20kidsonhill
True BYH Addict
My husband and I do not like a bottle raised doe in the herd, and most certainly not our herd sire. We don't like how they are in your space all the time. If I do need to bottle raise I normallly sell them or if I can I will bottle raise the males, since we don't keep any of them. I like the goats being a little wildier, but I am not trying to catch them every day and milk them. I have always felt that this was a big difference between the thought process of dairy herd and mear herds. Some of our dam raised kids become very gentle, let you pet them and walk right up to them, but some of them are very wild.
A good example is last summer when my children were working with their 4H goats, 3 out the 4 were pretty cooperative, ONe of them was so friendly, he wouldn't stop chewing on my son's clothes and wouldn't listen, the 4th one was so wild, very difficult to catch, then we would have to drag him from the pen to the yard, this continued every day for 2 months right up until the show in august. Now our goat are born December/January, and we often don't start working with them until May, as far as handling them and haltering them. Weigh in is in June.
When it came to the showmanship class at the fair, my son had to choose betwen the tame one that chewed on your clothes, but walked nicely, or the one that up to this point you had to drag around and acted terrified.At the last minute we choose the nervous one, worked like a charm. he listened to everything my son said, walke perfectly, stood like a brick wall during set-up. He was just nervous enough that he acted like he was at attention, but he was used to being handled every day so he did just what he was asked.
I realize this seems off the point of bottle feeding your kids in a dairy herd. But I wanted to share the story to help understand a bottle raised kid would certainly have been very very tame, but our theory is we don't want them too tame. You can work with them over time, in my opinion, but they wont always be under foot.
Hope this helped a little.
Good luck on your decision.
If it was me and I was raising dairy, I would bottle feed, including the first milk, I would do my best not to let the babies bond with mom at all. Just seperate them right away and be done with it. Pretty much what Roll is doing.
A good example is last summer when my children were working with their 4H goats, 3 out the 4 were pretty cooperative, ONe of them was so friendly, he wouldn't stop chewing on my son's clothes and wouldn't listen, the 4th one was so wild, very difficult to catch, then we would have to drag him from the pen to the yard, this continued every day for 2 months right up until the show in august. Now our goat are born December/January, and we often don't start working with them until May, as far as handling them and haltering them. Weigh in is in June.
When it came to the showmanship class at the fair, my son had to choose betwen the tame one that chewed on your clothes, but walked nicely, or the one that up to this point you had to drag around and acted terrified.At the last minute we choose the nervous one, worked like a charm. he listened to everything my son said, walke perfectly, stood like a brick wall during set-up. He was just nervous enough that he acted like he was at attention, but he was used to being handled every day so he did just what he was asked.
I realize this seems off the point of bottle feeding your kids in a dairy herd. But I wanted to share the story to help understand a bottle raised kid would certainly have been very very tame, but our theory is we don't want them too tame. You can work with them over time, in my opinion, but they wont always be under foot.
Hope this helped a little.
Good luck on your decision.
If it was me and I was raising dairy, I would bottle feed, including the first milk, I would do my best not to let the babies bond with mom at all. Just seperate them right away and be done with it. Pretty much what Roll is doing.
I'M WITH ROLL ON THIS, I BOTTLE FED EVERYONE BORN HERE, THEY ARE ALL DAIRY, A FEW BOERS THAT MY DH BROUGHT HOME, MY BIG GIRLS ARE ALL FRIENDLY AND WHEN I NEED TO MILK I CALL BY NAME AND THEY COME TO THE GATE THEY USUALLY BEAT ME TO THE STAND. ALL MY BABIES ARE FRIENDLY AND IF YOUR GONNA SELL KIDS BEFORE THEY ARE WEANED, IT'S BEST TO HAVE THEM ALREADY USE TO THE BOTTLE. LESS WORK FOR THE BUYER., I DON'T HAVE THE ROOM FOR ALL OF THEM TO BE WITH THEIR MOM'S AND HAVE A SEPARTE AREA FOR THE KIDS ONCED WEANED. PLUS YOU AVOID THE CAE PROBLEM, I HAVE ONE BOER BUCK WHO WAS 3 WEEKS OLD WHEN DH BROUGHT HIM HOME AND HE IS HARD TO CATCH, WON'T TAKE BUT ABOUT 3-4 OZ AT A TIME, BUT HE'S EATING GRASS ALL THE TIME, AND HAY. IT'S REALLY UP TO YOU ON HOW MUCH TIME YOU WANT TO PUT INTO IT, LIKE ME I'M HERE ALL DAY SO IT DOESNT BOTHER ME TO BOTTLE THEM, PLUS WITH THE ONE ON ONE CONTACT YOU CAN USUALLY CATCH PROBLEMS EARLIER.
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