Question about Copper

[jil101ca]

I see a lot on here about giving your goats Copper. If your feeding a good quality goat mineral why would you need to give more copper? Would the copper in the mineral and whatever is in the grain your feeding not be enough?

[Sarah J]

The grain won't have copper. There are a couple of good mineral mixes out there, but most of them, even when they say "for goats" don't have enough for them. Many of us feed a good goat mineral and then bolus them a couple times per year in addition to that. Others use a sheep mineral and then do copper bolusing every few months. So depending on what mineral mix you're using, you may need more copper, you may not.

[Alice In TX/MO]

As mentioned above, goats have a high copper requirement. You may need to bolus for copper if you have:

1. Hoof problems
2. Worm problems
3. Rough coats
4. Fish tails (end of tail is bald, and the hair parts to look like a fish tail)
5. Fading hair color

[Lada]

I know some people bolus too, if they are raising sheep and goats together since the sheep can't have copper in their mineral.

[cayenne47]

Ok, a couple of my girls are getting bald tails. I went to the local grange co-op looking for boluses. (Bolii?,lol). They said here in Oregon you need to go through a vet? And that we arent deficient in our area and it does more harm than good. (even tho most of the hay comes from the other side of the state where its drier) They get a meat goat mineral free choice. My milkers get a COB with BOSS added. BTW, the grange is like the only game in town here as far as feed stores etc. The other 2 act like goats are from outer space and rarely carry anything useful to me. Actually, so does the grange, lol

[Lada]

You can order boluses from jeffers livestock.

[Backfourty,MI.]

Originally Posted by cayenne47

Ok, a couple of my girls are getting bald tails. I went to the local grange co-op looking for boluses. (Bolii?,lol). They said here in Oregon you need to go through a vet? And that we arent deficient in our area and it does more harm than good. (even tho most of the hay comes from the other side of the state where its drier) They get a meat goat mineral free choice. My milkers get a COB with BOSS added. BTW, the grange is like the only game in town here as far as feed stores etc. The other 2 act like goats are from outer space and rarely carry anything useful to me. Actually, so does the grange, lol

That does sound like copper deficiency to me.
I was using a cattle mineral high in copper for my goats but it was read in color & was still having a few signs of copper deficiency here too. I switched to the CARGILL Brand called Right Now Onyx & it's been probly going on 1 1/2 months or so & I'm already seing an improvement in there coat texture & tails. My feed store had to order it for me no problem they said.
I wonder if your place would do that? I think it has 2600 ppm's of copper but it's dark gray in color not red which is better too.

I do have & have used the copper rods & smaller bolus capsules from Jeffers too but I think this new mineral is making big improvements already.

[jil101ca]

What does the difference in mineral color mean? I feed goat mineral (gray) at the moment but the nutritionist for the feed mill has recommended a cattle mineral 1:1 with salt (color unknown)?? Why she didn't recommend the goat mineral they make I don't know, she didn't even mention it

[Freeholder]

I'm also in Oregon, and have a choice between Grange Co-op and Big R for feed stores. I was using Grange Co-op's 'goat mineral' and didn't like the results. They finally got Sweet-lix Meatmaker back in (the store used to carry it before Grange bought them, then Grange wasn't getting it for a couple of years), and the goats all look quite a bit better. I'd rather have Sweet-lix dairy goat mineral, but meatmaker is all we can get here.

I'm on the dry side of the mountains, if that makes any difference (I would think the wet side would be more deficient in minerals, though, as there is more leaching with the heavier winter rains).

Kathleen

[Backfourty,MI.]

Originally Posted by jil101ca

What does the difference in mineral color mean? I feed goat mineral (gray) at the moment but the nutritionist for the feed mill has recommended a cattle mineral 1:1 with salt (color unknown)?? Why she didn't recommend the goat mineral they make I don't know, she didn't even mention it

One has copper sulfate in it & the other has copper oxide in it. I believe the red minerals have copper sulfate in them, that's why they are red & it seems to me that I read in different threads about this & it is harder for the goat to absorb the copper sulfate than it is the copper oxide.

I do think my goats are looking much better in just that short of time after switching minerals.

[Feathers-N-Fur]

Oregon is Copper deficient. The only minerals I can find around here are red and even with 4500 ppm copper, my goats were still deficient. I just bolused for the first time. You get the cattle boluses from Jeffers, then open them up and weight them with a tiny digital scale (I got mine from Harbor Freight $12), then put them in smaller capsuls.

[jil101ca]

Why can't you just open them up and put the copper in the feed or mineral?

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

With the OP in Canada, things may be different. We have vast studies on dairy goats to know that if you are in the pacific northwest you will never be able to deal with your copper defficency with minerals alone. Thousands of goats were tested, from small farmholds to large commercial dairies. There is also tests I have on my stock here north of Houston, a farm down by Corpus, in Louisianna, Arkansas, and several copper studies done on livers of goats all the way to Michigan to know we live in a strip high in iron, low in copper and although you can use just minerals, they can't be 2000PPM of copper only via copper sulfate, and it's where they high numbers come from. It's not only very hard on the rumen it doesn't do anything long term.

jefferslivestock.com for your boluses and saanendoah.com for dosages and for why you need to bolus. It's all off label of course, so it is up to you to choose this management or to not to.

The difference you will see in not only the quality of herd health but also in worm burdens etc...is considerable. I don't know one person who didn't take this advice, alot like the advice to feed alfalfa in some form each day and to move away from sweet feeds....they will be back in a month saying how much better their stock looks and performs. Vicki

[MJFarms]

Has anyone heard of mounting a piece of cooper waterline at head height in the barn? One of my exibitors at the county fair says that is what she does. The goats lick it all the time and the pipe is always shinny.

[jil101ca]

Thanks for the link to saanendoah.com, I didn't have that one but it's bookmarked now!

[hoofinitnorth]

I order my boluses in 2gm and 4gm sizes from Farmrite in the UK. Copinox is the name and they are exactly the same as the ones you get here (same company even). They aren't cheap, but you can dose them by giving multiple boluses to get to the right amount for your goat's weight without having to make your own. In the US, you can't get them premade in anything smaller than 12.5gm, I think.

[hoofinitnorth]

Originally Posted by rose2005

We have loose minerals with copper, but I wonder if it is necessary. The next town from us has Copper in it's name as the land here has a lot of copper in it.

Rose

Rose, one of the larges copper ore deposits in the world (Kennicott) isn't far from us in Southcentral Alaska, but we still have deficient soils and bolus.

[Wags]

I'm using Mineral Max EAD Paste - which some of the feed stores carry around here, although it was ordered on line. It has chelated minerals, which is supposed to help with absorption.

INGREDIENTS: Vitamin A, not less than 4,400,000IU/kg;
Vitamin D, not less than 220,000IU/kg;
Vitamin E, not less than 33,000IU/kg;
Magnesium, not less than 0.95%;
Potassium, not less than 0.95%;
Zinc, not less than 6,100ppm;
Manganese, not less than 2,500ppm;
Copper, not less than 6,100ppm;
Cobalt, not less than 400ppm;
Selenium, not less than 60ppm

[greif]

how much copper is too much?