Goat Questions...Again :P

[BarredBuff]

Ive been thinking lately of things I need for my goats. So I went through my books on em and compiled a list. Can you please post an SS alternative or frugal tip or tip about it if, its anything you know about. Thanks.

Electronet Fencing
Charger for Fencing
Cheesmaking stuffs (what exactly is necessary for cheesemaking?)
Hay Rack
Feeder
Watering Tub
Spray Bottle
Strip Cup
Milk Pail (I plan to use mason jars instead because of ease of sterilizing and cost)
Milk Strainer (I already have one of these)
Milk Jars (I have these with some lids)
Mastitis Test
Milking Stand

What things should I have for a medical kit?

What do I need to have on hand for kidding? I plan to separate does and kids, and bottle feed.

 

[freemotion]

You need something to use as an udder wash and teat dip. I use soap and bleach in the proportions on www.fiascofarm.com. Have you looked at that site? There are a lot of alternatives there, since they use herbals but also list the modern ways of doing things.

You'll need 7% iodine to dip navels on the newborn kids. Look for this now, as it is sometimes hard to find. I had to spend a gazillion bucks for a teensy bottle at the pharmacy, then found a big bottle for $6-7 at a feed store that will last me the rest of my life if I don't drop it or spill it.

You need lots of towels and old rags for kidding. You'll need a heat lamp and little coats for the newborns....even spring nights can be too cold for them if they don't have mom to cuddle with. You can make the little coats without too much sewing....from old sweatshirt sleeves and such.

You'll need dewormer that is appropriate for your area...ask around the BIG farms to see what they use and how much. Or get a cheap microscope and learn to do your own fecal exams....VERY worth the cost, and a good FFA project, I'm sure. If you do this, it will be safe to experiment with herbals. Gather black walnuts from the trees NOW, not from the ground, get the hulls off, and dry them as a start. Plan on growing wormwood. Those are two key ingredients.

More later! Go to the Fias Co Farm site, meanwhile!

 

[savingdogs]

I agree that Fias Co site is full of information. I read the whole site and have it bookmarked. I like her approach, very sensible and economical to me. My son and Hubby made me my stanchion from the plans on there.

 

[freemotion]

Remember you don't need a scroll or jig saw for the head lock....two straight pieces of wood will do just fine, just set them an appropriate distance apart. I didn't use any hardware for mine. I just cut a small block of wood and created stops with screws to lock the moveable head lock board. Hope that made sense. Mine was loosely based on the Fias Co Farm plans but adjusted for the scrap wood I had available to me. Just make sure the wood for the headlock is smooth, no splinters, and a rubber mat for the floor of the stanchion is very useful. Don't secure it, though. I like to take mine (the entire stanchion) outside on a warm, breezy late spring day and scrub it down and let it dry in the sun. It gets pretty grubby.

 

[lorihadams]

I don't have a head lock on my stanchion...I screwed in an o ring and got a double sided latch and fasten her to the side of the stanchion via the o ring by the collar. She can move her head enough to eat her feed but she can't go anywhere. She can back up a step but that's it. I milk into wide mouth quart jars and then strain the milk (you can use coffee filters in a small sieve) into regular mouth quart jars and use the plastic Ball jar lids. I write the day of the week on the top of the lids so I know what milk to use first in the fridge.

Have molasses, nutri drench, iodine, mineral, baking soda, blue Kote spray, a good pair of hoof trimmers, pruning shears to cut branches to bring them, and I use Molly's herbal wormer and worm before breeding. Mine love animal crackers so I have them as treats. I have a dog leash in the milk barn so I can grab it quick if I need it. I use soap and water to clean them, I got some scrap fabric from a friend and cut squares to wash udders out of it so I know which ones are which in the cabinet. You could also get one of those big packs of washclothes in some repulsive color so you can keep them separated from the rest of the stuff in the wash.

I make my own teat dip and use a small spray bottle to spray the teats till they are dripping. I use a cup of water, a drop of bleach, two drops of tea tree oil, and two drops of eucalyptus oil. I planned on using grapefruit seed extract but I had the tea tree oil so that is what I used. I make a new batch once a week.

I feed mine alfalfa pellets and BOSS and the girls in milk get Blue Seal dairy goat pellets along with that mixture.

We made our own stanchion out of decking boards we had leftover from our back deck construction and I got a rubber mat to put on top of it so she doesn't slip. We made it wide enough that I can sit on the side of her to milk and we put the stanchion up against a wall in the corner with her facing out. I also have a short lead that I can hook over a hook to keep her still as well and I use it to lead her in and out of the milk room.

I didn't attach the feed bucket to the stanchion until we got the goat there and put her on the stand so we could get it the right height. We use one of the over the fence buckets so I can lift it off and clean it as needed.

 

[freemotion]

BB, make cheesemaking a separate thread for the benefit of lurkers and future searches....

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I wouldn't bother with a mastitis test. If you're referring to the CMT it doesn't work super well for goats, and it should just be used as a guide. IMO it's a waste of money. I bought a quart of teat dip from Hoegger's last season and I'm STILL using it. It gets diluted for make 1 gallon of dip, so it lasts forever. I still have enough for at least another year I bet. It was only about $15. Mine is chlorhexidine based, but now they sell an iodine based one.

For kidding, you really don't need much at all. 7% iodine is the bare minimum. In Kentucky you probably won't need coats for kids. I'm in MD and don't need them, even if we kidded in the dead of winter. A heat lamp is sufficient for us. Molasses is good to have on hand for post-kidding doe support. A few towels are handy, though if you're doe raising she can do all the cleaning herself (I prefer hands off when possible).

Hay racks can be made of scrap wood. Feed pans can be rubber bowls (which cannot be killed and will last forever!). Water troughs can be something on the smaller side, like a muck bucket. It's easier to dump and clean when it's a smaller container instead of a huge trough. Mine is 35 gallons and I sometimes wish it was smaller.

If the spray bottle is for teat dip I'd recommend using an actual dip cup and not a sprayer. Spraying makes it harder to get good coverage. The strip cup can be any kind of container, and darker colored cups make it easier to see the milk.

With electronet, go for the tall stuff. It's more money up front, but goats love to jump! And get a good charger.

 

[savingdogs]

I don't have the mastitis test either. But I do very carefully milk each side on a schedule, check each udder each time, and very carefully check in my strip cup that the milk looks and smells normal from each udder before I begin milking into the "food" container.

I milk right into a container with a strainer sitting on top like a lid. It is a strainer designed for coffee makers without a paper filter, I wash it daily in my dishwasher. It fits down into a container I happened to have so it means I get NO spills, NO hair in the milk and NO milk wasted straining it, I milk directly into the straining mechanism. Blackbird showed me how to do that and I really loved how the milk waste went down after I started using Blackbird's idea. His was actually a little different, but the concept is put a strainer over the thing you milk into. It might not work if you had several goats, but with just two it works fine.

 

[BarredBuff]

Thanks for the advice, Im going to have to go threw and take notes in one of my pads on SS options and schedules of sorts............THANKS!