Count goats in a herd from a photo

Counting goats on browse, in pens or at the hay rack

Goat keepers count for daily checks, at kidding time and before taking a group to market. Goats rarely stand still in a tidy group; they climb, push into brush and wander behind shelters. The easiest moment is feeding, when the herd lines up along a hay rack or trough and a photo from slightly above shows each head and back.

Coat colors vary far more than in most herds, with white, black, brown and patterned goats sharing one pen. Auto mode looks for goats by name, but if dark animals against a dark shelter are missed, mark one example of each main coat color, up to three. Kids sheltering under adults or lying in straw are easy to skip, and a goat standing on a rock or feeder may be partly hidden by it, so check the dots high and low alike.

On rough grazing with scrub, one viewpoint rarely sees the whole herd; photograph from two points whose views do not overlap, or bring the goats into a pen first. Record the reviewed number in the tally with the pen or date in the label, and do a hands-on count when an animal seems to be missing. Sheep on the same farm have their own flock counting guide, and other species fit the general livestock counter.