Finally...got my African Pygmy Goats

Woo Hoo...I posted several weeks ago, I was looking to purchase some goats. Did it...got a breeding pair of adults, and two 5 week old twin kids. These are African Pygmy Goats...very small breed, strong milkers. Perfect for me .

Bobber/papa goat

Fayla/momma goat

Gracie/ girl kid
Thistle/boy kid

Added bonus, Fayla was impregnated again right before I picked them all up. The folks I bought them from didn't but Bobber/pappa goat, in a separate enclosure in time..Not what I planned on, but oh well.

I have some great recipes for soaps, and other organic well body products, I've been making. When Fayla is not nursing kids, I'll be making a small amount of goats milk soap...and a lot of kefir yogurt.

I'll post some photos tomorrow.

Chickens are shooting up in price here...chicks going for $ 4 .00 ea.

Des

ETA....I know we have a lot of Veterans here in this forum. I want to Thank You ALL, for your guidance in the threads you have posted here. Your Heart , and Knowledge is invaluable to the rest of us.

Here is something very Dear to me...I want to dedicate it to All the Vets on ATS. Thank You my Friends!

Uploaded by Kilfio on Oct 23, 2007

This is an a cappella version of "Find the Cost of Freedom" (Crosby, Stills, & Nash), accompanied by a video tribute that I made for America and her troops. Thanks to the 2007 Oldham County High School Madrigal Choir Men for the music.

(Note that I said "tribute", not "political view". Please leave the hate comments out.)

Congratulations... I hope all goes well.

If you have never had goats before...just some advice...make sure you have good fences. Not only to keep them in, but to keep coyotes, bobcats, wild dogs out.

48" goat wire or livestock wire works well with a strand of electric "hot wire" or barbed wire along the top

Also, make sure you have a good consitant worming program in place. Generally, cross breeds are hardier than pure breeds...so the problems of parasites will be far less than. Generally, I use a medicated wormer feed suppliment in pellet form at the beginning of each month.

Last, just a personal observance...go ahead and get some durable weather proof gear...winter hunting jackets, muck boots, etc and flash lights.... In all of my years of farm animals...when it is time to kidd or drop their young...it never fails that they are born on a night with the absolute worst weather. I don't know if it is the passing of a low front...drop in pressure...or temps...but they drop kidds in the worst time frame possible.

Also, go ahead and have your barn bigger than you think you need...trust me, you wuill run out of room soon enough...lol

Other than that, good luck...you will enjoy them immensely.

reply to post by AlreadyGone


Thank you so much....I have 3 acres, stocked pond and creek. Cyclone fence/8' tall...fenced off 1/2 acre with 8X10 double door goat shed.for weather. Using Purina goat feed to supplement diet of the vegetation growing abundantly here. Yup, got the worming program down pat...plus the no copper salt blocks. I don't really want more than 12 goats at a time...and, I've already got neighbors putting dibs on the 2 existing kids, and the unborn ones too...at $100.00 each kid.

Kids are near impossible to find up here...every breeder within 200 miles of me, is all sold out for the 2011 breeding season, and is now taking cash deposits for the future ....hahahaha...folks are buying and selling goat futures up here. That is why it took me so long to find the ones I bought.

I also got a, now 10 week old, Great Pyrenees pup...from a breeder who only does working dogs for guarding flocks. Bear, the new pup, is from a long line of pure bred working dogs. He'll give the coyotes/bobcats hell when it's needed.

I'm pretty rural up here on top of the mountain...haven't seen a wild dog in over 12 years. Too many folks up here have livestock...they shoot em.

Des

Goats NEED copper. Never feed sheep chow, it has no copper. They also need supplemental minerals.
Make sure they NEVER ever run out of water.

We lost one of our Nigerian Dwarfs when we weaned him. He started pigging out on grain. Goats are prone to urinary calculi. Crystals form in male urinary tract when they eat too much grain (goat chow). The wether we lost died a horribly painful death. Ammonium chloride in their feed and water supposedly helps prevent it.

They need the long fiber in hay for their rumens to work properly. Alfalfa hay is bad for males urinary system, so we never feed it. Their main food is browse. They eat mainly scrub trees and weeds. They don't eat grass, or anything real short, like grass. Ours love animal crackers, but won't eat them if they drop one on the ground. Ours get all feed up off the ground.

reply to post by designer43


Thanks for your input

My soil has a high copper content...so I must watch copper additives in supplements. Toxicity due to copper with goats is something to watch. So sorry you lost a kid, that is so sad. They "imprint" with humans so quickly. What a loss to your family.

Here is some info in copper and goats.

Control of proper copper levels in goats is critical. Find out why the goat is copper deficient. Is the soil low in copper? Is there interference in copper absorption because it is binding with other minerals (copper antagonists)? Goats metabolize and store copper much differently from sheep. Do NOT use products labelled "for sheep & goats" because they are woefully insufficient in the amount of copper needed by goats.

Copper can be given to pregnant does and newborns sub-cutaneously (SQ) in the form of copper glycinate or orally in the does' drinking water via copper sulfate. Severely copper-deficient goats are sometimes given copper boluses which attach to the inside of the body and slowly deliver copper at a predetermined rate.

The easiest and probably the best method, in the opinion of this writer, is to furnish loose minerals with sufficient copper content free-choice to the goats year-around. However, the copper level must be based upon several factors, including the copper available in any ration that is fed to the goats.

Copper levels in loose minerals fed free-choice may safely be considerably higher than in "full feed" packages that are consumed by the goats on a daily basis. For example, a "full feed" should not more than 15-20 ppm of copper in most cases, while free-choice loose minerals might be as high as 1500 ppm in copper. Have your forage tested for copper levels before deciding on copper levels in your feed and minerals packages.

It is possible to induce copper toxicity in goats. Copper accumulates in the liver. Red/brown urine may be a sign of copper poisoning. Using calf milk replacers has caused copper poisoning in kid goats.

Up to 1200 ppm of copper may be fed to goats under specific situations. The goat producer must determine what conditions apply in his particular geographic area and based upon his feeding program. Check with a knowledgeable goat veterinarian for proper dietary levels of copper for your goat herd. Much more scientific research needs to be done in this very important area of caprine nutrition.

www.tennesseemeatgoats.com...

Check with your local area Farm Bureau, and University AG extension programs in your area for soil content.
Des

Originally posted by AlreadyGone
Congratulations... I hope all goes well.

Last, just a personal observance...go ahead and get some durable weather proof gear...winter hunting jackets, muck boots, etc and flash lights.... In all of my years of farm animals...when it is time to kidd or drop their young...it never fails that they are born on a night with the absolute worst weather. I don't know if it is the passing of a low front...drop in pressure...or temps...but they drop kidds in the worst time frame possible.

You got that right! My nearest neighbor raises high end Hanoverian horses...a large operation. I've spent more than a few nights with her in her stable, on cots in the trainers room, waiting for the sewed in alarm to go off in the foaling mare. NEVER...not once, has the weather been good during those times. I do think you are right on the atmospheric pressure.

Des

Congrats with your goats and desire to farm. I live on 2 acres and doing my best to be independent and use my land to live off of. I have over 25 fruit trees, a 1/2 acre garden and over 20 chickens. I've been looking as well for goats and been looking for Nigerian dwarfs. Not that many available here in San Diego and most goats that are available are the pygmys. From what I've heard, the pygmy goats don't produce quality milk. Is that true with the African Pygmy goats? Anyways, hope the best for you and the new addition to your farm

reply to post by Alchemst7

Sounds like you have a right fine home stead going on there...congrats!

In the past two years, goats have become increasingly more difficult to find to purchase....a lot more people are buying them because of the quality of the milk, and ease in keeping them, with the proper care , they are very cost effective. I chose my goats on size, milk quality...and ease in selling off extra stock. I have a waiting list of people wanting to buy kids starting at $100.00 per kid.

Here is some info on Pygmy goat milk. She is an expert on pygmy goats.

The Qualities of Pygmy Goat Milk
Maxine Kinne

Hopefully, you will one day decide to take up the pleasurable task of milking. When you do, there are some fundamentals to understand about the quality of Pygmy goat milk and what makes it different than other types of goat milk.

Milk traditionally weighs 8.6 lbs per gallon. Pygmy goat milk only weighs 8 lbs per gallon, because it has a significantly higher butterfat content that the milk of most other breeds. (Nubians come the closest to the Pygmy's fat content.)

Why is high butterfat content a good quality in milk? For one thing, it helps the milk resist off flavors due to a doe's diet. Strong flavored plants may impart their flavor to milk, especially when they are consumed within a few hours of milking. Higher fat content also extends the shelf life of milk. With very good milking technique and milk handling, Pygmy milk can retain its excellent flavor for about two weeks.

Fat, of course, is what gives many foods a desirable taste because it is rich and sweet. When I dried off my does after two solid years of milking and bought 3.8% cow milk from the store, I had to spike it with whipping cream to combat the flat, watery taste! Many health-conscious people now avoid fat. But since Pygmy milk separates fairly readily, unlike the naturally homogenized nature of dairy goat milk, most of it can be skimmed off.

The NPGA membership brochure lists the butterfat percentage at 6% to 9%. My milkers ranged from 4.5% to 11.75%; and average was about 6%. Fat percentages are tied to the total quantity of milk a doe gives. Does give about the same amount of butterfat all the time. Less milk is produced in early and late lactation, but the butterfat percentage remains stable. Thus, its percentage of the total yield is higher when the doe gives less milk. Butterfat is given at the end of the milking process, so it is very important to milk each doe out completely.

A study comparing minerals in the milk of dairy goats and Pygmies (West African Dwarf Goats) in The Third International Conference on Goat Production and Disease, 1979, found that Pygmy milk tested 65% higher in calcium, 19% higher in phosphorus, 75% higher in potassium, 26% higher in iron, and 10% higher in copper. It was 21% lower in sodium, 13% lower in magnesium and 40% lower in chlorine. Alpine and Saanen results were averaged for the dairy milks. This study supports another one cited by Alice Hall. These percentages mean that Pygmy goat milk is higher in things that are good for you and lower in things that are not.

much more info on milking process at link kinne.net...

Des

reply to post by Destinyone


i grew up on a farm, we had many critters, cows, cheviot sheeps, chickens, horse, etc.
grew and canned our own food.

one of the most valuable animal is a border collie, he would fetch any errant critter and bring them to proper encloser.

will be best friends with your goats, and protect them.

protected our domesticated animals from the wild ones.

and could be so gentle as to round up our pet rabbits out of the garden without the bunnies showing any stress.

in a given week they do as much work as any humans, and never take a day off.

reply to post by citizen6511


Thanks for the input!

From an earlier post of mine...

I also got a, now 10 week old, Great Pyrenees pup...from a breeder who only does working dogs for guarding flocks. Bear, the new pup, is from a long line of pure bred working dogs. He'll give the coyotes/bobcats hell when it's needed.

I'm pretty rural up here on top of the mountain...haven't seen a wild dog in over 12 years. Too many folks up here have livestock...they shoot em.

Des

reply to post by Destinyone


Congratulations, Destinyone, you are doing what I hope to do in the near future.

I am looking forward to your pics. And of course, to hear how things go. BT