How do you flush your does?

[Ranchhandok]

Interesting to know. Again, the web sites are helpful. Thanks.

 

[Mamaboid]

Any day you learn something is a good day. Today is a good day. When I saw this headline, I pictured tubes, water and umm shall we say not frontal loading. Never heard of flushing when used in this manner. Have done it, with my last goat that kidded, Brandy, but didn't know it had a name. This old 'boid' learned something new today.

 

[OneFineAcre]

Never seen the term flushing.

But, I put a post on here about an animal I have who is skinny, not typical for ND's. She had 3 her first freshening and 4 her second. I guess she needs flushing?

We did not re-breed her until we made sure she didn't have any worms. 0 count Mcmasters from state lab.

Kikos, you told me to feed free choice alfalfa hay.

 

[goatboy1973]

I personally define flushing as a semi-intensive short interval period of feeding a breeding animal with the intent of putting a moderate amt. weight on the animal just prior to breeding season. The intent isn't to make them so fat that they can't breed or conceive, but to increase their BCS to the upper limits of ideal. By flushing, you insure a greater conception rate of the doe as well as increase the chances of twins, trips, and quads. Now, what do I feed my does that I flush? Here's what works for my operation and has worked for 13 yrs: I start out with a base of 50 lbs alfalfa pellets, 20 lbs of powdered corn, 30 lbs of beet pulp (dry and shredded), 1/2 lb of CO-OP goat loose mineral with zinc, 1 cup of corn oil, and 1 large bottle of liquid molasses based goat vitamin such as Nutri-Drench. I have a good sized electric cement/ mortar mixer I use to mix all this up in. I first mix all the dry ingredients together except for the powdered corn and loose goat mineral. I then slowly add the corn oil, molasses based goat vitamin and mix until I achieve an even consistency. Then, with the mixer still running, I add the goat mineral and the powdered corn and mix until an even consistency is achieved. I feed this for about 6 weeks prior to breeding and the results are astounding. I usually feed this once daily and feed as much as my does can consume in 30 mins. To flush my bucks, I mix the same formula except I half the corn and alfalfa and replace the deficit with beet pulp due to corn and alfalfa being bad for male goats' urinary system. If you don't own an electric cement mixer, you can mix it in a large wheel barrow with a yard rake like I have done in the past with similar results. I mix up enough to last a week at a time. This mix must be kept in a cool place because it will rapidly start to ferment in the hot summer weather and spoil. Flushing works wonderfully at Calfee Farms. Most years we have 175% kidding rate, this year 200% kidding rate for spring kids and our fall 2012 kidding season we had all twins except for one single birth.