this week if you haven’t already. Tick loads increase significantly after the onset of rains and can devastate your herd .

Gentle reminder… handle your animals in smaller groups to minimize stress especially those that are pregnant.

Use the recommended amount of dip and never “make it stronger because the ticks are too much”… NEVER use too much dip on animals.

For pour on dips, we limit it to 10ml per animal applied from between the horns downwards towards the tail along the spine, and for spray-on we use the 1 liter to 250 litres of clean water. To use in a knapsack sprayer, measure 100ml of dip to a 25 litre bucket of water, mix well and pour into the sprayer making sure to pour through the sieve provided in the knapsack sprayer.

Always Handle dip with gloves and wear protective clothing.

Spray dip away from the wind and avoid contact with the dip at all times. Wash the dip off immediately with soap should you have accidental contact.

Always leave some dip to spray the corners of your Kraals as well as the high traffic areas around the farm, including the chicken and dog houses if you have those.

Always choose a dip that is bee friendly and has no harmful effects on birds that survive off ticks. Check labels carefully.

Check expiration of your dip if you keep some at the farm over long periods. If expired, please avoid using it and dispose it.

Dispose of dip at designated sites and never near water areas or bury them underground… it will contaminate water sources .

Mark and register the date you dipped your animals for proper records where your keep your records .

15/02/2026

February Management.. (it’s breeding time!!!! and time to deliver kids from does mated in October!!!)

1. We are now Selecting and preparing ewes/does for breeding. Your Bucks and Rams have been busy and your ewes/ does are now on full heat. Having previously conditioned your bucks and ensured that your does are fed and well conditioned… your management is about to pay off. Your bucks will lose weight during this period due to focusing on that one goal… to mate . *Make sure you give them good quality feed in the evenings or pen them and only introduce them to the flock when it gets cooler. Let them eat and drink well, then allow them to work after 3pm daily.

*Use crushed maize to flush your does or use a good production lick. You need a full 14 days of flush feeding to get the desired results. I have written a post of a good and effective production lick which you can use. Check the post on the same .

Some overall maintenance of your ewes might also be in order. Check their udders for mastis and give them a quick service with an antibiotic in their udders.

2. Kids starts dropping for goats mated in October last year . Goats are heavily pregnant with kids, and need additional feed to aid them though this period. Give them addition feed.

*Refer to my post on the use of sulphur 16 and prevention of occidiossis when the kids are born. I have also posted on the full plan for your kidding season. Go through the previous posts for this.

3. Dipping of all animals must be done to reduce tick loads on your animals. Try to not stress your animals too much when you handle them.. and ensure that this is not done during the high heat.

* alternate your dips… from a pour on to a spray on variety to ensure that your maximize efficiency. Spray the Kraals and the high goat traffic areas as well. Use leftover dip to spray the floor and corners of your chicken houses.

4. Deworming all animals that have been selected must be undertaken, especially those that are about to be mated or are currently being mated. Deworming pregnant animals also helps .

All kids must be given a dewormer that targets milk tapeworm.

*try dewormers that also target external parasites.

5. Foot rot treatment of all affected animals. Lameness limits an animals ability to walk around and browse. It’s important that they can walk around unhampered. *a simple bath of copper sulphate helps here.

6. Ensure your young kids are also adequately norished with a good creep feed. Your management pays off by how many of these new kids survive and become part of the flock. They must be ready to be mated at 8 months exactly… not longer.

*we wean our male kids at 3 months and 4 months for all does/ewes. The reason for keeping does up to 4 months with their mothers is to ensure they grow fast and can be mated 4 months later at 8 months old.

7. *Overall, monitor the quality of the grazing and browse. If your grazing has gotten significantly drier, consider adding a vitamin ADE pack to water for 3 days continuously. Vitamins A deficiency can wreck havoc on pregnant animals and cause mass abortions.

08/02/2026

FOOT AND MOUTH IN THE NORTH EAST OF BOTSWANA.

We have lived and experienced the heartbreak of an FMD outbreak, and suffered unimaginable losses and emotional trauma.

As the country grapples with the current outbreak, the last having been only less than 3 years ago… we all just have sooo many questions and little to no answers.

We lost over 160 productive Boergoats .. of that number..114 pregnant were considered for compensation and the over 65 kids under the age of 2 months were not even counted , all in a single weekend on that fateful day on the 15th of June 2013.

We were only compensated for females above 8 months old, at P800 per goat, including for our 6 bucks. Animals less than 8 months old were not included in the compensation, including castrates.

No animal was tested for FMD on the farm, or no symptoms were confirmed. The FMD animals tested and confirmed were found in a separate area… far from where our farm was…yet.. the option to cull was chosen over all else.

The P800 per animal did not increase in consideration of the pedigree of the animals… or the fact that they were heavily pregnant.

For us, this set us back to this day. We have real PTSD around this time… and understand the pain most of us farmers are experiencing at this point.

For me personally, this time in 2013 was a terrible blow… having just celebrated my birthday a few days before..

There is not a day I don’t wonder how many goats we would have in total today. We would have easily crossed the magical 1000 breeding threshold I dream about.

What is painful is that the P91,200 we were paid.. 8 months later could not even buy us 20 commercial ewes to start again. In that whole time, even without animals for over 2 years, we still paid workers and maintained the farm.

To start again from scratch took my Elder Brother instructing me to get over it … and Ooum Klaynans relighting the spark again… I had completely given up on farming .

We are self funded… what we put to farming is what we could be using elsewhere. We graze in communial grazing areas and not in ranches.. it’s safe to say tha we are the sum total of the majority of livestock farmers in Botswana. 🇧🇼… but FMD hits us hardest as we have no insurance or a backup plan. I am not saying that other affected farmers have it easier… and my apologies if that is how I am sounding… but this thing…. devastates us as farmers beyond comprehension.

How do we help fulfill the promise to grow our national herd, when the collective responsible for doing just that, suffers these devastation actions every 2-3years in Botswana?

This is a difficult time…

01/02/2026

January management : part 2 -HELPFUL TIPS!!

1. Use a dewormer covering BOTH internal and external parasites

2. Wear gloves when handling dip, or tick grease. Dip is poisonous and must be handled with extra care .

3. If you have an animal on the ground at this time walking on air, before you say “hartwater “ check to see if it’s not purissic acid poisoning by checking to see if it’s gums and tongue are not bright red.. bright red gums and tongue are purissic acid poisoning and it’s treatment varies to other ailments and the correct treatment will save your animals .

4. Copper sulphate is perfect for foot baths if you need to eliminate foot rot in your animals.

5. Stop storing your farm meds in hot storage rooms .. find a cool well ventilated place without direct sunlight to store farm meds.

6. When you count your animals, or perform any operations at the farm, keep a marker in the car and write all of it on your water tanks or the common shade or space where your farm team can see it so that they keep track and are mindful to keep the numbers of animals true. If they don’t see a number.. they can manage mortality or lost animals.

7. Put the number of animals you want your herd to increase by on a place your team can see daily. That will help them focus and have a reminder daily.

I have said a mouthful..

Happy farming

SB

01/02/2026

January Management …

Lets check to see if you are on track …

1. We trust that you have been managing potential purrissic acid poisoning losses by (a) adding sulphur to water or feed, (2) avoiding to graze lush sun beaten grass and feed. Please refer to my post on purissic acid poisoning and you will be sorted.

2. Dip animals in areas with high tick loads and ensuring that you are managing foot rot issues in animals. Use a “rainfast” dip during the rainy season.

3. Giving animals a salt and di-culcium lick at libitum. This is a non negotiable. Checkout our previous post on different lick mixes.

4. Giving kids and pregnant animals a good quality feed as well a quality production lick to the other animals is very sound management..

5. Providing cool clean water for animals is a non negotiable. Water is the difference maker in farming. Remember…

6. Selling all excess and unproductive animals . This must be done . Do it. No passengers.

7. Continue Conditioning all your bucks to ensure that they are ready for the breeding season. Please don’t let them get fat. That will dull their ability to mate and cover their quota in the needed time.

8. Providing sufficient shade for animals at the farm especially now in this heat.

HELPFUL TIPS!!

1. Use a dewormer covering BOTH internal and external parasites . If you have kids use a dewormer specifically targeting milk tapeworms.

2. Wear gloves when handling dip, or tick grease. Dip is poisonous and must be handled with extra care .

3. If you have an animal on the ground at this time walking on air, before you say “hartwater “ check to see if it’s not purissic acid poisoning by checking to see if it’s gums and tongue are not bright red.. bright red gums and tongue are purissic acid poisoning and it’s treatment varies to other ailments and the correct treatment will save your animals .

4. Copper sulphate is perfect for foot baths if you need to eliminate foot rot in your animals.

5. Stop storing your farm meds in hot storage rooms .. find a cool well ventilated place without direct sunlight to store farm meds.
6. When you count your animals, or perform any operations at the farm, keep a marker in the car and write all of it on your water tanks or the common shade or space where your farm team can see it so that they keep track and are mindful to keep the numbers of animals true. If they don’t see a number.. they can manage mortality or lost animals.

7. Put the number of animals you want your herd to increase by on a place your team can see daily. That will help them focus and have a reminder daily.

Please like our page and follow and please share our posts as much as you can 🙏🏾🙌🏾

I have said a mouthful..

Happy farming

SB

08/01/2026

In preparation for our January Management post this coming weekend, we would like to know what else we should focus on to cater for the Women who make up 30% of our audience.

BoMme, what do you need us to also include in our posts going forward ? What can we add to the monthly updates to help with your farming, or to help enhance your love and support for your farm and animals?

Please drop a comment below and we will make sure we cover those going forward.

Thank you for your support.

SB

27/12/2025

December Management

Closing off the year calls for the following;

1. Selecting and removal of all slaughter animals and all unproductive animals to sell. Farming calls for keeping productive animals only and understanding that there is a cost to every animal, therefore no passengers. This is the perfect time to remove unproductive animals as the holiday demand for meat is at its highest during this period. Remove all unproductive animals and put some cash back in your pocket.

2. Selecting and castigating of lambs and kids born in March/April.

3. Treat for foot rot on all animals showing signs of limping.

4. Dipping of all animals except those being slaughtered or sold for slaughter . (Remember when buying pour on dip, look for one written “rain fast” on it. It doesn’t easily wash off )

5. Maintainance of farm equipment like boreholes, kraals and fences . Maintain chicken coops as well. Clean everything out this time.

6. Make sure that your salt and calcium lick is available for your animals during this period. Ensure it is kept away from the rain. Remember… this is the period we lose animals to purissic acid poisoning so your licks need to have the sulphur needed to help with this. Check out our earlier posts on this .

7. We are all plowing and trying our best to catch these rains.. ensure that we plan our fodder understanding that the dry season is 9 months long. Breeding is all about nutrition farmers. This is the key contributor to successful farming.

8. Finally, let’s start proper record keeping farmers. This is the best time to correct years of poor management by ensuring we start to record everything related to our farming. All costs, movement of animals (births, deaths, sales)… everything.. Farming won’t make sense if you don’t track your costs.

SB

Serurubele Boergoats

11/07/2026

11/07/2026

25/02/2026

15/02/2026

08/02/2026

01/02/2026

01/02/2026

08/01/2026

27/12/2025

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