Nubian goats, the tall dairy breed with long drooping ears and a Roman nose, present a different protection problem from their smaller cousins. An adult Nubian doe is a substantial animal, and most predators that meet one at a fence decide to look elsewhere. The losses in Nubian herds come instead at the edges of the herd's life: kids in their first weeks, does weakened around kidding, and whole groups panicked into fences by dogs that never lay a tooth on any of them. Good Nubian security aims squarely at those edges.
Kids are the prize predators are after
Coyotes and roaming dogs account for most Nubian kid losses, slipping into pastures at dawn or dusk when kids are sleeping away from their mothers or lagging behind the herd. Bobcats take kids in country where they hunt, and a kid born outdoors, in a far corner of the field, may be found by something else long before you find it yourself. The adults' famous loudness cuts both ways here: a herd in full voice can discourage a hesitant hunter, but a kid bleating alone in a distant paddock is an audible announcement of exactly where the vulnerable animal is.
Fencing for a goat that rears, leans, and tests
Nubians use their height. A doe will rear up, plant her front feet high on woven wire, and walk the top of a fence down with her weight until kids can step over the sagging line, so the fence must be tall, tightly strained, and supported on posts that do not give. Keep the mesh small low down for kids, fit gates that close against pressure from either side, and hang nothing climbable, no hay racks, water troughs, or shelter roofs, hard against the perimeter. Inspect the spots where the herd crowds, at gates and feeding points, because that is where wire loosens first.
The kidding pen and the night yard
Move does close to kidding into a pen beside the barn where you pass many times a day, and let them deliver there rather than in the open field. Keep kids in that protected pen, under a roof that rules out trouble from above, until they are bouncing, quick, and keeping up with their mothers without effort. Clear afterbirth from kidding pens promptly and keep feed stores sealed, so the night yard does not scent itself with things that draw raccoons and other opportunists.
Listening to a loud breed, and acting on it
Nubian owners live with a lot of goat noise, which makes it tempting to tune it out, but the herd's alarm has a different quality: every animal calling at once, bunched together, staring the same way. Treat that chorus as a fence-checking order. Look for tracks and digging outside the wire, hair caught at gate height, and any goat favouring a leg after a chase, and check kids first whenever the herd has been disturbed, since a youngster that has been grabbed and dropped may have punctures hidden under a deceptively clean coat. Any goat with bite wounds, torn ears, or sudden soreness needs prompt veterinary attention, and a doe that was chased hard while heavily pregnant or freshly kidded should be watched closely for days. Recount the kids at morning and evening feeding, when the herd is gathered and a missing youngster cannot hide in the group.
A Nubian herd whose kids are born under your eye, whose fence stands up to a rearing doe, and whose nights are spent in a yard by the barn gives predators very little to work with. If a goat still breaks out during a storm or a gate failure and wanders off, KinsLe's Lost Pet Alert System lets you alert nearby Circle of Love members through KinsLe and lets whoever finds her message you directly.