Chat
04-07-2018, 09:27 AM
Be prepared for a lot of different opinions on this one. Goats castrated earlier (like in the first 2 months) tend to achieve a greater height, however, it is at a sacrifice of bone in my opinion. Also common wisdom says that early castration sets them up for higher risk of urinary calculi. Most of ours are castrated at 3-4 months. Some of ours have been castrated as late as a year if I used them as breeding bucks for a season. If I'm not going to breed a buckling, I generally castrate whenever they start exhibiting a lot of unwanted buckish behavior. This generally starts anywhere from 3 - 5 months depending on the maturity of the particular buckling.
I don't feed our babies anything particularly special. I will feed some grain and calf manna if they start looking ribby during a growth spurt. However, I have the advantage of owning 40 acres of "goat paradise" where they have an all-you-can-eat buffet of pasture grass, weeds, pine trees, and brushy scrub oak. I feed primarily local grass hay (mountain brome and this year some timothy) with some alfalfa or alfalfa pellets if needed. I fed exclusively alfalfa one winter and regretted it. Too much alfalfa can mess with growth plates in youngsters, and it also blocks selenium and copper uptake if fed in excess. A mix of 2/3 - 3/4 grass with 1/3 - 1/4 alfalfa seems good for our area. And that's one thing to keep in mind. What works in one area may not be the best diet in another.
Be very careful about feeding grain to wethers. If they are sleek and growing well then I generally don't recommend it. Why take the risk if not needed? Some grains formulated for meat goats have ammonium chloride added to combat stones, and some grains also have a coccidiostat added to combat coccidiosis. We've never had a case of coccidiosis so I prefer to give unmedicated grain. When (if) I feed grain, I usually use Purina Goat Chow or something similar. It's a type of sweet feed. Babies get calf manna and alfalfa pellets when they need extra. Usually I only feed grain for a month or two after weaning. I did have a couple of bottle bucklings that got a mix of grain, calf manna, and alfalfa pellets for their first six months or so. Bottle kids don't typically grow as well as dam-raised, so they needed something extra to keep up with the others in the herd, plus they had to be big enough to breed by that fall.
This is just what I do. If you are keeping your goats on smaller acreage, you may have to feed more concentrates and for a longer period than me. People who feed a lot of grain usually end up having to add baking soda to the diet to combat acidosis of the rumen. But baking soda is not generally recommended for wethers since it alkalizes the urine, which in turn makes it more prone to calculi build-up.
I don't feed our babies anything particularly special. I will feed some grain and calf manna if they start looking ribby during a growth spurt. However, I have the advantage of owning 40 acres of "goat paradise" where they have an all-you-can-eat buffet of pasture grass, weeds, pine trees, and brushy scrub oak. I feed primarily local grass hay (mountain brome and this year some timothy) with some alfalfa or alfalfa pellets if needed. I fed exclusively alfalfa one winter and regretted it. Too much alfalfa can mess with growth plates in youngsters, and it also blocks selenium and copper uptake if fed in excess. A mix of 2/3 - 3/4 grass with 1/3 - 1/4 alfalfa seems good for our area. And that's one thing to keep in mind. What works in one area may not be the best diet in another.
Be very careful about feeding grain to wethers. If they are sleek and growing well then I generally don't recommend it. Why take the risk if not needed? Some grains formulated for meat goats have ammonium chloride added to combat stones, and some grains also have a coccidiostat added to combat coccidiosis. We've never had a case of coccidiosis so I prefer to give unmedicated grain. When (if) I feed grain, I usually use Purina Goat Chow or something similar. It's a type of sweet feed. Babies get calf manna and alfalfa pellets when they need extra. Usually I only feed grain for a month or two after weaning. I did have a couple of bottle bucklings that got a mix of grain, calf manna, and alfalfa pellets for their first six months or so. Bottle kids don't typically grow as well as dam-raised, so they needed something extra to keep up with the others in the herd, plus they had to be big enough to breed by that fall.
This is just what I do. If you are keeping your goats on smaller acreage, you may have to feed more concentrates and for a longer period than me. People who feed a lot of grain usually end up having to add baking soda to the diet to combat acidosis of the rumen. But baking soda is not generally recommended for wethers since it alkalizes the urine, which in turn makes it more prone to calculi build-up.