Roll farms
Spot Master
I raise our kids on goat milk for the most part. I try to keep our small freezer stocked w/ 30 gallons year round.
Occasionally I'll be given an orphan to save or have trips or quads before my dairy does are in full production and run short, and I use whole milk / goat milk combo.
The reason I advocate whole milk is because the LOL Does Match is not available anywhere in my area (unless I want to pay the freight $). It's the only one I've heard good results about.
The replacers that TSC carries are junk. Not milk based, but soy, and will scour kids. Also, not everyone can mix properly. It seems basic, but I dunno HOW many times people have gotten the instructions wrong and scoured kids.
I did a cost analysis of milk $ vs. replacer cost a couple years ago but can't find it now....and don't have time to do another at the moment. I buy cows milk from the cheapest source (Aldis or Wal Mart on sale) and freeze it when needed.
The comparison I did was "UniMilk" (which is junk, but what's easily found around here - and 'cheap') vs. whole milk and it was still cheaper to use whole milk.
Vitamin D milk has been homogenized, which makes it easier to digest (closer to goat milk in fat particle size). That's part of why goat kids do well on it, vs. (cheap) replacers. Reconstituted milk, esp. soy-based replacer, isn't the same as the 'real' thing.
Figure up how many gallons you get out of a bag of replacer, divide that by your $ spent and you'll know which is more cost effective.
To me, if you're not going to use 'good stuff'....you don't need the animals at all. I can't get the 'good stuff' as far as replacer, so in my situation, whole milk IS the good stuff.
Plus, when advising the average newbie here, I'd say 50% of the time, they've impulse-bought a goat kid at a sale barn, bought cheap replacer, and the kid is sick.
The quickest way to straighten them out is pull the replacer and switch to cow's milk.
If you mention they then need to go out and buy a 50$ bag of replacer, some will balk. "But...I only paid $20 for the kid."-type responses.
You get what you pay for...just, some folks don't wanna pay nuttin'.
There are traces of copper, selenium, etc. in cows milk...if the cows had mineral in their diet. They just don't list them on the milk jug b/c trace minerals aren't part of the required label info.
Occasionally I'll be given an orphan to save or have trips or quads before my dairy does are in full production and run short, and I use whole milk / goat milk combo.
The reason I advocate whole milk is because the LOL Does Match is not available anywhere in my area (unless I want to pay the freight $). It's the only one I've heard good results about.
The replacers that TSC carries are junk. Not milk based, but soy, and will scour kids. Also, not everyone can mix properly. It seems basic, but I dunno HOW many times people have gotten the instructions wrong and scoured kids.
I did a cost analysis of milk $ vs. replacer cost a couple years ago but can't find it now....and don't have time to do another at the moment. I buy cows milk from the cheapest source (Aldis or Wal Mart on sale) and freeze it when needed.
The comparison I did was "UniMilk" (which is junk, but what's easily found around here - and 'cheap') vs. whole milk and it was still cheaper to use whole milk.
Vitamin D milk has been homogenized, which makes it easier to digest (closer to goat milk in fat particle size). That's part of why goat kids do well on it, vs. (cheap) replacers. Reconstituted milk, esp. soy-based replacer, isn't the same as the 'real' thing.
Figure up how many gallons you get out of a bag of replacer, divide that by your $ spent and you'll know which is more cost effective.
To me, if you're not going to use 'good stuff'....you don't need the animals at all. I can't get the 'good stuff' as far as replacer, so in my situation, whole milk IS the good stuff.
Plus, when advising the average newbie here, I'd say 50% of the time, they've impulse-bought a goat kid at a sale barn, bought cheap replacer, and the kid is sick.
The quickest way to straighten them out is pull the replacer and switch to cow's milk.
If you mention they then need to go out and buy a 50$ bag of replacer, some will balk. "But...I only paid $20 for the kid."-type responses.
You get what you pay for...just, some folks don't wanna pay nuttin'.
There are traces of copper, selenium, etc. in cows milk...if the cows had mineral in their diet. They just don't list them on the milk jug b/c trace minerals aren't part of the required label info.
Whole milk, when it's NOT on sale, is $2.59. I've been getting a good deal this past week at $1.99 and today is the last day. I will try to get more than just the 2 gallons per day! It goes on your store card, so only 2 will be allowed, at least that is what I am told. 
