The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: WildWelshShepherdess on January 29, 2014, 11:42:56 pm
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Hello,
am looking for a goat to help rear pet lambs as we're due for a few too many triplets this year.
Must be in the West Wales area, but will travel a little further.
Will take more than 1 if needed. thanks
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It wouldn't be kind to just take one as goats are herd animals.
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And what happens after lambing? just chucked out onto pre-loved for £20 , or Hallal ? Just buy some dried lamb milk and plenty of bottles. :rant:
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And what happens after lambing? just chucked out onto pre-loved for £20 , or Hallal ? Just buy some dried lamb milk and plenty of bottles. :rant:
I was thinking along the same lines.... but haven't got the time to put in a proper reply. I have done it previously >:(
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whilst i understand wanting to ensure quality homes for all livestock, i feel all responses so far are a bit harsh with no opportunity to put forward any supportive evidence of their ability to care for goats.
please desist until the OP replies as their original question maybe genuine and valid.
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Apart from goats being herd animals, by the time you have to feed it, milk it and have housing for it, surely it would be cheaper and less time consuming to buy milk powder?
I have one milker who had triplets last year but one died. I had plans to use excess milk for lambs but in reality she didn't give me enough and I still had to buy powder! Eventually I got the hang of milking and she let it down so the pigs and pups got it! We would have drunk it but tasted horrible.
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We would have drunk it but tasted horrible.
A mineral drench with Copper and Cobalt would probably have sorted it.... fresh raw goatsmilk tastes not "goaty" at all....
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And what happens after lambing? just chucked out onto pre-loved for £20 , or Hallal ? Just buy some dried lamb milk and plenty of bottles. :rant:
Hallal?... This year we have had a sheep shot and skinned whilst carrying twins in a field by the house!!! So no she will not be sold to Hallal or anything if the kind!!
Yes buying powdered milk for lambs would most probs be cheaper but it's not as good for lambs as "real milk"
Housing and feed wont be an issue as she'll spend a lot of time with our show sheep.
We're kept goats in the past, our last one lived being with my pony, she used to jump up onto his back and nibble the hay out of his mane, she sadly died last march :(
We therefore understand how much effort etc goats require!!
And in future don't jump down peoples throats, you don't know me or know how i treat my stock, but if you came onto this site asking for help about sheep etc i'd be more than willing to give it to you!!!
So if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say it at all!!!
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I hope I didn't come over as jumping down your throat and if I did, I'm sorry.
Hallal?... This year we have had a sheep shot and skinned whilst carrying twins in a field by the house!!! So no she will not be sold to Hallal or anything if the kind!!
How horrendous. That's something that always worries me with my goats, ever since a local pub had their pet wether killed and stolen.
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And in future don't jump down peoples throats, you don't know me or know how i treat my stock, but if you came onto this site asking for help about sheep etc i'd be more than willing to give it to you!!!
So if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say it at all!!!
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seems to be far too much of this on here at present. beginning to really bug me. didn't used to happen and not sure why it does now. sorry I cant help but good luck and sorry for the response you got- not bloomin necessary
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The reason for my harsh reply : 2 years ago we had someone who we knew come and by a milker off us , 2 months later we had to go and rescue her after she had served her purpose , she was just cast out to look after herself , no shelter no feed , no care and attention. that will never happen to us again. :thinking:
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Anybody looking for "a goat" (notice the Singular!) has in all probability not got much of an idea a of how to look after goats (notice the plural!) properly. Chucking your goat (singular) in with your "show" sheep is actually amounting to animal cruelty. No goat is happy without any mates of her own kind, and that is even worse if you buy a single adult milker (taken out of a herd) and then just "chuck her in with sheep" - which she may have never encountered before.
There is still wide-spread misconception that a goat is an easy animal, produces milk out of nothing and doesn't need proper looking after. What about worm-control (if she is living with sheep she will soon be riddled with them), proper goat food (branches, hay even in summer, goat mix or better dairy cattle mix, lots of vegetables), milking her twice a day (or was she just have to have two lambs fostered onto her directly?)?
Please go and do your sums - and buying a sack of Lamlac is much cheaper.
Of course, you will get people to sell you a goat - but please don't ask serious goatbreeder to sell you (probably cheaply?) one of the quality milkers.
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The lambs would be put onto her directly,
We worm out sheep regualary so she will not be riddled with worms!
I have said i'll take more than one if needed as a neighbour has one for sale i was looking for another one for company!!
And i didnt say any thing about buying one cheaply, yet again people making presumtions!!!
And as for "chucking her in with sheep" as i didnt say the first place i said she'd spend a lot of time with them, as they are the ones that have adeqaute shelter in both winter and summer!!!
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lambs will ruin a goats udder so not a good idea
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lambs will ruin a goats udder so not a good idea
Thank you for the advice :)
So it'd be best to milk them out twice and day and bottle feed them the milk?
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Yes if you where to go ahead and get goats, milking out and bottling the lambs would be the way to go.
You would need to take into account the cost of feeding 2 milking goats to keep them in full yield would be well over the cost of buying lamb replacement. Then if/when they dry up you would have to kid them so any milk would go on feeding her kids so you would have no spare milk for lambs
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lambs will ruin a goats udder so not a good idea
I'm interested in this statement as I have raised a calf on one of my goats, drinking directly from the udder and there was no damage at all. How do lambs differ?
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I know that it'll be cheaper but lambs dont seem to do as well on lamblac etc.
We've always raised lambs directly on a goat but i dont want to cause any pain to her, although lambs are very similar to kids.
Lambs would be weaned off her at approx 10 weeks of age depending on breed etc..
Thanks
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Is it only a ruined udder conformation wise perhaps? if you have no interest in showing or selling on to be shown then it might not be an issue?
I keep goats and when we have bottle lambs I've ended up back on lamlac because the lambs wouldn't take the goats milk ::)
My only worries with paddock sharing is that if the goats need copper its hard to ensure the sheep don't access it - but you probably already know that and have p lans around it :)
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I've heard it said that lambs will ruin a goats udder and that it's alright for them to suckle direct, don't know which is true.
I partly raised lambs on goats milk last year. It was ok when I just had a couple but then was given 6 and had to introduce some lamlac. One lamb wouldn't take to it, got the squits and after a week of trying I had to put him back on just goats milk and the rest on half and half.
He's still a scrappy thing and when the grass starts growing if I can ever get weight on him he'll go for meat eventually. His twin is slighty better. But those two were orphaned at birth the rest have done well but had 4 days on their mums first.
Goats milk isn't a rich as sheeps milk.
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i think the lambs butt the udder to harshly and can damage the udder this way.calves arent as rough but how would it reach without a platform?
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The way the goat kids butt I wouldn't have thought lambs were any rougher.
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The way the goat kids butt I wouldn't have thought lambs were any rougher.
Absolutely agree. I remember being a bit taken aback when I first saw our kids on their mums!! Made me realise that my 'ever so gentle' attempts at milking were quite needless ;D
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Some people die crossing the road ! Some don't ! We raised 3 lambs last year on a goat and she suffered NO damage but I guess as with everything there's a risk ! Would I sell someone 1 goat ? No ! Would I sell someone 2 goats to use as fostermothers for lambs ? Yes !