A local charter school hosted a farm animal day during their day camp over the summer. As one of the few farmers in the area raising fiber goats, we were asked to bring one of our goats to show and explain to the children. That meant another chance to transport one of our goats off the farm.

When preparing to transport a farm animal directly in the car outside of a crate when you don’t have a pickup truck or trailer, it is important to have the right set up so everything goes well and doesn’t ruin the inside of the car.

In our case, we used the cargo area of our Subaru Forester. Here is a picture before goat preparations.

The cargo area before goat preparations.

First, we placed a waterproof tarp over the entire area, folding up the sides where necessary so any fluids remain trapped on the tarp. Then, we installed the temporary pet barrier so the goat couldn’t jump over the back seat. Finally, we placed towels on top of the tarp so it was more comfortable and absorbent if necessary.

After preparations.

Finally, you just need to add a goat…

Luckily, we had a couple of goat halters available. However, none of the goats were used to wearing a halter. We used it a couple of times in the field to help desensitize Butterbean to the halter.  We decided to take Butterbean because he is one of our friendliest goats and he is also the smallest and easiest to handle.

Beanie wearing his halter.

When it came time to load him up, we put the halter on and he walked nicely on a leash right out of the pasture and to the garage. He even tried to climb in the back on his own without any prompting.

Beanie trying to climb in on his own.

He couldn’t quite make it up on his own so we eventually had to help lift him in and the close the hatch.

Beanie in the back of the Subaru – ready to go.

It was a relatively short trip to the camp location and Beanie was fine during the drive.

We brought along a sun shade canopy, some fresh hay and some grain for Butterbean. We also brought along some sample mohair shearings and some socks to show the kids.

Beanie relaxing at the day camp. There are some young dairy goats in the background (which coincidentally were also transported in a Subaru, but inside large dog travel crates instead of loose).

Beanie really seemed to enjoy it.  Without the rest of his flock around to push him out of the way, he got to eat all of hay that he wanted. He was so relaxed that we even took off his goat halter and just used a typical collar and leash.

Also, when the kids came by to visit and learn more about him, each kid gave him a small handful of grain by hand – Beanie really liked that part.

Beanie at animal day camp – (the kids are watching a cow milking demonstration off to the side).

As far as we know, it was Beanie’s first time off of our farm as he was born there.

We hope to get invited back to the camp in future years.