Goats AND Sheep?

[Peeka52]

I'm a member of the FFA and I've been wanting to add a few Boer Does to the school Land Lab (farm). We pretty much raise everything else meat related other than goats (cattle, hogs, sheep, rabbits, broilers). The problem is is that we have limited space and the only way that we would be able to keep does here, is if they were housed with the Ewe herd for part of the year. I know that sheep and goats have similar feeding requirements and that the main issue will be the Copper. Goats need it, but too much will harm the sheep.
What I'm wondering is if there is such thing as a copper shot or pill that you can give goats that would fulfill their Copper requirement. Also, for people how keep sheep and goats together, how do they behave around one another, do they mingle or stick in their own specie groups?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Hillsvale]

we keep ours together, they get evening grain in their seperate pens and with the goats I toss some minerals in their grain... sheep minerals are kept out in the general population. Everyone gets along just fine but they still pose as two seperate groups.

As for the copper "pill" someone was discussing that recently ...

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I keep my goats and sheep together year round with no problems. I copper bolus the goats if I think they need more copper, and the milking does get fed when they're on the milk stand.

 

[20kidsonhill]

I would suggest feeding the goats separate goat grain in a small pen. They are very easily trained to go to a pen to eat. Then just let them out when they are done. Make sure the goat grain you are using is as high as possible in copper, and like Hillsvalle suffested you may even wish to sprinkle some goat minerals on it, but be careful not to add tooo much. It can make the grain too salty for them to eat.

Copasure boluses are also another way to add copper to their system. These need to be taken apart and the copper oxide rods need to be measured out, since they are for cattle and goats need a smaller dosage.

Also there is a RX injectable called muiltimin 90 that contains some copper. This is kind of pricey. My directions say to administer 1 cc per 100lbs of animal, so a little does go a long ways. I have seen it at Valleyvet.com

So the answer to your question is that it is very possible and very managable.