These are the schedules, supplements, and methods we use on our goats. They have been formed over years of experience, experimentation, and not being afraid to ask for help from our goat friends and mentors. Everyone has a different situation, and we only offer this as a guideline for those looking for information on raising a healthy and happy dairy goat.

Feeding a Dairy Goat

A lot of folks are of the mindset that unless a doe is in milk, she needs only browse, hay, and minerals to keep her in good condition. For some places with rich pasture and high-protein hay, that may be true. Arkansas, however beautiful, has a lot of setbacks to that plan. Our groundwater is high in iron, which inhibits copper absorption. Growing alfalfa and other high-protein grasses here is difficult due to our climate and growing conditions. And being a hot, humid, southern state, parasites are always a problem, even in the winter, and especially with their growing levels of resistance. A doe in kid needs the extra calories and nutrients that quality grain provides, greatly lessening complications with kidding such as milk fever, ketosis, and low milk production. Dairy goats, especially during pregnancy and lactation, need a high level of protein; some say 16%, others 22%.

So here is our set-up:

• 24/7 Bermuda mix hay, which is about 10% protein on average.
• 24/7 Purina Wind and Rain Storm Minerals in addition to their 2-3x a year copper bolus. We also now Cobalt Bolus once in the summer.
• On the stand, milkers get a quart of Dumor 16% Textured Goat Feed. tsc/product/dumor-goat-sweet-formula-feed-50-lb

• Kids get Producer’s Pride Sheep & Goat Decoquinate (DQ), Medicated Feed, 50 lb. . We fought against feeding medicated feed for a long time, but three years of no winter and lots of rain meant lots of coccidia, and once we started our kids on this combo, the effect was almost immediate.  Our lactating does never have access to the deccox feed because it is not approved for milk consumption.
• Alfalfa pellets.
• A mix BOSS and rolled oats 1:1
• The feed, mix, and alfalfa are fed in a 3:1:1 ratio, equaling about 2# of grain per feeding on the stand.

Yearly Vaccinations and Supplements

We do vaccinate at Goatroper. Having watched a goat die from tetanus, a kid from enterotoxemia, and another from pneumonia, never mind the heartache of caseous lymphadenitis (CL), we just won’t risk the health of our animals. In 2017 we had to completely change up our vaccine protocol due to the introduction of new strains of Clostridium and pneumonia. The three vaccines we give are:

• Calvary 9 (Clostridium perferingens immunity to 8 clostridial diseases plus Tetanus.). This prevents both the terrible disease of tetanus, which goats are particularly susceptible to, and enterotoxemia aka ‘overeating disease’.
• NasalGen for Pneumonia (Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR) virus, Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus (BRSV), Parainfluenza 3 virus (PI3), Mannheimia haemolytica and Pasteurella multocida). This is given to kids at 3 months old, and then yearly after that. We also vaccinate our pregnant does at 4 weeks from kidding and bucks at the beginning of breeding season.
• Caseous lymphadenitis (Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis bacterin) is one of the more controversial vaccines on the market. It has an 80-90% success rate, but is a live vaccine, meaning the goat will test positive on a test for CL. However, we have decided that we would rather greatly lower the risk of our negative herd ever going true positive for CL, and inform all buyers that the blood test will show positive. CL is not going away without strict management and prevention. This is given once a year. (as of 2021 currently unavailable but we are leaving this here for reference)
• With winters remaining warmer and wetter, our instances of mastitis began to grow. We now vaccinate 2x a year.

Goats need a huge amount of copper in their diet. 2-3 times a year, the goats get what is known as a copper bolus. It’s a capsule filled with tiny copper rods. Each gram is meant for 22 pounds of goat. When we give the CDT/pneumonia shot we also give copper boluses on an empty stomach, to allow proper adhesion to the stomach wall and a slow release of the copper rods. We dose to the weight, and always round up, meaning a 200lb goat would get three four-gram boluses (240lb dose). Midway between these two doses, we give a maintenance of one four-gram bolus. We usually give the boluses with a dose of BOSE gel, which contains selenium and vitamin E, two more supplements that goats need in regular, consistent levels.

Schedules

Each type of goat has different nutritional and supplemental needs. This is how we do it at Goatroper.

Kids

Day one: before receiving heat-treated colostrum, each kid is given 2cc of E coli prevention with Bovine Ecolizer, 2cc Bovi Sera, and a kid dose of BOSE gel. Their hooves and umbilical cords are cleaned with idoline. They then get 10–12oz of colostrum four times a day until they are 24 hours old.

Day two: switched to pasteurized goat’s milk. The pasteurization prevents the transmission of bacterial and viral diseases. They also begin receiving passive resistance to coccidia in their milk with audition of probac powder. Kids stay on milk a minimum of 12 weeks for bucks, 16 for does. Generally we go as long as they want, sometimes up to 6 months.

Day three: moved from bottle to lambar bucket (if more than two kids).

One week: disbudding (unless being kept horned for religious reasons) and tattoo. We use the green tattoo paste because the color lasts longer. We also give a dose of probios.

Two weeks: introduce grain in creep feeder and hay in small amounts. Water is introduced in a low bucket.

Three weeks: First coccidia prevention.

Four weeks: first worming, either with Valbazen or ivermectin product (we use Dectomax).

Six weeks: First CDT vaccination and coccidia prevention.

Seven weeks: worming follow-up.

Eight weeks:Burdizzo any wethers and separate all males from the doe pen; they are fertile at this age and will breed anything that stands still long enough!

Nine weeks: coccidia prevention, second CDT vaccine

10 weeks: worm with second wormer.

12 weeks: pneumonia and CL vaccinations, coccidia prevention.

13 weeks: second wormer follow up.

14 weeks: second pneumonia and CL vaccinations.

15 weeks: coccidia prevention.

16 weeks: third wormer (Cydectin for us), and begin weaning.

18 weeks: coccidia and third wormer follow-up.

21 weeks: coccidia prevention.

24 weeks: coccidia prevention, CDT and pneumonia vaccine.

Does

We generally breed our does in their second fall. This gives them plenty of time to grow and develop without also growing a couple of kids.

One month prior to breeding: copper bolus to weight, BOSE gel, pneumonia, CDT, and CL vaccinations.

One month post-breeding: draw blood for pregnancy and caprine arthritis encephalitis (CAE) testing.

Five weeks pre-kidding:Replamin gel, begin feeding them on stand only.

Four weeks pre-kidding: CDT, pneumonia vaccine, and copper bolus to weight.

Three weeks pre-kidding: 2.5-3cc BOSE dose.

One week pre-kidding: shave udder, tail, and back of legs for cleanliness during the birth.

Day after Kidding day: coccidia prevention, and CL vaccine, and deworm.

Bucks and wethers

When we had less pasture and no way to divide up the herd, we ran our bucks and does together and had all the boys wear a South African invention called an olor: essentially it’s a goat condom. Now the boys all live in ‘site B’ and are olor free. This seems to suit everyone.

At eight weeks they are separated from the doelings, and wethered if needed with the Burdizzo. The vaccination and worming schedule continues parallel to the doelings’.

During rut, we make sure to worm and copper a month before breeding, and try to keep the weight on them as best we can. Rut is very hard on some bucks, and is a contributor to their oftentimes shorter lives.

We make sure the minerals we have for them contain ammonium chloride, to prevent urinary tract crystals.