Goat Brain is carrying me away..... Advise needed please.

[TheLands]

Hi everyone.

I have posted a few questions and first I want to thank you all for being so kind and helping me. I hope one day I will have learned enough to help some too. Hehe.

I have changed the way things are done a bunch around our place. The beginning information I was given was not quite correct. So we have had to overcome a few problems. Things seem to finally be looking up.

I have decided to post what I am doing right now and make sure that it is all correct and see what suggestions you all have to add to what I am doing.

Feeding:
Right now I have out good quality hay all the time. We installed some feeders in the barn that we keep stocked at all times.

I keep out loose minerals. (I can't get the Cargill that you all have mentioned several times but I found a good one at my feed store that seems to be working well. Can't remember the name right now.)

I also keep baking soda out for them at all times and that seemed to make a BIG difference.

I think I stopped the grain on my young ones to soon and they are a bit on the small side I am afraid. I am planning to breed them in October if they are big enough by then.

Unfortunately I haven't worked with them on a milk stand yet because I didn't have one until this past weekend. I built it myself. Really exciting. So I figured I would start working with them on it and giving them a bit of grain. How much would you suggest or is this a bad idea? I stopped graining them at about 9 mos I think. I am kinda at a loss right now. I wanna do the best I can for them just don't seem to be "figuring" things out to well. *sigh*

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. And I would be happy an answer any questions about them that you have.

I really hope this makes sense. Sorry if it doesn't I am a little frustrated. Hehe.

Thanks in advance.

~Lynda

[nehimama]

Looks to me like you're doing pretty well, using what works for you. Perhaps you could give them a few handfuls of alfalfa pellets while on the milkstand?

[CaliannG]

If I am doing milkstand training, I use a handful of BOSS or a handful of grain.

Just a bit isn't going to hurt them none. (I have small hands, so I guess it would turn out to be about a 1/4 cup of grain or BOSS?) Doing a bit of udder washing while they are up there and munching their treat gets them used to me fiddling down there...and besides, since washing is what my does dislike the MOST, I prefer to associate it with treats.

It's nice to see that we aren't very far apart.