Goat mineral issue

[Bayleaf Meadows]

@misfitmorgan - That's a great article on goats in Sri Lanka. I wish we had one like that about goats in North Carolina!

 

[Goat Mania]

You have some cute kids on your FB page. Your goats look happy and healthy so that counts for a lot. I have no idea what your climate is or how much land you have but look at a plant called Tree Lucerne, also known as Tagasaste. It is a perennial tree that can be grown for browse for livestock and very high in protein; like alfalfa on a tree. They grow it in South Africa and also here in the US.

I have very little land and leased land at that. Its called ipil ipil here. The strain available here is less productive. I heard that in India they have developed certain strains of Lucerne that produce more green

 

[Goat Mania]

Nice goats! Do you ever feed your goats tararind? It has good copper in it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarind

I also found this, don't know if you have seen it before. It lists lots of good plants for goats in Sri Lanka, there might be some you can feed to help boost some minerals.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3035/bd8aa40878f54b9200ddd32b7855a3aa859b.pdf

From the tiny bit of information I can find Colombo Forages does make goat and sheep minerals. Any chance you can find that near you?

I don't feed tamarind now. I'm going to start though! Thanks. Colombo Forages sells raw materials for making minerals. They don't have a product of their own. Yet.

 

[misfitmorgan]

I don't feed tamarind now. I'm going to start though! Thanks. Colombo Forages sells raw materials for making minerals. They don't have a product of their own. Yet.

Awesome, hopefully you see some good results!

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day,an interesting thread on a problem in many parts of the world due in part to the practice of intensive farming especially goats.

If I were in your position here is where I would start.Consult with the leading livestock specialist in your National Dept of Agriculture.Which is the principal product you are trying to produce ,milk or meat?In the past we were in the business of producing meat from Dairy Goats and over 20 years of production learned a lot of lessons about how to be successful at it.Apart from a good mineral mix the next thing you will have to address is the lack of genetic diversity in the flock,generally speaking a straight bred dairy goat produces "at best" a mediocre "meat carcass",because the aim is to produce the best quality and quantity of milk.

You stated that you have about 50 goats,how many are you milking and what is the bred break-up? In a "perfect setup" the Saanan is the most productive producer of milk,but I am not so sure about its suitability to a tropical environment? Can you access locally some of the dairy breeds from the sub-continent?You indicated that you are on leased land,how much land and what is the degree of purchased feed? There does seem to be a lot of factors impacting your production project apart from the mineral deficiency one which in fact is the "easiest " to solve in my opinion.

Anyway have a think about the above and some of the questions have put,as to the mineral mix our hand mixed version of Pat Colby's has served us for over 40 years on all classes of livestock and I think you could most likely get them over there.The only one that may test you ids dried Seaweed Meal but then if you are close to the coast and away from polluted beaches you may be able to acquire "fresh" and hang it on the washing line to dry and feed it like that....T.O.R.

 

[Goat Mania]

View attachment 52610

Thanks for this. I am going to a similar one. Had something similar when I was breeding quails

 

[Goat Mania]

G'day,an interesting thread on a problem in many parts of the world due in part to the practice of intensive farming especially goats.

If I were in your position here is where I would start.Consult with the leading livestock specialist in your National Dept of Agriculture.Which is the principal product you are trying to produce ,milk or meat?In the past we were in the business of producing meat from Dairy Goats and over 20 years of production learned a lot of lessons about how to be successful at it.Apart from a good mineral mix the next thing you will have to address is the lack of genetic diversity in the flock,generally speaking a straight bred dairy goat produces "at best" a mediocre "meat carcass",because the aim is to produce the best quality and quantity of milk.

You stated that you have about 50 goats,how many are you milking and what is the bred break-up? In a "perfect setup" the Saanan is the most productive producer of milk,but I am not so sure about its suitability to a tropical environment? Can you access locally some of the dairy breeds from the sub-continent?You indicated that you are on leased land,how much land and what is the degree of purchased feed? There does seem to be a lot of factors impacting your production project apart from the mineral deficiency one which in fact is the "easiest " to solve in my opinion.

Anyway have a think about the above and some of the questions have put,as to the mineral mix our hand mixed version of Pat Colby's has served us for over 40 years on all classes of livestock and I think you could most likely get them over there.The only one that may test you ids dried Seaweed Meal but then if you are close to the coast and away from polluted beaches you may be able to acquire "fresh" and hang it on the washing line to dry and feed it like that....T.O.R.

Hello and thanks for the detailed response!
There is a Department of Animal Production and Health here who have nothing to offer in terms of good genetics, nutrition or vaccinations. There exists only a tetanus vaccine here. No CDT or anything else. There are some officials who are enthusiastic about helping but lack of knowledge and experience limits them. There is a lot of red tape if anything is to be imported too. Its like mission impossible

I am cross breeding Saanens with Boer for meat. But the Boer and Saanen stock both are heavily inbred. My initial goal is milk and to later sell breeding stock of good milkers and foundation stock for those wanting to start a meat herd.

The tropical climate does affect production but I have noticed they make it work in Philippines successfully. I have just over quarter of an acre and concentrate feed is purchased. I have access to lentil bran, vigna mungo bran, rice bran, coconut meal cake and wheat bran. The 'brans' are the cheapest. Barley for example is today a bit more than US $ 1.77 per kg (dehulled). We dont have barley seeds here. It is imported. Corn is US $ 0.40 cents.

We have some napier grown, we cut jak tree leaves, gliricidia sepium and feed them a mixture of everything.

Pat Colebys mix your taking about is as below?

Straight Lime
Dolomite
Sulphur (99%)
Copper Sulphate
Seaweed (kelp) meal
Agricultural salt

Yes, I will have a hard time with the seaweed meal. Is there any other substitute for it?

 

[Goat Mania]

After reading again I see that I missed a few points.

There are no proper dairy breeds I have access to. Nothing with more than half a litre of milk a day and none of them have long lactations. Maximum 4 months after kidding and they dry up.

At the moment I am milking only about 5 of them. Another 8 of them due to kid within a month. Here we usually start milking them after 2 months as the kids are dam raised.

The rest of my herd are Jamunaparis and Gulabi goats. I'm selling off the others so I can bring only dairy goats in. But keeping the F1 Boer doelings to slowly breed up to pure bred Boer.

I also feel a dash of Boer blood will do good to a future composite breed as they do better in hotter climates

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

G'day GM,Pat Colby's min as shown ,note: Dolomite is the form of lime (not agri lime)You can get Seaweed Meal on E-bay,the Aussie Vitagran is the one we use.For the salt portion we use the salt they sell for swimming pools its the least refined and its granular nature means that all the other ingredients "stick " it.

If it was me in your position I would gather up a group of "like minded" producers and approach the National govt with a view to them setting up an import program of suitable dairy genetics .This does not have to be live animals but sperm and embryos and using local stock the country could develop its expertise in the area of improving the production outcomes for the nation.

On the milking side ,with such a short lactation ,where is the profit ,is it in the milk sales or the value of the meat? Have you considered using "milk replacer" to rear the kids? Again search E-bay so you can evaluate the cost of this path.

Using straight bred Boer bucks over your x-breds is OK as long as the available gene pool is great enough.Once again a Govt program could "fast track" the introduction of improved genetics and the academics could benifiet from the experience gained and apply it to other livestock enterprises.

Anyway hope the above is of some value to your efforts into the future....T.O.R.

 

[Goat Mania]

G'day GM,Pat Colby's min as shown ,note: Dolomite is the form of lime (not agri lime)You can get Seaweed Meal on E-bay,the Aussie Vitagran is the one we use.For the salt portion we use the salt they sell for swimming pools its the least refined and its granular nature means that all the other ingredients "stick " it.

If it was me in your position I would gather up a group of "like minded" producers and approach the National govt with a view to them setting up an import program of suitable dairy genetics .This does not have to be live animals but sperm and embryos and using local stock the country could develop its expertise in the area of improving the production outcomes for the nation.

On the milking side ,with such a short lactation ,where is the profit ,is it in the milk sales or the value of the meat? Have you considered using "milk replacer" to rear the kids? Again search E-bay so you can evaluate the cost of this path.

Using straight bred Boer bucks over your x-breds is OK as long as the available gene pool is great enough.Once again a Govt program could "fast track" the introduction of improved genetics and the academics could benifiet from the experience gained and apply it to other livestock enterprises.

Anyway hope the above is of some value to your efforts into the future....T.O.R.

This has been tried but no response from them. But will take your suggestion and try again. The Saanens milk for more than 7 months. So the money is there. Meat profits is not much. Some breeders after many years have founds ways to increase lactation and overall health. Most probably by tweaking nutrition and or adding spices to boost them. BUT they do not want to share information. They want to be famous for having such goats. Absurd and stupid as it seems. You cant even waterboard them into divulging anything.

I tried milk replacer but didnt work well. Had 5 kids die with scours. It was too labour intensive and expensive.

Your advise was very valuable!