Anyone use calf starter on their dairy goats or babies?

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 31, 2002

Answers

Response to Anyone feed calf starter to their goats?

Actually it is a very good choice, especially if you live in cattle country like we do. The cattlemen like the horsemen simply won't purchase the feeds that are poorly made. Also feeding something that is sold quickly out of the feed stores, keeps your feed fresher, than buying the last 3 bags of goat feed that have sat for months. I wouldn't feed anything medicated to my milking stock, and the amount of cocci meds put in for calves I doubt would work on your goat kids anyway. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), January 31, 2002.

Vicki- what is a good choice for feed that has a coccidiostat? Lamb starter? Would I then have to supplement with copper since the lamb feed would be low in it?

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 31, 2002.

We use calf grower almost exclusivly now that we don't have a local mill that will custom mix less than 1000 pounds. Since our herd is small now, it is the only way for us to go. We use Corid or Albon in the milk to treat our babies. I like to know for sure that each kid gets what he should get. We don't even buy the medicated feed as we have grandchildren etc. and horses. Just don't need the worries associated with giving the wrong feed to the wrong animals.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 31, 2002.

Can I ask what the protein % of the starter you are using is?

I am checking tommorow, the feed mill has two, I know one is 23%....and I think the other is lower.

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 31, 2002.

Ok, I checked and the calf starter they have is 17% protein... (they used to have a 32%, but no longer)

It has no medication in it whatsoever...just grain, soybean meal, and vitamins.

It is only $5.50 for 50 lbs, which is pretty cheap for here.

Think this would be ok to feed my does?

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), February 03, 2002.

You can medicate your own grain. Jeffers carries DeccoxM and pipevet.com carries all of them, you can dose a ton of feed or just a pound of feed, and I know boer goat breeders who just medicate their mineral mix. The cattle feed for under 6$ is great, so feed it to the milkers plain, medicate it with ammonium chloride for the bucks, and decox, lasalocid, rumensin (which I don't recommend though lots of others use it) yourself and save money! This makes it nice so your kids move from medicated grain to non medicated when they are yearlings and have built thier own immunity to cocci, and the change is the same grain they have always been fed! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 04, 2002.

Uh oh, Vickie....now you dun confused me

Do you need to put the decox in the feed if you are doing regular doses of Di-Methox?

The gal I got my goats from said that she never, ever feeds her kids grain....that they get alfalfa hay and that was it. They do all look nice and healthy.

I would like my boys to grow faster to butcher though...so where do I find ammonium chloride to buy?

thank you so much for helping me out!

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), February 04, 2002.

Sorry for the confusion. We do use a sulfa product in the kids milk starting at 3 weeks and continuing every 3 weeks for 5 days until weaned. By the time the kids are weaned they are consuming at least a pound of grain a day. Ditch the idea of medicating goats with water, they simply drink so little of the medicated water that they aren't getting enough of the drug to do any good. So once the kids are consuming enough of the medicated grain you no longer need to use the Dimethox. If you use Deccox or Lasalcoid in the grain for cocci control, it only kills certain harmful lifecycles of the cocci, which lets the kids have low levels of the less harmful lifecycles in their system, which lets them build immunity, so that by the time they are bred and you move them to the non-medicated grain, they have good immunity and you no longer worry about cocci, unless the animal is very ill. This is the reason I don't recommend Rumenisin, it complete sterilizes the goats system from all lifecycles of cocci, not allowing them to build immunity.

If I lived up in the frozen north, with low humidity I wouldn't have to use prevention for cocci like I do. I could also worm once a year or so like my friends up north do. I also would have the excellent keeping quality of the alfalfa like they do. Here in the humid south, I can buy the same quality of alfalfa that your friend does, problem is that hay cut in June that is put in my hot humid barn is then suppose to keep its quality to be the sole source of vitamins, minerals, protein and nutrition for my babies in March? 8 month old hay unless it is kept in low humidity condition, which here would mean a cement floored, airconditioned hay only barn, is not going to grow out the kind of kids I want. So I have to supplement our hay with grain.

This is why you read all you can, visit all the farms you can, and though you may need help from others or can learn some management from others in different areas, your best mentor will be someone in your area who you can mirror their programs. Get it? Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 04, 2002.

Thanks for all the info Vickie, I think I've got it now

We are in the frozen north, so I can understand the differences....makes sense.

Oh, before I forget, where do you buy ammonium chloride? I am in the middle of nowhere up here :)

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), February 04, 2002.

I live in the frozen north, and we have been having awful problems with cocci. The ground is very damp and between that and the pasture, we've been losing kids now and then to cocci. It hits kids who are already stressed the worst. I am looking forward to seeing if the kids grow out a lot better with the medicated feed.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 04, 2002.