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PostPosted: Wed Aug 03, 2005 3:30 pm 
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Joined: Wed Dec 31, 1969 6:00 pm
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Location: Athens,TX
Today, I've started my dairy goat herd with two goats to learn with. Following the thread about worming cattle and horses as well as using DE and Basic H leads me to ask about using the same process with my two new (and future) kids. Currently they are being bottle fed (UniMilk) with free choice of a mineral product, costal hay, and a salt block.

My land (in East Texas (henderson County) has been vacant for several years and has had no domestic live stock on it for over 7 years that i know of (probably not for many years as it is dense with trees and vegitation. Would this mean there are probably not too many bad parqasites that I will need to worry about? Except in the animals I plan to bring in? Later we'll be adding chickens and rabbits.

I was told to worm them for five days and then once a month with SafeGuard (fenbendazole). I felt using the beneficial nematodes in my pens might control these parasites with the addition of the DE. But if the goats have the parasites now should I give them the medication and use the organics in the future. Would the droppings, after the medication, kill the beneficial nematodes? Any advice?

David


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 3:32 am 
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Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2003 12:45 am
Posts: 420
Location: Whitesboro,TX
I have questions also. We have 38 meat goats and
mini cows, with two horse pets. Horses ahve not
been wormed in 5 years and doing very well. Cows
have done fine with 3 exceptions. Goats are almost
fine with 4 exceptions. We use DE and Basic H.
The recommendations for goats are to make them
a toxic waste site of chemicals. Meaning everyone
pushes chemicals into them at an unbelieveable
rate. Do you want to eat or drink their milk? I don't
think so.
My problem is we feed DE by mixing it up in ground
up alfalfa. The alfalfa has stems ground up with the
leaf portion of the plant. Some of the goats don't like
the stem and therefore eat very little of the mix (we
are grass fed and I will not mix up in grains).
I am looking for some thoughts on how to get goats
to eat more DE. Any ideas?
Robert D Bard


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 8:31 am 
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Joined: Wed May 26, 2004 2:41 pm
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My plan for a goat operation -- if I could ever actually dedicate the time to it -- was to avoid parasite problems through pasture rotation. Take a couple of acres and fence it into 8 paddocks. Put all the goats into one paddock for a week, then move them to the next one. By the time they return to the first paddock, it's been two months, and I would think I'd break any parasite's life cycle by then.

But I've never actually *had* goats, so my plan may be completely unworkable. I'll need to do a lot more research before I can get into it. Meanwhile, is there a market for organic goat milk and/or cabrito?


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 Post subject: organic goats
PostPosted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:06 am 
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Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2003 12:45 am
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Location: Whitesboro,TX
Your idea of pasture rotation is good but not very
workable. First is that goats are not pasture grass
animals unlees you force them to eat pasture. They
want brouse - food above their chests not below it.
You need some central location to feed them and
they prefer security at night and they want to bed
down rather than eat. They talk to each other when
they eat to check on their location or they want to
see each other.
The problem as I see it is a way to mange manure.
We have dung beatles for cow manure but they are
very particular and will not eat goat manure. There
are thousands of Dung beatle types.
I had contact with a professor at I think UT, but we
were discussing wormers and I mentioned that A & M
took the info off a website about the success of DE. I
mentioned that the chemical companies own the land
grant colleges and dictate fuzzy science to get the
results they want for their products. I also mentioned
that drug companies do the same thing with medical
schools. I think I might have offended him when I
mentioned that double blind placebo studies for the
most part are rigged.
Do you think this made him upset"
At this point he stopped the our discussion of dung beatles.
I believe his name was Dick Richardson from Austin
TX. I think PhD type.
So if anyone has info on Dung beatles, I would
appreciate it.
Goats need as much brush and weeds as possible -
not grass. I understand that we don't all have that
and we have to resort grass. We have 22 acres of
brush but I want them up at night to count them
and check for cuts and stuff.
For those of you that don't have goats, herding
them is like herding a bunch of cats, but they are
fun to be around and to watch the babies is priceless.
Did you know if everyone and their brother started
raising goats today there still would not be enough
goats to supply the meat demand in 10 years.
Robert d Bard


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PostPosted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:18 am 
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Joined: Wed May 26, 2004 2:41 pm
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Thanks for the info -- I can only imagine what a fiasco it would have been if I had attempted my goat project before the Internet. Though who knows, I might have done something radical like read a book. :)

Oddly enough, our pasture is rapidly reverting to a nice, natural state, thanks to my benign neglect, and there's an area of mesquite 4-8 foot high that I'm sure the goats would love. But I appreciate your cautions about the difficulty of herding goats -- chasing them through the mesquite sounds like a painful experience!


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