Nurse goats??????

[JusticeFamilyFarm]

I thought your post was funny because I have had so much experience lately with hearing such different answers from so many people I've talked to. The farm I took my goat husbandry class from said they have to separate the babies from the herd until they're weaned, because other does in milk will nurse them. Then the breeder I am looking at purchasing my goats from said that none of their does will allow another's baby to nurse from them, so they just pull the mama in with some other does and leave the babies with the herd (even with other does in milk, since they won't allow them to nurse). I was a little confused. But- reading this post, I guess it's like a lot of other things- it just depends on the goat!
And-wow- a goat nursing a calf would be a sight to see... and poor mama goat! When I raised the 1 and only calf I've bottle fed, I had a hard time keeping the bottle in my hands- he would have thrown that goat all over the place trying to nurse off her- large breed goat or not!

 

[mistee]

I took in 2 orphan 2 day old boys from another farm.. I was planning on bottle feeding but was having a hard time getting them to take the bottle.. I was sick the first night and didnt feel like fighting them so I put my milker in a headlock so they could nurse.. I did the same for the 2 feeds after that cause I was still sick.. well after that she adopted them as her own and have been nursing them for almost 2 months. It didnt happen right away.. at first she was just being their protector from the other goats and she wouold let them climb on her but not nurse.. after a day of that she finally let them nurse.

 

[farmerlor]

I'm thinking this lady was just pulling my leg. For the life of me I cannot figure out the logistics of a calf nursing off a goat and she says she does this all summer long so she can do the farmers' markets and not be tied down milking goats. That means you'd have three and four month old calves nursing off goats????? Seriously, even the biggest goat would be knocked to the ground the first time that baby butted an udder looking for milk.
Oh well, I'll try it next spring with the baby goats but I'm gonna keep the bottle for the calves.