Feeding our Goats

I have lightly brushed over this topic before somewhere but thought I would do a post on it so it would be easy to access in the labeled area.

Adult goats are very healthy animals if a few things are sure to be done for them.  Clean water available to them 24/7.  Plenty of good grass, hay or browse available to them 24/7.  If they need grain, a good grain mix for goats.  An effective worming program, and supplementation in the minerals that are deficient in your area.  Yup, that is pretty much it and you should have healthy goats.  The odd things and scary things you read about, rarely pop up, if those basic needs are met.

When feeding a goat, one needs to realize you are not really feeding the goat, you are feeding the bacteria in their rumen.  The balance in their rumen is easy to maintain if you keep a routine and feed the same measured amounts of things every day.  I measure my goats grains they get for each meal.  Goats usually end up with bloat and "over eaters" disease(enterotoxemea) from that balance in their rumen getting out of wack.  How this usually happens is....You have a routine and are feeding the goat a balanced diet day after day, you decided to give them a treat of a large amount of stuff from your garden or they get out and into your garden!.  The goat does not have the bacteria in large enough quantity to break down the new food, the bacteria population that was eating the normal daily diet routinely, dies off, as it has nothing to eat and the die off causes huge amounts of gasses = bloat.  Or the goat dies from "over eaters disease".  Letting them get into chicken feed or dog food or even getting loose and into the feed room could really spell disaster quick. 

So I do a few things here on the farm to try to not have those type things happen.  I am all about routine (twice a day feedings, morning and evenings) and measuring.  Measuring helps with a few areas.  First, you can know exactly how much a goat is eating and if they are looking to heavy or to thin you can adjust exactly the amount your goat is eating.  Second, if you feed your goats in a huge mass, it does take less time, but you won’t usually notice if one of your goats is eating less and less or totally off feed and was just picking.  One of the first signs of troubles in goats is a goat not eating their feed.  As goats love to eat!  So if they go off their feed, usually there is a problem.  It could be anything from a sick goat, to me putting something new in the milk room!  They like things the same all the time.  Goats feel it is their personal job to disrupt an orderly barn and our routine!

Anyways, like I always say, I am not an expert. This is just what we do here on our farm and works for us.   

Anything you try, do it at your own risk.

One day, years ago, I started to wonder what exactly was in all our feeds and started to read all feed labels, of all the major brands.  I was using Purina at the time.  It was supposedly nutritionally balanced and all.  I was pleased with it but it was expensive and I like to try to feed as naturally as possible as we drink the milk.  I didn't like that the pellets were made from floor sweepings on most of the labels I read.  So switched all my goats over onto "all grain".  As I knew it was all grain and nothing else.  I used it for years.  But by the second year my sleek shinny goats started to have ruff coats and my black goats started having a redish ting to their coat on the flanks.  Also many of them got bald tail tips or something called fish tail.   Then all my older does started having weaker contractions while kidding and I did some research and found out we were copper deficient in our area and although I loved using the "all grain" it didn't have any of the extra supplements in it like the goat chow did.  Just having the loose minerals out, all the time, for them wasn't enough. They needed it in their feed.  As soon as I saw what was happening I started to copper bolus my goats regularly.  That helped but eventually I had to put them back on Purina. After doing that, with in about four months, everything went back to normal. Healthy, shinny, sleek goats again.   So....I am only sharing this as it might help someone to know what might be going on in their herd.  My herd is doing so well now (Praise God!)  I hate to monkey with what and how I feed.  I would rather have them on the "all grain"  But know what happened last time.  I might try it at some point as now I am copper bolusing them so that might compensate for the lack of copper in the "all grain".  We shall see.

I have in the past mixed my own grain mix.  Researching what kinds to put in it, buying every kind of grain in bulk and mixing it in certain amounts together by the shovel full, then adding in my own molasses and minerals.  That became to much on me so I then paid to have a mix done at a grain place.  It also got to be a lot as I had to buy so many bags at one time and had only a small storage area.  And in the summer months the molasses would go bad easily in the summer heat in some of the bags as I had to buy so many. I have tried using suggested horse feeds, grain mixes, all grain and goat feeds.  Whew, I have about played with every way I thought was the best way to feed a goat.  And many of them worked and were great.  But now I have gotten lazy.  I have fewer goats and what we are doing right now is working great for us....and for our situation, for sake of time, space available for storage, and money…….I have come to the place that Purina Goat Chow(though expensive) is as simple and as good as it gets for here. So that is what we feed.  

This all being said, this is how we feed our goats on our farm.

Here on the farm I go easy on the grain for all bucks.  If you over grain bucks it throws off the PH in their urine and they will get something called urinary calci.  Basically stones that they can’t pass.  Females don’t usually get it as they have larger plumbing all the way thru.   It is incredibly painful and I have never heard of a goat recovering from this in my area.  So I go easy on the grain for our bucks.  My Nigerian Dwarfs get literally a very small handful twice a day.   Basically whatever it takes to maintain good body condition.  Sweet feed is not the right feed for them.  If you try to feed sweet feed they usually eat all the grain part and leave the pellets.  I have had many people in my area loose bucks, from urinary calci, feeding sweet feed.  I don't know the science behind why this happens but all of the cases I have personally been told of was by feeding sweet feed.  I have used “All Grain” in the past for full sized buck goats, but as I said, my goats became copper deficient very quickly using it.  Mine really need the extra copper that is in a proper goat feed.  I don’t promote any of these feeds but you could use something like Purina Goat chow.  Noble goat or Dumor makes a goat feed.  All of these are high in copper and balanced for goats like it should be.  The Noble Goat many people don’t like to use because it has a coccidiant in it (a medicine for coccidia prevention) but is supposed to already have ammonium chloride in it for bucks.(to prevent the urinary calci)  Some people don’t want their goats on medicated feed permanently.  But most Nigerian breeders I know use a feed like that for their bucks(only) from the time they start to eat grain till the day they die.  Its a personal choice on that decision..  If you are going to feed any other feed one way to try to prevent urinary calci is to buy Ammonium chloride and sprinkle it on their feed.  It is supposed to change the Ph and break down the stones.  Keep them small enough to pass or keep them from forming.  I have it and use it a few times a week.  It is very much like salt and I have a shaker out in the barn full and put a few swishes on the bucks feed.  Praise God I have never had a buck get this in 14 years of doing goats.  I pray we never do.

For full grown does…like I said.  I used “all grain” in the past and had my whole heard become copper deficient very quickly.  So started back to Purina Goat chow.  Using that, things got better but I still have to copper bolus regularly. 

Anyways, with my does… for the Nigerian dwarfs, they only get a handful each daily of half Purina goat chow and half alfalfa pellets mixed in together.  They get this ration if they are bred or not.  I have heard you don’t need to give them anything (depending on body condition) unless you are milking them.  But I feel sorry for them as all the other goats get grained.  So give them that small amount.  Pygmys and Nigerians are notorious for having babies to big to deliver, at times, and it is said to be from graining them while pregnant.  It makes the babies grow to large.  So a handful is all I dare give them.  Two weeks before kidding I start to raise that amount a bit to get their bodies ready to start to eat enough for milking production. 

My full sized goats I have to give a cup of grain(Purina Goat Chow) in the morning and one at night when dry or bred in order to keep them in good body condition.  They also get a small amount of alfalfa pellets.  Again, I start to raise that up as they get close to kidding time.  Once they kid I keep raising the amount of grain slowly till I have them in good production and good body condition.  I also make sure my milkers get at least a cup, day and evening of alfalfa pellets.

I rotate pasture with my worming program and our goats always have Bermuda hay before them day and night.  I have found if a goat is feeling a little off in their tummy, they will stop eating grass and grain but will keep nibbling on hay or resort to eating hay till things straighten out.  So I always keep hay before them even if they have plenty of grass. 

I also keep several small mineral pans screwed to the wall.  In one I keep a good loose mineral mix specifically for goats.(so it has the right amount of selenium and copper in it)  Sometimes they don’t touch it for weeks and some times I have to fill it daily for days.  It has to be loose so they can consume it if they need it.  They only have teeth on the bottom so can't break off the amount they need and licking the amount they need would take to long and they might give up.  So by a good loose mineral mix specifically for goats.  I also keep regular baking soda (yup, arm in hammer) out there in one.  This is always available.  As they again, know when their tummy is off and often can stave off trouble by consuming this all on their own.  The other thing I leave out is not a necessity and is expensive.  And that is kelp.  I have it out and available all the time.  I also give my goats human vitamin C.  The regular orange flavored kind from Wal-mart, I give a few times a week.  I just read last year some really great articles about vitamin C and how it really helps goats stay healthy.  I hardly give any treats so they look forward to seeing me come up to them with the bottle in my hand. 

I guess that pretty much covers how we have fed our goats in the past and now.  Now, I usually try to keep only the amount of goats on our property that we need so our feed bill is as low as possible.  But doing the "great goat experiment" now has put me over for a while, till I get goats sorted out the way I want them.  Also the whole purpose of my experiment is to get my goats to produce needing as little grain as possible.  So hopefully our feed bill will keep going down over time having more efficient goats. 

Happy goat researching and feeding!

Farmhouse Cheese Corn Bread

This is a recipe I made up to use up our milk supply/farmhouse cheese supply.  It is not like your traditional salty or sweet corn bread. But is a great homemade "rustic" type bread that is versatile, different and taste great year round.  A slice, fresh out of the oven, with veggies or a salad in summer, a slice with homemade soup or chili in winter . It is good reheated, cut into large chucks, with milk poured over it for breakfast!  Be creative I say!

First, you will need to make farmhouse cheese,  mix in 1 tsp salt for every gallon of milk and let it drain in the cheese cloth hanging for a few hours to make a dry plain salted cheese ball. (like we did there but with out the herbs just the salt)  We do this all the time and use this type of cheese crumbled up to put on salads, put into bruschetta,  mixed in with spicy rice and baked into pepper halves  or sprinkled in soups.  Once you have your cheese proceed……

1 ¼ cup corn meal

1 ¼ cup flour (we use fresh ground wheat flour)

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

½ cup olive oil

1 cup milk (we use goat milk :)  )

1 table spoon chives (fresh chopped or dried)

2 pinches shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup - chopped to pea size, farm house cheese made like stated above.  (large curd cottage cheese works well for a substitute that is drained really well)

Half a stick of butter

And any other spices you might like to add. -  you can dice up hot peppers or use a few red pepper flakes, a few shakes of chili powder tastes great too.  Depending on how spicy you like things. 

Mix all the dry ingredients together – Corn meal, Flour, baking powder, salt, Parmesan cheese.

Then in a separate bowl mix together the eggs, olive oil, milk, chives, cheddar cheese and farm house cheese.

Blend the two mixes together.  It will be pretty thick.

Take a 10 inch cast iron skillet and put the half stick of butter into it.  Place it in the oven and set the oven at 400 to preheat.   

Once the oven is preheated take out the skillet and turn it around a little to coat the inside of the skillet with the melted butter, then pour or spread in your thick batter.   

Spread it around evenly.  

Put it back into the hot oven for 30 minutes.  You might want to keep an eye on it as my oven is a convection oven and bakes a little quick.  It is ready as soon as a knife come out of the center clean.  Try not to over bake it. 

We eat this more in the summer months than the winter months as we always have more milk to use up in the summer.  

My son William does "stop animation" for his hobby. The above movie was created by him as he ate his slice of Farmhouse Corn Bread.  Enjoy!

May God richly bless you today and everyday you walk with Him.
susan

Feeding Newborn and Kid Goats

                                         2009
When a goat is born here on our property I take them away immediately from their moms.  This is a personal preference thing.  We do it first, because I am not usually keeping the kids and want them gone off the property as soon as possible, so I have less work and more milk!  A goat that nurses on its mom will not go easily onto a bottle later.  So in order to sell them quick, I take the time to get them started well on the bottle.  Making sure that they get the colstrum within a few hours of being born and that they are nursing well on moms milk before they go to a new home.  Secondly, if I am keeping a buck or doe, bottle feeding, in my experience makes for a better, easier to handle dairy animal.  I can put a leash on my sticky (in rutt) bucks collar and walk them to a doe pen for breeding.  I don't have to catch them, wrestle them to the does pen, and get all stinky.  I can catch any bottle fed goat easily for hoof trimming, giving wormers and such. So I bottle feed.

As I say in almost all my posts.  I am not a vet and don't know everything.  This is what we found works for our farm and so apply it at your own risk.  But this is what we do...as soon as the kids are born and on their feet and the mom is through with her delivery.  I milk her out or almost out depending on how many kids she had.  If they have more than two babies I try not to fully milk them out for the first couple of milkings so as not to throw the mother into "milkfever".

It is often a messy job teaching the babies to nurse.  Tongues hanging out the side of their mouths or them not knowing quite what to do.  Some take to it like they have always been doing it.  Yeah!  Others you might need to pet on, especially down near their tail area on their backs.  As that is where the moms are licking them off and stimulating them to nurse if left with mom.  If you can not get them to latch and nurse.  It is just easier and safer(risk of aspiration of milk into the lungs if they can’t nurse) to tube feed them that first nursing.  Usually, if I bolus them (tube feed ) them that first time, their sucking reflex kicks in by the next nursing. 
 

I go out to feed the babies every few hours the first two days (during the day hours) letting them drink all they want each nursing. 

On full sized babies (Nubian, Lamancha, ect.) your goal is 40 ounces a day broken into three feedings.  Usually they are there by day two or three.  As soon as they can drink 20 ounces in one go, they can be fed just 20 ounces twice a day.  (We also disbud (dehorn) them at about 4 days old.)  By week three you can put out a small bucket of water, some hay and leave a small amount of grain out.  They will soon discover it.  I slowly work it up till they are getting 3/4 cup of grain twice a day. (morning and evening)  You can use something like goat feed or some people use Nobel Goat as it has a cocidiant in it to stave of coccidia. Still continue with the two bottles a day while introducing these foods as they are going to have to develop their rumen and can’t digest food yet, so they NEED their milk.  Some people wean at 8 weeks and some later.  The goats I am keeping, I wean at 12 weeks to get as much growth on them as possible.  As I want my does a good size for good birthing some day and my bucks big and strong. So at 8 weeks I cut them back to just one 20 ounce bottle in the evening and then done at 12 weeks.

On Nigerian Dwarfs it is about the same schedule as above but smaller amounts.  Your goal is 24 ounces a day when a few days old.  Once they can down 12 ounces at a go you can cut them back to two feedings a day.  By week three you can put out a small bucket of water and some hay and leave a small amount of grain out.  Once they start really eating the grain I work it up till they are eating a ¼ cup in the morning and ¼ cup at night.   And the weaning schedule is the same as above. 

If you decide to feed Noble Goat as a starter feed, you need to work any does kids off it and onto a regular goat grain before breeding and milking, as Noble Goat has that medicine in it and you don’t want a pregnant goat eating it or it coming thru a milking doe into your milk.  So it would be a good starter food but change over.  Some people leave their bucks on it their whole lives as Noble Goat has Ammonium Chloride in it to help stave off urinary calci. You can also purchase Ammonium Chloride separate and sprinkle it over your choice of feed to help prevent Urinary Calci in bucks.

Years ago, I did sometimes leave babies on their moms at times.  It worked very well for first fresheners that I could not get my hands on their teats well to milk. (short first fresheners teats) If I let them raise their kids the first time, the kids would stretch out the teats so I could milk, without harmming the udder, after just a few days to a weeks time.  I stopped doing this practice after having two udders ruined by buck kids.  They chewed holes in a teat and were so ruff on the udders it caused infections.  So I just don't leave the babies on the moms anymore.  If you don't have a good, healthy udder you don't have a milk goat.  I go thru to much to selectively breed a goat, raise a goat, breed that goat and wait for it to freshen to have a kid ruin it.  

When you do let the moms raise their kids just make sure that the babies latch on and nurse well with in the first few hours. I have once in the past thought a baby was nursing well because I saw it nurse.  But with in a day it was to weak to save.  So make sure you see them nurse well and often.  Make sure the mom has milk.  Once the baby starts to nurse well you really don't have to do to much till they are two weeks old.  (Other than disbud (dehorn) them at about 4 days old.)  When they turn 2 weeks old you can start to remove the babies in the evening.  Put them in a safe dry stall or large dog kennel for the night.  When you go out in the morning you can milk the mom and get the 12 hours worth of milk from her body making milk all night with out the kids nursing on her.  After you milk you can put the kids back with her for the day.  They will nurse all day long and get that 12 hours worth of milk.  Doing it this way, some people let the moms wean the kids and some take the babies away for good at 8 or 12 weeks and call them weaned. 

One very important thing to remember is that a baby buck kid can re-breed his own mom or any doe in the area as early as three months old.  I have even heard of them breeding their own mom as early as 8 weeks old.  So any buck kids born, might need to be weaned or castrated by 8 or 12 weeks at the very latest.

God is so good to us always.  I have really enjoyed raising and milking goats thru the years.  I don't think I can sit and watch baby goats skipping and jumping all over the place, like silly kids and not smile. :) 

God bless you this spring as you live and grow in Him,
 susan

Psalm 104:14  He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

Baby Goat Update

The goats waiting to be brought up to the barn after grazing in the field all day.  Amelia and MiniBell are the two all the way to the left.  Haven't they gotten big!

Carolyn running the goats to the barn from the field.  They all just follow her up to the barn.

Many of you know I am in the middle of the "Great Goat Experiment" here on our farm. I have raised full sized dairy goats for years (Lamancha's and Nubians) and loved and enjoyed every moment.  They were just what we needed at that time.  I had so many children drinking milk and two children with g-tubes that I used goat milk for their nutrition.  I worked for years in my herd trying to come up with, thru breeding, my idea of the best "back yard" milker for myself and family.  A goat that is hardy, healthy, and easy to hand milk with long teats.  I didn't care so much about pure bred anymore because I found over time the hybrids to be healthier.

Now that my children have grown up so much. We don't use as much milk as we did in the past.  So I can move to a smaller, easier to handle goat.  Also, the larger goats have been pushed thru genetics and heavy graining for high milk production.   They really need to be grained year round to maintain good body condition.  That gets to be expensive with grain prices going up and up, I am now really wanting a moderate amount of milk, smaller goat to feed and a goat that can produce a nice amount with out to much grain. 

Thus the introduction to the Nigerian Dwarfs into my life.  They are smaller, easier to handle, have not been bred for a huge amount of time for huge milk yeilds and don't need grain in most cases to maintain body condition unless in milk.
 

               Twinkie and Bluebell
So I sold my herd of full sized dairy goats.  All but my two best Milkers. (Twinkie and Bluebell, Just in case I was unhappy with my new goats)  Twinkie and Bluebell give over a gallon a day each.  I did a lot of research to find and purchase clean Nigerian Dwarfs that all had the genetics to easily be hand milked and purchased four doe kids and three unrelated bucks. 

I sort of have two things going on here right now.  I am crossing my great full sized milkers with one of my Nigerian Dwarf bucks to come up with a mid-sized or "mini-milker"  And then now that my four pure Nigerian Does are old enough bred them straight to the pure Nigerian Bucks. 

So far on the farm this year 2013, we have had two goats to freshen/deliver babies.  I guess phase 1 of the experiment.  Twinkie kidded end of January with triplets. Two does and a buck.  I didn't need the buck so he is gone and I kept the does for my experiment. (Amelia and MiniBell) 

Amelia and MiniBell  are just a few days short of three months old now.  They were disbudded at a few days old.  They are chewing their cud.  Eating grass, hay and a bit of grain and drinking water.  They are about 40 pounds each and have both been dewormed for the first time.  They are doing well and large and healthy enough to spend the days out in the pasture grazing with the rest of the adult does.  Since they are crosses between the Nigerian Dwarfs and the full sized goats they are already taller than the adult Nigerians that they graze with.   I weaned them last night.  They had their last night bottle and are officially weaned.
  
Bluebell kidded in the beginning of April.  She also had triplets.  Two bucks and a doe.  I don't need either of the bucks so one is gone and the other staying to keep the little doe company till she is big enough to be put in with the other does.  They are about two weeks old now and drinking one 20 ounce bottle in the morning and one 20 ounce bottle in the evening.  They were disbudded at a few days old.  They are nibbling around at things but I have not actually seen them eat anything much yet.  We have not named the little doe yet that is staying.  But she is a cutie pie.  Carolyn has been calling her Calfy because her face is split white and black and looks like a calves face.  Carolyn calls the little buck Dinner!  But I doubt we will eat him.  There is a huge market for goats in our area and I have never had trouble selling them.

      The unnamed doe also known as Calfy for now.

The very nicely put together buckling that is staying for a short while to keep the little doe company.




So Amelia and Mini Bell are weaned and I have a ways to go on bottle feeding Bluebells babies as they won't be cut back to one bottle a day till they hit 8 weeks old.  The next phase in all this should be around June 1st when all four of the Nigerian Dwarfs should start to freshen for the very first time.  They will be the first pure Nigerian Dwarf babies born on our property.  So should be fun.  I have been waiting a long time for this as I will see who out of the four does are going to be easy to milk good milkers.  And will know what does to cull and what babies to retain for the future. Bottle feeding babies is not my favorite job.  I just can't catch a break from it this year I think.  :)  But Carolyn helps me and I am happy and grateful that God blessed us with three does from the first two kiddings of the year.  Very blessed.

Blessings,
susan



2 Corinthians 9:8  And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

Lest a Seed Die

Lest a seed die, a plant would be not born. 

Laid to rest in the ground, by the sun being warmed.

The tears of heaven fall, life bursts forth from its sleep

So small and tender green, up toward heaven it does reach

Growing strong and tall, its flowers it does form

Kissed by bees and butterflies, on buds it does adorn

Buds give way to fruit, seeds nestled deep in side

Joyful harvest for our homes, our food for many times 

We save back precious seeds, whose death we do not mourn

Lest a seed die, a plant would not be born

susan nichols

John 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

May we all be willing to die to self, to bring forth fruit for our Lord and Savior!