[macgro7]

Hello
Can you tell me how much lamblac or similar product do you feed to goat kids?
How much,at what age as well. My ones are 2 weeks old atm and just want to make I'm doing it properly!
Also when to feed more and when to start feeding less etc.

I know it is a little bit different than feeding lambs.

Thank you very much in advance!

[Anke]

Goat kids need Lamlac at less of a concentration than lambs - it should say on the bag how much powder per ltr of water. Or google will know, I haven't fed Lamlac to goats before, I prefer Caprilac if I need to (much more expensive though).
My goat kids start off on 4 bottles a day ( after first 4 days on the dam), first two weeks as much as they take within 10 to 15 mins (warm), and they normally get to a full bottle by two to three weeks (GG's a bit less), then they are on 4 x 500ml (6am, 12noon, 6pm, 10 -11pm) plus they get offered calf mix, oats, readigrass and hay. At 12 weeks old I change to three feeds per day (usually leave out the lunchtime feed and offer concentrates etc instead), then drop a feed per month of age until 6 months, and then continue to give 10pm feed of milk as long as I have milk (and can be bothered dealing with rather rough kids by then - teats get bitten off etc). I always feed the milk warm to the touch (like you check for human babies - on your wrist)

I would think that if the kids are keen on concentrates and hay etc by 6 to 8 weeks old you can drop a feed or so earlier, lots of people wean abruptly at 12 weeks old. Given that Lamlac is not a cheap way of rearing kids, I would definitely wean earlier, but do it gradually. I wouldn't buy a new large bag of Lamlac by the time they are 3 months old.

Do you now if your kids' dams were booster vaccinated with Lambivac and/or Ovipast? If not you will need to start the vaccination at three weeks old (2 doses at 4 weeks apart), if you know that they have - then 8 to 10 weeks is advised.

[macgro7]

Ok thanks. The dams were all vaccinated with caprivac or heptavac dont remember the name!)
I've been feeding them 3 times a day so far - at 6am, 12 at noon and 7 in the evening. I'll boost their feeds a bit now.

[McLeod]

Lamlac can lead to scour in kids unless you get the mix rate right.  I couldn’t get my hands on goat milk replacer quick enough so was advised to use Graham’s Gold top full cream milk.  Of course I then got the goat milk replacer and he wouldn’t touch it! He did really well on the gold top but I assume goat replacer would be the ideal, if more expensive, option.

[macgro7]

Last time I was bottle feeding goats kids I fed them only blue top asda cows milk. It obviously works out more expensive. At the moment I am glad I bought the lamlac as there are restrictions on how much milk you can buy in the shop and we drink a lot of milk at home 

The kids are just starting to nibble on brambles and ivy- they dont really know with proper food. When outside they mostly bite dried sticks and not nice juicy long grass or weeds.

[Anke]

They will need hay and concentrate now definitely, and I have found readigrass is a good starter for them (mine do not go outside until much older).

Also wrt feeding shop-bought milk - it is not really good for their digestion to feed pasteurised and in particular homogenised milk.

[macgro7]

They have unlimited hay all the time. I only let them ou for half an hour to run around with mi human kids at the moment - until I finish the secure fence - hopefully this week - I run out of u-nails 

[Anke]

I'd be concerned about feeding shop bought milk as there's a high chance you could be giving them Johnes Disease which would be an awful outcome. 

The mycobacterium that is believed to cause Johnes (in livestock) and Crohns (in humans) isn't killed by the pasteurisation process, and "mixing the milk" of many animals together (as happens at dairies, and in the tanker collection and through the processing plants), means the risk of contamination is very high.

Johnes is highly likely to be the next "scandal" to hit farmers once the focus is off COVID19 and the press are looking for another health related story of how farmers are trying to kill their customers.

Not suggesting everyone wants to join the scheme, but it's worth reading up on Johnes on the SRUC website  https://www.sruc.ac.uk/info/120113/premium_sheep_and_goat_health_schemes or through the GoatVetOz pages on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/goatvetoz/.

Please do not put unproven statements here - there is no scientific evidence that Johne's is passed from dairy animals to humans. And joining any of the SURC schemes is a waste of money for the small-scale breeder.

[Buttermilk]

The commercial goat farm I worked at fed the kids with ad-lib cold lamlac and weaned once the kids were eating a certain amount of creep feed a day.  They did very well on this system.

[The shadster]

I'd be concerned about feeding shop bought milk as there's a high chance you could be giving them Johnes Disease which would be an awful outcome. 

The mycobacterium that is believed to cause Johnes (in livestock) and Crohns (in humans) isn't killed by the pasteurisation process, and "mixing the milk" of many animals together (as happens at dairies, and in the tanker collection and through the processing plants), means the risk of contamination is very high.

Johnes is highly likely to be the next "scandal" to hit farmers once the focus is off COVID19 and the press are looking for another health related story of how farmers are trying to kill their customers.

Not suggesting everyone wants to join the scheme, but it's worth reading up on Johnes on the SRUC website  https://www.sruc.ac.uk/info/120113/premium_sheep_and_goat_health_schemes or through the GoatVetOz pages on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/goatvetoz/.

Thanks for posting this Scarlet Dragon, there’s a great 30 minute presentation link from the University of Wisconsin on the Facebook Goatvetoz link. I lost my small goat herd to Johne’s Disease a couple of years ago. I don’t think people realise how prevalent it is. Conservative estimates suggest a third of all cattle dairy herds in the UK are infected. My infection came from buying infected stock from a dairy farmer, who had diversified into breeding goats.