Lets talk about goats!

[Stacykins]

I don't give my goats salt blocks. They would pig out on table salt and ignore the loose mineral feeder that actually has what they need to be healthy. Mineral blocks are also almost all table salt, it is what holds it together in block form. So unless your area isn't low on anything in the soil and thus hay, blocks can lead to deficiencies. Here, the soil is incredibly low in selenium and very high in iron (which binds what copper there is, leading to copper deficiencies). I have to supplement my herd with multimin 90 in addition to free choice loose mineral (which has very little table salt).

This short article on it is also somewhat of an ad for Sweetlix near the end of the article, but explains the problem in more detail.

 

[cassie]

I don't give my goats salt blocks. They would pig out on table salt and ignore the loose mineral feeder that actually has what they need to be healthy. Mineral blocks are also almost all table salt, it is what holds it together in block form. So unless your area isn't low on anything in the soil and thus hay, blocks can lead to deficiencies. Here, the soil is incredibly low in selenium and very high in iron (which binds what copper there is, leading to copper deficiencies). I have to supplement my herd with multimin 90 in addition to free choice loose mineral (which has very little table salt).

This short article on it is also somewhat of an ad for Sweetlix near the end of the article, but explains the problem in more detail.

I used to have an iodized salt block plus loose minerals available to my goats at all times. They didn't pig out on the salt blocks and they ate the loose mineral too. It might be different if you put out loose salt. I wouldn't know because I never provided loose salt. Just loose mineral.

 

[duckiefanatic]

Hi, so I am needing some help coming up with a herd name for my goats. we have NPGA registered pygmies and are just getting into registered nigerian dwarfs. I was thinking something with "minis" in it since they are both a miniature breed of goat. any suggestions? thanks.

 

[bboyd1]

Anyone keep horned goats?

Me. I have a horned buck and a horned doling who will be a FF in a couple weeks. I also have a disbudded doe who is a full-sized. (the other 2 are 1/2 dwarf) I have NO problem with them at all. In fact it helps them hold their own against our big goat. I did worry at first that it would be a problem, I have an 8yr old daughter and 2yr old daughter, but since my goats think they are dogs and don't live out in a field, they are very tame. Our buck is only a problem when in rutt, but he doesn't get to free-range our yard when that's going on. Im not having babies disbudded either since the woman they are going to want them for brush goats around her farm. They need to be able to defend themselves from dogs and such. If I was keeping them I wouldn't disbud either. They have never gotten caught in the hog-wire fencing we use for their pen, or the chain link of our yard when they roam our little 3 acres. *If* I kept more goats and they weren't as tame I'd have them without horns possibly.

 

[The Farm]

YES all my does which is 30 and my buck.

 

[farm n louisana]

I have 11 goats all but one has horns n thats only because she was born without them

 

[creaturelife]

ok i got my milk goat and her baby yesterday well i got her on the milk stand to milk her and this is her first year milking and kidding she is only a year old when i went to milk her the tets on her was small so small i cant fit but 2 fingers on there to milk and her mom is a milk goat and her dad is a milk goat the lady i got them from has been milking for 5 years i have known her for a year as she is my neighbor i dont know if they will get bigger or not it hard to milk her with them like this so i m just letting the baby suck on her for today until i can figure some thing out so i was wanting to know will they get bigger the next kidding or will they stay small and make it a pain to milk

 

[Stacykins]

ok i got my milk goat and her baby yesterday well i got her on the milk stand to milk her and this is her first year milking and kidding she is only a year old when i went to milk her the tets on her was small so small i cant fit but 2 fingers on there to milk and her mom is a milk goat and her dad is a milk goat the lady i got them from has been milking for 5 years i have known her for a year as she is my neighbor i dont know if they will get bigger or not it hard to milk her with them like this so i m just letting the baby suck on her for today until i can figure some thing out so i was wanting to know will they get bigger the next kidding or will they stay small and make it a pain to milk

Is she a first freshener? Firsties tend to have smaller teats.Teat size will improve her next freshening.

Though if she genetically has tiny teats (I call them 'mouse teats') then there isn't much that will improve them. She may be a dairy breed, but if her breeders haven't bred for nice teat size (selecting bucks whose dams had good teats, and dams who have them, too), then it won't be easy to milk.

 

[creaturelife]

i know where the daddy goat came from and i have seen his sister she has good size tets on her and the mother goat of the one i got has good size ones to my friend told me they will get bigger the next time she kids i dont know if i want to milk her this year or not i had a milk goat once befor i could milk her no problem but this goat it will take me awhile to get her milked

 

[SilkiesForEver]

One of my Mini Nubian does had a still born baby buck yesterday. It was TINY. About the size of a Nigerian kid. She normally kids large healthy kids. Today there was what I thought was a placenta in the goat shed, but it turned out to be a very premature baby. The poor thing didn't even have fur.

What could've caused this?