Is anyone feeding their goats, chickens, and rabbits organic feed? If so, what kind and what does it cost compared to non-organic?
Organic Feed
Do goats need hay available constantly? I read a couple handfuls when fed, but someone just told me they need it constantly.
Jasmer...They need hay in their hayrack at all times if you are not pasturing them...If they come in at night from pasture, then fill the rack when you give them their grain...The goats on my farm are fed grain twice a day, and hay in the rack at all times
yes, mine pasture adn get small amounts of hay. they waste most of it, but it makes good mulch and gth chickens clean up the grain they spill... i do not have organic grain savailble, i just make sure the mill does not use GMO grains...
grwoing my own food for them as much as possible, including grassy areas. their first pen was eaten down and is now coming up good. so they are going from pen #3 to pen #1 tomorrow, so we can rototill and plant some annual grassy grains in #3, which is small, a horse run converted over, and will later house guineas...
pen #2 has eating cockerels in it. we will rototill it to turn up weeds seeds, then see what comes up on its own for the chickesn and goats. by then pen #1 will need a break.
sorry, i know this wasn't about rotation, but it seemed applicable. most peopple wanting to feed organic also wouldn't want to have to worm and medicate their livestock... and would want them to get as much pasture as possible.
i ahve discontinued any kind of corn to any animal we are eating or consuming eggs or milk from... save the chick starter crumbles...
tf
TF, what is the reasoning on the corn?
GG
i just figure we eat enough field corn in our diet. why do i want it in my eggs, meat and milk that i raise?
Good reason.
GG
Well, we are pasturing. I got some wrong info about the hay, so I'm unprepared. I hope they'll be okay until Monday.
they will be fine. i would rather see a goat not so fat and rpone to gas and bloat... you can find some speical weeds they like and pull and hand feed them, makes you feel better! mine do...
Yep.. They will be fine...The goats on my farm are meat goats (Boers) and are being raised for that purpose and to sell alot of them to 4-H kids for show...These are all registered and tagged...Some of the Bucks are worth over $5000...The pic below is this years Spring Kids already at weight for butchering...
We're new to goats and just bought two pygmy goats to use for milking. I was surprised as they don't even seem to have an odor...I know a buck would be a different story.
Enjoying your Pygmys? Are they horned? I like the rearing up and head clashing they do to each other. Dusty, is it hard to eat something with that much personality? Right now I can't even imagine eating the ducks as they have to be the friendliest birds I have ever had the privilege to raise. I guess if you have a great many, than it gets easier. I had a hard time killing and eating our roos, but I did do it. Of course, it was a practical thing to do also as they are hard on the hens in great numbers and they fight each other too.
great looking herd Dust, look slike they get plenty of fresh air, sunshine and exercise too! [just threw my KIDS out for such as that LOL]...when we have more of the pasture cleared and fenced, that is just what i intend to do... herds of meat goats...
personally i think three dairy goats is enough, and i intend to breed them to a boar and sell the kids for meat, immediately, before we get attached to them LOL...
patch, i couldn't do it either... do what we do with the ducks. let them breed then eat or sell their offspring, if you let the ducks raise their own, you don't get as attached, plus you know that they shouldn't keep inbreeding, so ytou are doing a good thing by eating them... well i thought that would help, but it didn't look as good in type as it did in my head LOL
jasmerr, pygmys for milk is an excellent idea! make sure they get plenty of grass. there are things that lactating goats shouldn't eat, and they won't if they have plenty of other things. you don't want their milk to taste funny, or for them to get mastitis or any other teat problems... and don't let them get bored. make a hil or a stack of wood [without nails] for them to jump on and play! give them a playmate like a puppy who wil also protect them...
No doubt! The new Pygmys in my barn are tearing up my scrap wood pile! AHHHH! Oh Dusty I have a query about worming, and as your goats look good 'n healthy I'll ask your opinion as I keep getting different answers. Ok, the Pygmys that I adopted are quite thin and I wormed them yesterday. I used Safe-Guard (Fenbendazole). Now it says to reworm in 4-6 weeks, but some people have said to do it 2-3 weeks later and others say in 10 days and then once more 10 days after that for effective treatment. What is your deworming plan? I was thinking of the 10 day, then 10 days later treatment.
i owuld be careful about overdosing, esp with them being so small.... and if they are VERY wormy, then the toxins dumped by the worms as they die off could also kill them. hopefully Dusty can give you goast advice, mine is just from horse experience, and they have totally different digestive systems...
I was afraid of overdosing too, but was told that if it wasn't done properly then the worms would actually build up a resistance to the wormer and it would be really hard to deworm them then. Apparently goats are way more susceptible to worms and such than the average hooved beast because their digestive system never quite adapted to the environment outside their desert homes. I read this on the Pygmy goat website and on a few breeder websites. They also said it was better to overdose (by a little of course) than underdose when it comes to deworming goats.