He deals in an’aam animals and in some cases one full hijri year has not yet passed. How should he pay zakaah on them?
Question

                I have a rare type of goat, namely the Syrian goat, and it is an expensive kind, the price of some of which may reach 50,000 riyals. I keep them and sell their offsrping and I buy and sell them, and in some cases I do not keep them for a full hijri year. Raising them costs money for feed and veterinary care, and they are kept in a shed and do not go out and eat vegetation. I hope you can advise me whether zakaah is due on them and how it should be calculated; are they regarded as an’aam animals or trade goods?.
Praise be to Allah.Firstly: 
The majority 
    of scholars are of the view that no zakaah is due on an’aam animals (i.e., 
    camels, cattle, sheep and goats) unless they graze freely on grass in the 
    pasture and one full hijri year has passed for all of them or most of them. 
    But if they are fed and their owner spends money on their feed, no zakaah is 
    due on them, unless their owner intends to trade in them – as is mentioned 
    in your question – in which case they are subject to the zakaah on trade 
    goods. 
So these 
    goats that you have are not subject to the zakaah on an’aam animals, rather 
    they are subject to the zakaah on trade goods. 
See more 
    details in the answer to question no.
    40156. 
Secondly: 
It should be 
    noted that some people make a mistake with regard to the beginning of the 
    year for zakaah. They think that it is the moment when they buy the trade 
    goods, but that is not correct. Rather the year for trade goods is when the 
    year from when one acquired the money with which one buys them has passed, 
    if that money reaches the nisaab (threshold). 
What this 
    means is that if a person buys trade goods – such as goats that are fed etc 
    – with gold or silver or cash that reaches the nisaab, then the year starts 
    from the time when he took possession of that gold or silver or cash. 
    Similarly, if he buys goats in return for a car that he trades, the year for 
    the goats is the year from when he acquired the car. 
The reason 
    for that is that in trade you buy and sell, and exchange money or goods, and 
    if the year is not based on the wealth which came before, there would be no 
    zakaah on trade goods. 
Shaykh Ibn 
    ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) said, explaining this issue: If a 
    person buys trade goods with money that reaches the nisaab, such as a man 
    who has two hundred dirhams, and during the year he buys trade goods with 
    it, the year does not start when he buys the good, rather it is based on the 
    first, because the year for trade goods is to be based on the first. 
Another 
    example is if a man has one thousand riyals of which he takes possession in 
    Ramadaan, then in Sha’baan of the following year he buys some trade goods. 
    When Ramadaan comes, he must pay zakaah on those trade goods, because the 
    year for trade goods is based on the year for the money with which they are 
    bought. 
The same 
    applies if he trades goods that reach the nisaab for other goods. For 
    example, a man has a car, and during the year he trades it for another car 
    for the purpose of trade. The year should be based on the first car, because 
    what is sought is its value, not the difference in the two products, and he 
    did not buy the second car to use it, rather he wanted it so that he could 
    trade it. End quote from al-Sharh al-Mumti’. 
Based on 
    this, if you took possession of ten thousand, for example, in Ramadaan, then 
    you bought goats with it in Dhu’l-Hijjah, and you started to sell them or 
    their offspring, and buy others, the year for zakaah is in Ramadaan. You 
    have to work out the value of the goats that you have each year, then add to 
    that the cash that you have, and pay zakaah on the total at a rate of 
    one-quarter of one-tenth.  The year for zakaah will continue to be in 
    Ramadaan unless the amount falls below the nisaab during the year, such as 
    if a person sells what he has in Safar, for example, and he puts the money 
    into buying land or a house to live in, then Allaah blesses him with wealth 
    during Rajab, so he buys more goats to trade. Then the year for trading will 
    start in Rajab. 
And Allaah 
    knows best.