C98
Calculating Goat Body Weights

Introduction: It is important to know the weight of a goat when calculating medicine dosages, balancing rations, selling meat kids, and monitoring rate of gain. The best method is to weigh the goat on a livestock scale. If a scale is not available, there are other methods that will provide a fairly close estimation of the goat’s weight. Pictures showing heart girth and shoulder to pin measurements are found following this information.

1. If the goat is not too heavy, pick it up and stand on a bathroom scale. Subtracting your weight from the total will determine the goat’s weight.

The following methods use measurements of body size to estimate the weight of the goat. While these are quite accurate for average sized goats, goats that are extremely thin, obese, or pregnant will vary from the estimated weights.

2. With a cloth measuring tape, measure in inches around the goat’s heart girth and the distance from the point of the shoulder to the pinbone. Use the following formula to estimate the weight in pounds:

300

For example, a mature doe that has a 36 inch heart girth and is 33 inches from the point of shoulder to the pinbone, weighs approximately 143 pounds:

(36 X 36 X 33)/300 = 143 pounds

3. With a cloth tape, measure around the heart girth in inches. Use the following table to look up the goat’s estimated weight:

The girth measurement is taken by placing a tape or thin piece of material around the animal’s girth. The tape encircles the animal just behind the withers on top and just behind the elbows on the bottom.

The length of the animal from the point of the shoulder to the pinbone is also measured. The tape must be pliable enough to bend around to the point of the shoulder and to the pinbone (identified by the black arrows) as shown in this picture.