Sustainable, natural, organic, herbal, etc, and goat husbandry

[lorihadams]

Okay, so for someone just getting started.....how do I make probiotics for my goats? What supplies do I absolutely HAVE to have (I am getting 3 8-10 week old nigis and 1 older doe that cannot be bred) to get started with a natural program? What feed do you recommend? If I can find a feed store to mix grain for me what should I get? I'm a newbie and I am terribly excited but I am a little overwhelmed. I want to keep things as natural as possible so if you could give a person just starting out a list of essentials what would you include?

P.S. Jules, if you read this, I (read everyone) miss you and Bat too!

 

[Beekissed]

Okay, so for someone just getting started.....how do I make probiotics for my goats? What supplies do I absolutely HAVE to have (I am getting 3 8-10 week old nigis and 1 older doe that cannot be bred) to get started with a natural program? What feed do you recommend? If I can find a feed store to mix grain for me what should I get? I'm a newbie and I am terribly excited but I am a little overwhelmed. I want to keep things as natural as possible so if you could give a person just starting out a list of essentials what would you include?

P.S. Jules, if you read this, I (read everyone) miss you and Bat too!

Hey, Lori! I miss you all also! Weirdness going on over there, threads disappearing and such. Go figure! :/

I don't know about other folks, but I bought some unpastuerized ACV and made some of my own and am using it in the sheep's water on occasion. I also mixed some of the same with raw honey and fresh garlic juice and mixed it in their feed. Sort of a de-wormer, conditioner type measure.

Found a guy advertising in the locals that offers fresh ground feed sold off his farm that includes barley, oats, corn, alfalfa for $10/100 lb. I am definitely going to check this guy out and see the quality of his feeds. I was thinking it would make a great all around stock/poultry feed.

What do you think, Free?

 

[freemotion]

That is a fantastic price, at least it would be here. I would have to pay close to triple that, at least, if I could even find it. I pay about $6-8 for a 50 lb bag of whole grain if I travel a few hundred miles to get it, which will end when my folks sell their house in Maine.

Lori, there are different kinds of probiotics, and I am one for variety in the diet for me, my family, and my animals. So I use raw ACV (not as much as Bee does, but she can get apples from her orchard and make it....orchard apples here are very pricey and my trees are still on strike. Otherwise, I'd use it more) but more often I use homemade ferments that are loaded with probiotics and I rotate them...somewhat.

I soak the whole grains with a glug of whey, which innoculates them with lots of good bacteria which grows on the grain. I rinse it twice a day. It goes through stages, with different bacteria at different stages....at one point, it smells like sweet yogurt and gets stronger and stronger, then it moves into the sour stages, more vinegary. Either way it smells edible. I always sniff anything fermented before eating it myself or feeding it to my animals. On rare occasions, I have gotten mold, but only if it was already on the grains, and only if I did not have good, live whey, or skipped a rinse. I usually have two or three buckets going at once, in three different stages, so the rare moldy batch doesn't interrupt my feeding schedule.

I make beet kvass, sauerkraut, and kombucha for the goats, and also kefir for the chickens. I use kefir whey to innoculate my other ferments and the grains for feeding if I am out of cheesemaking whey (mesophilic or cold process cheeses only.)

I didn't start out doing all this stuff, it was a gradual process, so I hope this doesn't overwhelm you. I started out just soaking the grains for my older mare to remove phytic acid and make it more digestible for her, which helped her gain weight....on whole oats. She was on Poulin Senior before, and the soaked oats made a huge difference. That got me thinking more and more, and when I started fermenting stuff as part of the process of healing my own cranky digestive system, I started experimenting with my critters.

I always head to the fermenting fridge at the first sign of digestive upset in any of my animals. There is alway a gallon of sauerkraut, at the very least, and kefir. And kombucha. And....

I recommend the book Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz for some instructions. He has an easy-going way of writing that is not intimidating. Also, there are some great videos on youtube, I will go get the links for ya.

 

[freemotion]

Here is a little video introducing Sandor and his book. I think he is great! 6.5 minutes and worth every second: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i77hU3zR-fQ&feature=related

Here is a silly, yet serious, older video addressing our modern fears of germs and leaving food out at room temperature....a big hurdle to overcome when venturing into fermenting. 2.5 minutes and I love his voice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QdhSFfaoz0&feature=related

This one is the first in a series of seven videos. I haven't watched them all yet, but they seem really detailed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpQmYmyeVog

This was from a very quick search for "fermenting vegetables." Enjoy!

 

[ksalvagno]

You would want to transfer the goats over to the new food slowly. Maybe the person you are buying the goats from will give you some of her food so the goats can start out on the food they are used to and then slowly switch over to what you really want to feed them.

 

[Beekissed]

Free, you would have been proud of me today....I fed the sheeples some VERY fermented veggies and fruits...and they LOVED them! It was like watching great whites in a feeding frenzy!

Fermented pumpkins, spaghetti squash and apples were the choice menu of the day.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I am hoping to get some goats soon and thought is wise to check out the BYH form.
Thanks for all the info on here. I will need to do everything as inexpensively as possible. And I prefer doing things the way my great grandmother might have done them. So I love this thread.
Thanks for starting it Free.

I am trying to learn as much as possible before I get the goaties, so I can make an intelligent decision.

 

[freemotion]

Looking forward to reading about your reactions to being owned by goats, FD!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Looking forward to reading about your reactions to being owned by goats, FD!

I'm owned by chickens, a dog, a rabbit and two cats, why not goats
Even the house sparrows and humming birds boss me around

 

[j.luetkemeyer]

I have a free choice mineral mix that contains garlic, dried apple cider vinegar, diamotacious earth, yeast cultures, etc. I know many people using DE for a de-wormer.