Personal

We are sharing here our herd management practices.  They are not the perfect answer for anyone, necessarily, except ourselves.  Please do not take them as doctrine, but as options.  Experiment with different methods and find out what works best for you and your herd.

We are now offering "Goat Herdsmanship 101" for those interested in spending a day on our farm for as much hands-on experience as we can give you.  We will also answer your questions to our best knowledge.  We apologize for not being able to offer as much email support as we used to do.  There is just not enough time in the day!  Please see our links page where you might find some other informative sites to search for knowledge. We will also continue to build this page to share what we know.  Thanks.

Feeding

    Hay and Browse      

We take our does on a long browsing walk just about every day.  They eat poison oak, madrone, manzanita, pine, oak, fir, lichens, and an assortment of other things.  We keep them moving so that they don't gird up smaller trees.  We also do some forest thinning and lop off branches for fire abatement and more food for the does.  They also are feed high quality alfalfa and orchard grass hay.    (Adult wethers would not receive alfalfa).  Browse may slightly alter the flavor of your milk, but this is something that can be desirable when marketing an artisan cheese; the uniqueness of your goats environment helps create a unique product. If provided with a variety of feeds, goats are known to instinctually eat what they need.  Without a doubt, the more variety, the greater possible natural health.  The extra exercise helps keep the does in shape, but the high browse and activity are not what is done in settings where volume of milk is the goal.  There you want the animal to spend it's time eating and making milk.  I think, though, that our milk will be a healthier product and our animals will live longer with fewer ailments.

 I must admit, that the goat walk is one of the highlights of my day; being out on our little mountain and or land with the does; bells tinkling and the sounds of them munching along with the wonderful smells of the forest.

How to Get your Goats to Eat Poison Oak: Since none of us ever let our goats get that hungry and most of them are pretty spoiled when it comes to quality feed, it can be difficult to get your goats to love poison oak.  I couldn't figure out how to do it without having them first kill all the trees in an area before they would try it.  I finally hit upon the very simple idea of actually feeding it to them.  When their manger was empty (right before the evening hay feeding) I harvested armloads of it and put it in the mangers.  It took three times of this and then they all fell in love with the stuff.  Now when we go out on the walks they attack it.  Hooray!

Concentrates

There is some discussion as to the role concentrates play or do not play in rumen development as well as acidosis in kids.  At this time (2007) we feed the kids a medicated complete feed (the medication is for coccidiosis).  I do not like feeding a medicated feed, but with so many kids and a larger herd, it was becoming quite difficult to adequately keep up with the preventative when dosed on an individual basis. 

 We also limit the grain a bit for the milkers, to try to adjust their diet to a forage based diet for health and milk qualities sake. Production volume is somewhat sacrificed, but components (butterfat and protein) along with CLA (conjugated linoelic acid) go up.  Herd management is ever evolving and sometimes one had to go with what has worked for them and for their animals. 

We make a modified recipe taken from an article in Dairy Goat Journal. We mix 50# linseed meal, 50# red flake wheat germ, and 50# of soybean meal in one large can.  We then take a scoop of organic livestock feed at 12% pt. and mix it with half a scoop of the bran/meal ( in other words a ration of 2:1 for a minimum protein of 16.22%),  a half cup or so of kelp meal, and a glurb of water to moisten and hold it all together. (In the beginning we used molasses water until they developed a taste for the mix).   Each milking doe gets only as much of this mixture as she can eat while being milked.  (You can mix as much as you need for each milking and then scoop from that as you milk). We will be seeking organic sources for these ingredients for our dairy once we move.

2007 update:  We are working away from the linseed meal, soybean mixture in the hopes of avoiding GMO crops.  The organic pellets are only 12% protein, so we will see how this affects our milk tests.  We are willing to give up some production if the feed is better for them and for the planet, however!

We also feed black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS) to all ages.  They provide high fiber, protein, and other nutrients, as well as enticement to get back into their pens after outings! We have planted a crop of these in our garden.

2007 Fall Update:  We were fortunate enough to finally develop a source for local web brewer's grain (WBG).  WBG is a byproduct of brewing beer.  It is a highly nutritious feed for ruminents.  As it is a "waste product" it can often be obtained for little to no cost if you are able to pick it up from the brewery.  The problem is that even the smallest micro-brewery often has thousands of pounds each week.  So they usually want on large producer to take it all.  We were finally able to work with a wonderful local brewmaster who was willing to let us form a co-op of small producers.  Now, each week, three of us show up at the same time to have the 1000 pound tubs loaded into our trucks, we then take it to our farms where other small producers can come fill their bins.  Poultry and pork raisers as well as gardeners (it makes marvelous compost as well) are just some of the happy users of this "free" grain source.  We hope this model will work for other brewers and farmers.

Salt, Minerals, and Vitamins

We used to feed only Golden Blend minerals/salt and loved it, but shipping costs went up and our local feed mill makes a wonderful loose goat mineral.  So far it seems to be doing the job.  We do not copper bolus.  We had our water tested for iron levels to be sure that was fine (as too much iron limits the absorption of copper).  We also provide a buffering mix that has sodium bicarbonate, salt, and yeast.  The minerals and buffering agents are all fed free choice. 

Water

We checked our water acidity using inexpensive pH paper and found it a little too low, so we now add a small amount of apple cider vinegar  to the milking doe's and bucks water.  Proper pH is reported to encourage optimal rumen environment and metabolic environment to aid in top milk production.  Clean water of a moderate temperature is also very important. 

De-worming

We like to use herbal weekly wormer.  There is some discussion as to the wisdom of using one that contains wormwood on lactating or pregnant does as is contraindicated for humans who are nursing or pregnant.  Fiasco Farm (Molly's Herbals) sells a blend that does not contain wormwood for use weekly under these circumstances.  We do keep Eprinex pour on for those times when winter brings on a case of body lice and for times when a fecal exam shows internal parasites of a number not being kept down by the herbal wormer.  Our fecal studies by our vet show no signs of parasites (Sept. 2005).

Kid Management

Our Programs Over the Years (and still evolving!)

2007- Nursery Pen Raising: We have tried many methods over the years; from dam raising to total bottle raising and are now trying a hybrid system in which the dams (our herd has always been CAE free) are allowed to lick the babies clean and bond with them, but do not nurse them.  Once they are on their feet, the kids are placed in a nursery pen.  The mom can put her head through the wire to lick and nurture the kids, but they cannot nurse her. After a few days in this pen (the mom has access to the herd if she wants it) and when the babies prove that they are bonded to the bottle and not the udder, then they can go out with their mom for play time.  At two weeks they are moved to another pen.  We bottle feed them colostrum from their dam.  When they are ready for the bucket feeder (and we try to get them onto that right away), then they receive  pasteurized goat milk and later raw milk from our Jersey cow (who is Johnes, TB, and Brucellosis free).  We are happy to raise your reserved kid on only pasteurized milk.

Spring 2008- Hybrid Method # 2: This has been our biggest kidding season yet - 58 kids.  We were pushed to our limits of sanity and ability in taking care of that many kids in the fashion we prefer.  So we are trying yet another system of raising them, thanks to some advice from the commercial dairy goat list members combined with our own goals.  I think this is the one for us (for now!).  Here is how it goes:

Birth:  Doe whose labor is imminent is moved to a kidding pen with that is attached to the main doe pen, so she can still see her friends and be less stressed. The doe (provided she was not from the group that received mixed-raw milk in 2004-2005) is allowed to clean and nurse her kids.  We have a camera monitor in the ceiling above this kidding pen so that we can watch and make sure that we are there for every delivery to assist if needed and dip cords as well as give the mom a bucket of hot molasses water and a calcium drench. 

 0- 24 Hours: Doe and kids stay in kidding pen, doe is taken to milk stand with others to be milked out thoroughly and have her grain.  This also begins accustoming kids to having mom leave. 

24-48 Hours:  Doe is returned to main pen (she can lay by her kids in the kidding pen and see them).  Three times a day, she is brought out into the main breezeway and the kids are brought to her for nursing.  This accustoms the kids to associating you with feeding time.  Doe starts accepting being away from her kids.

48-72 Hours:  Kid is moved to communal kid pen.  Mom can see through adjoining fence line (if kid comes out to see her).  Mom is taken to breezeway to feed kid.

72-96 Hours:  No feeding kid (sounds harsh, but unless they are frail, they do just fine).  Then a bottle is offered.  So far, they all take it without a problem.  If the kid seems eager to feed before that, you can try a bottle sooner.  

96 Hours on:  Kid is fed on a bottle until ready for the bucket feeder.  For some this is only 12 hours, for others it takes a couple of days.  If they are in pens with other bucket fed kids, they learn much quicker, that great competitive nature of goats.

Bucket Feeding Options: We have spent a lot of money trying out just about every nipple on the market that will work with some kind of bucket feeder.  Here are our conclusions thus far:

Caprine Nipples with straw type lamb bar:  If you only have a few kids to feed, these work well, but you cannot start Nigerian kids on them right away, as the nipples are too big.  So you have to transition to them after a week or two.  This is easiest done by first feeding the kid with the new nipple on a bottle and not on the lamb bar (bucket).  Since they are accustomed to drinking from a bottle, you can get them used to the new nipple pretty quickly by feeding them this way first.  After they have the nipple down, then try them on the bucket. 

If you use a bucket with a lid that has a gasket seal, then clean up is very easy.  Since the bucket can seal tightly, you can fill it with hot water and then shake it a bit; pressure will build up and then the hot water will come up and out through the straws and nipples, basically self cleaning.  Do this with a pre-rinse, wash, and sanitizer cylce. Every few days you should take it apart for a more thorough cleaning.  (Note:  use this same pressure method to get the kids onto the bucket.  Snap the lid on with the warm milk in it and gently swirl it.  Milk will start dripping out of the nipples which really helps the kids start sucking.)

Drawbacks to the straw type feeder:  You cannot just sit it on the ground, they will knock it over.  It has to be held down with either your foot or with a special holder.   Transition to the caprine nipples is difficult for younger Nigerian kids.

Bucket feeder with red lamb nipples at bottom of square pail: This is the system we use now.  You can buy softer latex nipples for this type system.  They are soft enough for most Nigerian kids to drink from very early.  The latex (tan) nipples wear out faster than the red rubber ones, so after they get good at drinking from the bucket with the latex nipples, we swap them out for the red ones.  You can also buy extra gaskets and convert Pritchard teats to this bucket HOWEVER, despite following all instructions and talking to the manufacturer, we could not get the Pritchards to stop leaking if the bucket was filled with enough milk to cover the nipple assembly.  We still use them on a bucket to start really small kids with (and then transition to the latex and then rubber nipples), but then we don't fill it as high with milk.

Major disadvantage:  You can make a hanger just like the ones they sell for these square pails (out of a section of cattle or hog panel) but if you hang the bucket from the handle like this, then the kids on the side nipples will push and shove and tip the bucket.  We built a bracket that goes around the middle of the bucket and holds it very snug.  It is a bit awkward to use, but works great. I will post a photo of it at some point.

You do have to disassemble the nipple assemblies for cleaning each time.

Biggest advantage:  We fill one bucket with enough milk for all of the kids.  We have collars on most of the babies.  We clip tie them all to the fence at feeding time.  This not only lets us feed a few babies at a time, but it teaches them how to stand tied and helps with leading later on.  As each batch finishes, they are lifted into a holding (pen) and another batch is fed.  This way we know when they are all done and no one sneaks in for seconds. When they are all done, we open the gate of the holding pen and they all exit to have their pellets.  Any older kids are unclipped and feeding is done. 

Cool Milk Free Choice Method: We tried that this spring (using the Pritchard teats on the square pail first) and it was working quite well.  The kids were not at all pushy.  But they were getting super fat!  Even being fed our cow milk (which isn't as high in fat).  I really liked it though, and will try it again, perhaps diluting the milk a bit. 

Free-choice update Fall 2007: We tried this method again this Fall.  Through diluting the milk with an electrolyte solution, we were able to keep their weight down.  We calculated the total amount of milk each pen should have each day and then if they were finishing it too fast, we added the electrolyte solution to a volume that would keep some in the bucket.  We also added frozen gallon jugs of water to slow their consumption.  It worked, but the downfall was LOTS OF URINE output!  We had a very wet pen, which is not that healthy for them (it was a good sized pen too).  So we are still not sure if this is the best method for us.  Also, at about 7 weeks we had to switch to twice a day anyway to start tapering them off for weaning. 

Spring 2008 update: We went back to feeding two to three times in measured amounts.  It was just too wet in the pen the other way.  I still think it is the better choice, if you can get them to do it properly.  In talking to other dairy owners with Nigerians, none have found the free-choice method to work well with them.  They seem to be little piglets in disguise!

 

Disbudding: All kids are disbudded within the first week, approx., of life; just as soon as the horn bud pushes through the tiniest bit. For buck kids this is often within 3 days of life.  The kids are anesthetized for this procedure.  While their is a slight risk with using anesthesia, we feel that it is much more humane and we also are able to do a better job when there is no thrashing and screaming going on. We also give them an injection of tetanus antitoxin at this time.

Castrating: Buck kids that are destined for "wether-hood" are banded at 4-6 weeks.  We know that banding somewhat controversial, some feel it is inhumane, but we have participated in both emasculator procedures as well as cutting, and find all of them to be unpleasant, to say the least.  Poor little guys!  We do anesthetize our boys for this procedure, give them some Banamine, prior to going under, give a tetanus toxoid booster, and also re-burn any horn growth that might have appeared (sometimes with the buck kids, you just can't escape a scur or two.)  So far, our boys wake up and seem uncomfortable for about 2 hours (but not overly distressed) and then are fine.  We care very much about these goats, and would certainly change to any less traumatic method if available.

Mycoplasma

Our knowledge of mycoplasma has increased greatly in the past years, thanks to our personal experience with the darned micro-organism .  We have been very upfront with the fact that we have had problems with it and hope to help others deal with it, prevent it, and learn more about it.  We never try to conceal any fact that we ourselves would want to know when buying from outside herds.

Sick kid: The spring of 2005 we lost a lovely buck kid to sepsis and joint arthritis.  He did not respond to Naxel and our vet at the time did not feel that joint fluid could be easily aspirated and cultured.  We were right in the middle of our move back to Oregon and did not focus on it as well as we should have at the time.  A month or two later another kid, a wether 6 weeks old (not related to the buck) and just castrated, showed similar symptoms:  swollen knees, fever, general malaise, loss of appetite, and a desire to not bear weight (hunched up posture and short steps).  By this time we had a local vet with more small ruminant experience.  She was able to draw a sample of joint fluid and send it for culturing specifically for mycoplasma (that takes about 4 weeks and even longer to identify the species and subspecies).  The kid was put on oxytetracycline (in this case Bio-mycin) and responded well with no further symptoms. He went to a loving pet home. ( Unfortunately he was killed about a year later by a stray dog).

The sample initially read as a streptococcus infection, but finally cultured down to Mycoplasma mycoides, mycoides Large Colony (Mycoplasm m.m. LC).  Following is the excerpt from "Goat Medicine" by Smith and Sherman on Mycoplasma m.m. LC.

Our culprit: As we had fed mixed milk to all of our kids from the spring (when their moms were having their DHIA milk test), we have to assume that all of those does are now possible carriers.  We had the whole herd's milk tested for mycoplasma with the results being negative.  This means we have an asymptomatic carrier and intermittent shedder.  In other words, a very tough one to isolate.  However, in looking over our DHIA paperwork for the past year, we found one doe whose somatic cell count (SCC) spiked at the same time that babies got sick.  We are hoped that this was our culprit and sent her on to a non-breeding pet home, but will be treating the entire herd as possible carriers until years of negative testing prove otherwise.

How can anyone be safe?: It is never possible for anyone to truly guarantee that they have a Mycoplasma free herd.  Since the organism can sit undetected for long periods as well as continuing to live without causing symptoms in its host, there is no way to honestly state that a herd is free of it.  Some countries have even declared themselves "Mycoplasma Free" only to have an outbreak occur at a later time.  Small ruminant practitioners seem to agree that mycoplasmas are the next big concern for goat breeders.  Most also agree that it is likely that more herds are carrying the organism than are aware of it.

This being said, after we were over our initial shock, and with the reassurance from other longtime breeders, we realized that it is not as big of a problem as it initially seemed.  We will have some herd management changes and increased costs in milk testing, but our animals should remain healthy and productive.  So far all of our milk cultures both from the spring and this fall, have tested negative for mycoplasma.  We are practicing "manual backflushing" to sanitized the inflations between does when using the milking machine.  We will continue to randomly test the milk and attempt to isolate a carrier.  If one tests positive, but is an exceptional milker and/or show animals, then we will develop a separate string to isolate them in the milking lineup. 

As with so many of these diseases, there is always a risk.  Anytime you buy an outside goat, attend a show, visit a farm, or have someone visit your farm, you are taking a risk.  We all have to weigh these concerns along with the benefits that we achieve by participating in events, adding animals, and interacting with the public and other breeders.  We should do our best to maintain the healthiest herds possible while also participating in bettering the goat world in general.

2006 Update: Our herd has had no other problems since the above.  We continue to bottle raise kids.  We are not doing the manual back-flushing of the milking lines as further study led us to conclude that transmission via this manner was unlikely to be an issue in our case.  Especially since we believe the suspect mom was sent on to a pet home.  Also, conversations with other breeders who have had isolated cases further reinforced the opportunistic behavior of this organism.  Please call or email if you have any further questions on our practices.

2007 Update: We are continuing to bottle raise, but are including raw colostrum and milk from only their own mothers.  When we use mixed milk, then it is pasteurized.  We feel that the benefits of raw milk from our CAE neg. herd out way the possibilities of contracting mycoplasma.  If we find ourselves wrong, at least we will be able to isolate a carrier this way. If you wish your reserved kid to be fed heat treated colostrum and pasteurized milk, please let us know, we are happy to comply.

2008 Update:  We have had no other kids ill with mycoplasma, thank goodness.  We did go back to 100% bottle fed babies (instead of the nursery pen method).  It was just getting too complicated for our size of operation.  Something had to become more simplified!

2008 Later Sping Update:  See Kid Management section top for "Spring 2008 Hybrid method # 2" for our latest kid rearing choice.

http://www.goatwisdom.com/ch8diseases/mycoplasma.html  General Information on Mycoplasma

http://www.invivogen.com/family.php?ID=3&ID_cat=1&ID_sscat=1  New Treatment

Coccidiosis

2008 has been our worst year for coccidiosis losses in kids.  It came without ANY diarrhea.  Kids would go off feed midday and be dead by the evening.  We had a necropsy done at the university to verify that it was indeed coccidia that was the culprit.  We had the kids on dimethox (albon) when the losses occured.  We had also been following an herbal prevention protocol.  Conditions in our kid areas are pretty darned sanitary (as much so as you can get, given that kids like to eat the bedding and test out anything on the ground).  So after getting some advice from the commercial dairy goat list that I am on, we switched to a coccidiostat called lasalocid.  It is an ionophore and I am not really thrilled with that, but they have stopped suffering and dying.  So until we can figure out a better choice, we will use this and recommend it for sulfa resistant coccidia.  We buy lamb creep feed which is medicated with lasalocid and add it in the form of Pro-bac C to their milk.  Kids that are not eating enough of the creep feed will not get enough to matter, so it much be included in their milk until they are consuming enough of the creep feed.  ( I had to do a lot of pharmacological math to figure it all out, thank goodness for my old nursing degree!)  The Pro-Bac C product also contains vitamins and probiotics.  Ionophores are antibacterial, so the probiotics are important for counteracting the loss of good bacteria. 

Breeding

We like to breed kids so that they will freshen at approximately 12-18 months of age.  This means, for example, that kids born in the spring will be freshening the fall of the next year.  If a kid is undersized, however, we will wait until they reach a safe size and weight. By the same token, if a kid has a lot of early growth and is ready for breeding by 7-8 months of age, then we will breed them for kidding at about a year old.  (They should be about 40-45 pounds in our opinion.)

We leash-breed (hand breed) our does.  They are bred, usually, once a day for two days, unless not showing any more signs of estrus. We like to try to have more than one doe kidding at the same time so that if there is a single kid, then it will have some playmates to romp with.

If a doe is freshened at 2 years or even 3, she will have a more capacious mammary and possible higher production.  You have to weigh the benefits vs the drawbacks.  Many dairymen see the extra year of feeding them as a loss, even with the lower production as a yearling.  So try different approaches and see how you feel about it.

"Adopt-a-Doe" Program

"Adopt-a-Doe" is a program we came up with that will place healthy, friendly retired milking does in foster/companion homes for no charge.  These homes will go through a mild screening process and does will be placed with their new families with the following stipulations:

1. They may not be bred under any circumstances.

2. They must receive a minimum level of care which will be set forth in the contract.

3. Home visits by Pholia Farm will be allowed.

4. No registration papers or official breed club change of ownership papers will be filed.

5. If foster home is unable to keep the doe, we cannot return her to our herd, but will assist in finding a new foster home situation. 

To be placed on a waiting list for a retired doe, or pair of does, please email, call, or write.

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