Feed; Am I doing it right?

[cfarmher]

Please help me make a transition from the breeders feeding regimen. I think it was great but am having a hard time finding everything and want to make it a little more simple and economical.

This is what the breeder was feeding the does I got last week

Free choice orchard grass clover hay
Free choice kelp and dairy mineral
Bartlett goat pellets mixed with oats,barley,milk-mor pellets, and cracked corn free choice at milking
Alfalfa pellets fed after milking about 3/4 lb.
Beet Pulp fed at noon about 1/2 lb.


This is what I am feeding

Free choice Alfalfa/mixed grass hay
Free choice crushed goat block (will be switching to a loose mineral)

Questions; What is the kelp for? Is it neccesary?

Dumor goat pellets mixed with oats, barley, cracked corn free choice at milking

Questions; What are milk-mor pellets? Are they neccesary?
Are alfalfa pellets neccesary if they are getting alfalfa hay?
What is the beet pulp for? Is it neccesary?

Can someone tell me if there are any holes in this diet?

More questions, unrelated to feeding. I feel like such a dork for asking this. How do I "engage" a vet? Do I just call up a place and tell them I have new goats and want them to be my vet? I don't know the procedure for what to test/vax for and when. Will they tell me? Or do I need to set up my own schedule? Do they come to you? Or do you take the goats to them like a dog or a cat?
I know these questions sound really dumb, so thanks for putting up with them.

[mygoat]

Don't know what to tell you on most of the feeding stuff, I have a very uncomplicated feeding plan.

The vet you are looking for is called a large animal vet or a livestock vet. They are usually on call 24/7 because emergency's don't often happen at convenient times with livestock.
My vet charges 25.00 for a vet call, which is pretty good if you have alot of animals. However I Just have 6, and they are pygmy goats as well. What I suggest if you just have a few and for localized emergencies get a plastic dog crate or two that would fit your goats in, and would fit in the back of your pickup (hopefully you have a pickup, lol). Then you can use bugy cords to strap the crate in place in the back of your truck when needed, load the goat, and off you go!
A good way to start talking to a livestock vet is to introduce yourself, saying i'm new to goats and am looking for a vet willing to work with (prefferably experience with) goats. Some livestock vets won't work with goats. Ask them if they do house calls and how much they are. Ask them if they have hours and if you can call anytime during an emergency. Also, ask where they are located. My vet works directly out of his house.
You can do all your vaccinations and shots at home. The ones mainly used are IM or SubQ. IM is intramuscular (in the muscle) and SubQ is subcutaneous (under the skin) I myself preffer the IM because it's easier and my goats seem to cope with IM shots better than they do with SubQ shots. However, I think I just recently learned how to give a subq shot.
Your vet should be willing to teach you how to give shots, as many antibiotic treatments are several days long, and you don't want to stress you, your vet, and especially not your sick goat traveling back and forth from the vet every day or every 12 hours for that matter... It's quite easy.

[pookshollow]

If your goats are getting alfalfa hay, pellets would just be overkill - the breeder was feeding grass hay, so that's why they were getting the pellets, I would think.

My goats get free-choice alfalfa hay, and I feed a 16% dairy ration (it's for cattle, but the feedmill assures me it doesn't contain urea, so it's OK for goats). The milkers get 1 lb for "maintenance" plus about 1/2 lb for each lb (quart - roughly) of milk they produce. They have free-choice salt (loose) and cattle mineral - this contains copper which they need, sheep mineral would not. I'm guessing the kelp would be for minerals, not sure why they'd need that on top of a mineral mix. Beet pulp is basically nothing but fibre, with a little molasses in it - again, not sure why they would feed that with grass hay.

You're feeding your goats for home production - keep it simple. A lot of people say you don't need grain for milk, if they're getting alfalfa, but the goats will let you know! I always knew when my hay was less than stellar quality, it would show up in the milkpail ( or not show up, to be precise). As soon as I was able to feed good hay again, the milk yield would go up again.

As for the vet, call around, ask if they do goats (a lot don't!) and explain that you've just got yours. Do you know when they need shots? After $100 vetbill to give tetanus shots to two goats, I went out and bought my own CD+T vaccine. $12.00 for enough to last me a couple of years. I've since stocked up on penicillin and Selenium +E.

[6e]

If you are feeding alfalfa hay then you don't need to feed the pellets. I have no idea what milk-mor pellets are, I've never heard of them. I believe that beet pulp is strictly for protein source? But I would think they would be getting that from the alfalfa. What we use, and it's a lot simpler, is just a protein block left out at all times. I have no problem with goats using the blocks and find them much handier than the lose as I can throw the blocks out to where ever the animals are grazing. Maybe our animals are just strange, but they'll actually use the blocks quicker than the lose stuff. I guess it's what they're use to.
Our feeding system is very simple. We live in cattle country and trying to find sheep and goat feed at the local co-op is almost impossible. So we feed
2/4 oats
1/4 cracked corn
1/4 alfalfa pellets
a protein and mineral block
and free choice hay or pasture depending on the season.
Our animals do just fine with no problems and we're not putting out a small fortune in specialty feeds. I don't like having high maintenance animals around. There are people out there that raise their goats strickly on pasture and/or hay.
This is just what we do because all inclusive diets are expensive and hard to find where we're at.

[midkiffsjoy]

Be careful about vets. Some really dont know a whole lot about goats and will try to get you to worm monthly (which makes no sence. You just get the worms immune to the wormer and then eventually run out of wormers. They dont tell us to worm CATTLE monthly, but for SOME reason vets have this TRIP about worming goats monthly) Check out your local collages for classes/seminars. I am lucky enough to live somewhat close to A&M and they have the international goat research center and they have goat field days where you can go and learn about goat mantaince, and other classes. Thats a GREAT way to learn.