[Festus]

Hi.   Has anybody used sterilising tablets in their bowsers to make the water potable? I 'm talking about the small ones that are used for camping etc. to make sure any water is safe to drink.  I'm thinking that if they're used for human consumption then they should be OK but just want to check in case they contain any chemical inimical to livestock.  Mind you in a 1000 litre bowser the dosage would be 200 tablets.

Also, does anyone run their goats with their sheep?  I know it's advised to keep them separate but if they are both closed flocks does that make a difference?  Many thanks in anticipation

[Anke]

wrt to keeping goats and sheep together - if you know that both goats and sheep are worm free, you do not have problems with fluke, foot rot and they stay on clean land to which no other sheep (they are more likely causing problems for the goats rather than the other way round)  then no there should not be a problem. Goats would still go inside overnight with sheep staying out? I would then keep a copper lick inside the goatshed, and a general one outside for both sheep and goats. If you feed any concentrate to the sheep (and a different one to the goats) then you would have to feed separately as well.... so yes possible, but needs some planning beforehand.


If however you want to sell your goats as CAE free (and test annually for it), then you cannot run your goats with untested sheep- so you would have to include them in your testing regime.

[Festus]

Many thanks Anke. That's interesting.  My goats have a separate enclosure so I was just wondering about opening the gate during the day so they could have access to more hedges and general browsing.  No worms, fluke and it is a closed flock of sheep but I do test for CAE.  End of that ideac