Farmingscots
Exploring the pasture
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2024
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 12
Hello! We are in North Idaho on 10 acres of mostly forested un-tamed land. We started our family’s homemade dairy products dreams with a young Nubian goat (Summer) and a Dexter heifer (Junie) last winter. We started by enjoying them and spending lots of time with them. They are so personable and halter trained. We just completed the work of having them bred. The buck that visited our goat actually left today. I think it was successful. We noticed this afternoon that Summer has lost hair around her eyes. No mites. No scratch marks or swelling. We are leaning toward mineral deficiency and know copper or zinc could be the issue. There are many approaches (minerals, multivitamin shot, etc) and trains of thought (conventional, natural, homeopathic, etc) about it so I’m looking at all those ideas. I lean homeopathic and natural myself. But I’m a newbie to keeping livestock (I had horses as a girl but I was young) so I want to stay humble. It doesn’t make much sense to provide a mineral buffet for just one goat. She does have baking soda and loose mixed minerals and salt available free choice but she doesn’t seem to like it/use it much.
I foraged and dried horsetail from the pond on our property this summer for our own consumption (add a bit to teas for skin/hair/nails, and the mineral benefits) and I thought that might be the ticket for Summer. We let her try a pinch and she gobbled it up. THEN I looked online (of course!) and many university sites said it was poisonous and to keep livestock away from it. I don’t buy that, because I’ve evening seen the goat take a nibble at it in the summer and even tansy and Oregon grape!
I’d love to hear from others on this subject. Please be nice to me. I’m new.
I foraged and dried horsetail from the pond on our property this summer for our own consumption (add a bit to teas for skin/hair/nails, and the mineral benefits) and I thought that might be the ticket for Summer. We let her try a pinch and she gobbled it up. THEN I looked online (of course!) and many university sites said it was poisonous and to keep livestock away from it. I don’t buy that, because I’ve evening seen the goat take a nibble at it in the summer and even tansy and Oregon grape!
I’d love to hear from others on this subject. Please be nice to me. I’m new.