New Dairy Goat-Am I Doing it Right?

[Donna R. Raybon]

Mineral mix needs to be balanced for what hay you are feeding. Alfalfa hay needs a calcium to phosphorus ratio of 1 to 1 and all other grass hays need 2 to 1. If she starts eating the alfalfa (and once she figures it out, she will, goats LOVE it) you can go with a lower protein grain ration such as oats, corn, barley mixture. You balance overall ration for protein. A lot to learn, I know, but remember every one was once green as grass, too!

I would deworm her again with something like Valbazen to ensure you get tapes, too. Wait about ten days and deworm again as the encysted L4 stage of barberpole worm can become active and you have a wormy goat again.

Dr. Sharon Patton, parasitologist as University of Tennessee said resistant parasites are most often purchased with new additions. She recomends deworming every ten days for at least three dewormings, and do fecals to make sure you are being effective. We don't have flukes here, but I still use something that is effective as I have no idea where a new purchase has been.

Read up on things like Body Condition Scoring. A good book is Harvey Considines, Modern Dairy Goat Judging Techniques as well as American Dairy Goat Association Linear Appraisal Booklet.

LaMancha does may have either gopher or elf ear. Bucks must have only gopher. If your doe is not already registered/recorded you may have her recorded as a Grade on appearence (she meets the LaMancha breed standard) or on Performance (she earns her Milk*) Then by breeding to a registered LaMancha buck, you eventually get offspring that are American, and another three generations are Purebred ( I think the Purebred LaMancha herdbook is still open??) If your doe is supected of having any Nigerian, Pygmy, Boer, Kiko, etc... then she cannot be recorded with ADGA.

 

[Donna R. Raybon]

That's weird? It takes me right to it. Here's a clip of it. It's the Manna Pro Goat Mineral. View attachment 47696

Check with your feed company as often they have formulation in larger quantities. Tennessee Farmers Coop has both a goat and a cattle mineral that I have used for my goats for years with good success. Here in TN if you don't have enough selenium in diet you have a lot of kidding problems, etc... Each region is different, so you have to see what your region needs. I feed grass hay, so a 2 to 1 calcium to phosphorus ratio.

 

[Donna R. Raybon]

Hello all,

I like her width and length. Being that thin and still with as level a top line as she has, she should really look level when she gains about 25 pounds. Best I can tell her udder looks OK, not pendulous, and smooth fore???? although lacking capacity, probably due to always nursing kids and not being pushed for production.

Goats are habit forming..... watch out! Join ADGA and you get a membership directory so you can find breeders close and get her bred back this fall. Start looking about that now, so you can make arrangements.

 

[Latestarter]

When you mix a bunch of other stuff in with a balanced feed, it throws everything completely out of whack... 14% senior horse feed isn't really the right choice for a lactating doe IMO... She'd do much better with a 16% balanced goat ration. Mine (Lamanchas) are picky about hay as well and all they'll eat is alfalfa so that's what I feed them when I buy hay. But they'll pig out on leaves if I cut down branches for them.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

I'd love to feed a balanced ration but all of the feeds in this area are medicated. There are no goat rations available that are not medicated so I'm having to make due with what I can since I want to be able to drink her milk.

 

[Donna R. Raybon]

Google 'dairy goat ration, Tulsa, OK' and you will get pages upon pages of info. No dairy ration would be medicated. The starter/grower for young, growing goat, ration would be with something that takes care of coccidia like decox or and ionophore.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

https://www.bigvfeeds.com/products/sheep-and-goat/big-v-dairy-goat-pellet

This is the only quality feed available in my area, but it is still medicated. Tractor Supply will only carry Dumor medicated feeds in my area.

Another problem is that while websites say that they carry non-medicated feeds, you call the store and all they have are medicated feeds. My personal favorite was driving 45 minutes to a store to find out that they don't carry it and would have to order me a pallet at a time. That won't work with just 3 goats. ADM seemed promising but it is not carried in store in this area and a pallet would have to be ordered for me personally.

 

[Southern by choice]

https://www.bigvfeeds.com/products/sheep-and-goat/big-v-dairy-goat-pellet

This is the only quality feed available in my area, but it is still medicated. Tractor Supply will only carry Dumor medicated feeds in my area.

Another problem is that while websites say that they carry non-medicated feeds, you call the store and all they have are medicated feeds. My personal favorite was driving 45 minutes to a store to find out that they don't carry it and would have to order me a pallet at a time. That won't work with just 3 goats. ADM seemed promising but it is not carried in store in this area and a pallet would have to be ordered for me personally.

You can usually have them order what you need, when you figure out how much you go through they will keep it on hand for you.
We have never gotten medicated feed before. This year we decided to do a medicated feed for kids for cocci prevention along with our normal prevention. We let them know in advance and they always have it for us. When we discontinue using it we will give them plenty of heads up so they aren't stuck with it on their shelves. All our feedstores will do this for us.

I know your is opposite but ask and you will probably get them to keep it on hand for you.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Southern, that usually works with my local feed store but the places that carry the feed I'm actually looking for (non-medicated Bluebonnet or ADM Dairy would be perfect) but they only offer to order me a pallet at a time.

My local feed store is not a distributor of ADM or Bluebonnet so they can't order it from the manufacturer.

All of the other "big" stores such as Atwoods or Tractor Supply only carry medicated in store and order large amounts of feed at a time. The feed would sit in the warehouse for too long. (It's taken me a month to go through 1 bag of feed for the goats.)

 

[Donna R. Raybon]

What are you calling 'medicated?' Are there not any dairy cow feed available either? How about a horse feed? You are just looking for something that is about 16% protein and not sticky and full of molasses (too much iron and goats don't much care for stickiness) I used to feed a mare and foal grower that I cut with whole oats to reduce stickiness.

Back in the day we used to make our own feed with corn, whole oats, barley, and used wild game bird starter for protein boost. Or fed good alfalfa hay for the protein.

No Purina dealers???