Heifer in with my goats.

[heatherlynnky]

Ok, we just expanded and separated our fields. So one field has the horses and thats also where the geese and ducks are fed their corn. Another field that has the graduated panel fencing, is the most uber secure and has the pond has the goats and a heifer calf. So there is the scenario. What issues might I face with having these 2 in with each other? Is calf food bad for goats? They can share the same hay and I just have to find a way for everyone to be able to reach it since I only put out whats needed each day instead of doing one big bale. There is plenty of room and grazing and mature shade but feeding time is my worry right now.

Will any of my goat stuff hurt the calf. The mineral block for the goat for example or the copper? Let me know what you all do. This was not well planned. My parents left and came back to tell me a 5 month old jersey heifer calf was arriving in a few hours so be ready. I am now scrambling to make sure I have everything covered. I already have a vet coming tomorrow to get us started on shots and check her over. The calf is SKINNY too. Not horribly but not where she will be when I am done with her. I just could use advice from those who have mixed species set ups like this. I am starting to feel like all I do is fence to keep everyone out of each others feed.

 

[CochinBrahmaLover=)]

Ok, we just expanded and separated our fields. So one field has the horses and thats also where the geese and ducks are fed their corn. Another field that has the graduated panel fencing, is the most uber secure and has the pond has the goats and a heifer calf. So there is the scenario. What issues might I face with having these 2 in with each other? Is calf food bad for goats? They can share the same hay and I just have to find a way for everyone to be able to reach it since I only put out whats needed each day instead of doing one big bale. There is plenty of room and grazing and mature shade but feeding time is my worry right now.

Will any of my goat stuff hurt the calf. The mineral block for the goat for example or the copper? Let me know what you all do. This was not well planned. My parents left and came back to tell me a 5 month old jersey heifer calf was arriving in a few hours so be ready. I am now scrambling to make sure I have everything covered. I already have a vet coming tomorrow to get us started on shots and check her over. The calf is SKINNY too. Not horribly but not where she will be when I am done with her. I just could use advice from those who have mixed species set ups like this. I am starting to feel like all I do is fence to keep everyone out of each others feed.

As for the goats in the goat feed - How big is the calf compared to the goats? Couldnt you just 'hang' (like on a post or fence) the calf feed so the goats wont get in it?

You could always have a feeding area where the calf cant get into, (perhaps a too small entry for the calf to get into, orlet them in at certain times) to feed the goats.

 

[bjjohns]

I've got a jersey steer in with my milk goats, but to be perfectly honest they all get the same things (Feed, mineral, salt, Water). If your calf was bigger you could get/make a creep feeder of some type that lets you separate out the goat feed, but that wouldn't keep the goats out of the calf feed. I picked up two small chain-link kennels and keep my calf in that for the first month. Now it has two goat bottle-babies in it.

 

[20kidsonhill]

We raised a show heifer with our goat herd two different years from December until August, It went pretty well, Heifer was hard on the barn, and would knock down our sheep mineral feeder, so that was a little tricky. We trained the heifer to come out of the field and eat her feed while the goats ate their feed.

Cattle and goats pretty much have the same nutrition requirements.
goats shouldn't consume products with Urea in them like cattle can.