Nine week old Alpines; Scott the Feed Man gave me Calf Starter?

[20kidsonhill]

People are so much more organized than I am with their quotations and bold wording. I will try to be oragainezed, but I am not an organized person.

...first it is medicated for Coccidiosis, something we have to treat for a lot, If we didn't have the medication in the feed, we would be battling it all the time. Even with the medication in the feed we still have to treat a little.

Hmm, I have to read up on that more as I don't know what it is, how they get it etc.

All animals have some level of coccidiosis in their system, but at certain times of the year(such as spring and summer) or when the the animals is stressed from relocating to a new home, or being sick, their system can have a coccidiosis bloom. Animals under the age of 2 are most acceptable, As their system matures they build up a certain amount of immunity to coccidiosis. Infact, it is best to not try to constantly kill out all the coccidioisis in their system, so they can build up a resistance. This is were medicated feeds come in handy. The medication in the feed is going to be one of two things, either Rumensin or ???(sorry, can't remember the other name). These two medications are more prevention than treatment. Once there is a flare-up of coccidiosis in your herd or animal you need to choose a treatment method, which would be Corid, sulfa-dimethoxine, Albon, SMZ and/or Sulmet(may be others). Treatment is done for 5 days orally. We put ours in the drinking water, others treat each animal by hand.




Dairy breeds that stay thinner and grow big frames, really do better on some grain or again need amazing hay and or pasture/browse.

What constitutes "amazing" hay?

2nd and 3rd cutting hay that is tender is better than 1st cutting hay, hay needs to be cut at the right time to be as nutritious as possible, hay that is cut too late can start to loose nutritional value. Alfalfa hay has tons of protein compared to- lets say, just an orchard grass hay, but if you are getting alfalfa hay that is tough and cut too late or has been growing in drought conditions it may not be as nutritious as you would like it to be. Farmers that take livestock very very seriously, often test their hay b

Question is:
How fast do you want your kids to grow?

Breeding weight by November when they'll be about 10 months old.

If I were wanting my does to be breeding age by 10 months, I would for sure feed them some grain. My personal opinion.

Why do you want them to grow faster? What are you using your goats for?

I don't necessarily want them to grow "faster", I just want them to grow healthy. They'll only be used for our personal dairy purposes.
If you want to bred them by 10 months, you certainly don't want them to grow too slow, so the question would be, can they gain properly on just your pasture and some hay. I would track their daily gain, weigh them weekly or biweekly, and find out what is a good daily gain for that breed

What kind of quality pasture/hay can you offer a young kid so they can get adequate protein in their diet?

The pasture around us is a alfalfa/clover/grass mix that was grown for the neighbours cows in previous years.
Sounds like a pretty good pature, if you don't have a lot of animals grazing on it, I would plan on mowing it, to keep the growth tender.

What are you going to do to maintain healthy minerals?

They currently have a salt lick, which is another whole thing because the woman at the store suggested one without copper, but I thought goats needed copper? Tried to find soda at the store to no avail.
You really need to invest in loose minerals for GOATS, especially if you aren't feeding grain.

I actually think the calf starter is probably alright to use. Does it have Urea in the the ingredients label? That would be my only concern with it. Goats shouldn't have cattle products with Urea in them. Urea is used as a source of protein for cattle.

I don't know...I'll have to check.