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Our biggest problem with goats in this moist green area where we live is that we have to give them enough dry feed to go with the green stuff otherwise they just get thinner and thinner and look very sad.
Another problem is worms. As soon as the wet season arrives in November, they have to be wormed. The little worm babies crawl to the tips of the blades of green grass and sit in a drop of dew just waiting to be sucked up by any herbivore that’s eating the grass. I’ve seen a photo of one of these drops of dew just chock full of baby worms.
Goats also need worming as soon as they kid. The mother gives off a hormone after giving birth that makes worms in their guts go crazy and multiply.
The best natural treatment – and I don’t know how it works, but it does – is to put dolomite in their feed or water each day. They only need about an eighth of a cup each. Some people swear by apple cider vinegar in their water, but if you don’t make your own, that can be very expensive. (Wouldn’t it be fun to make?)
One very good thing about goats is that the chooks love the milk and the high protein makes them lay very well. We tried them with kefir, but they still come running for fresh milk. It might be a good protein source for chook food if ever the world goes bust. (I wouldn’t keep chooks though in that situation)
Snakes come running for milk too.
Edit: I just remembered too; food grade diatomaceous earth is an excellent anthelmintic….be sure not to use pool grade.
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Fey wrote: Edit: I just remembered too; food grade diatomaceous earth is an excellent anthelmintic….be sure not to use pool grade.
Ah, I was going to drop that in there too! The action of the dolomite and DE is the sharp edges of the mineral. It cuts and slices its way through the gut and the parasites have such weak exteriors that they are killed by this action.
Artemisia species and Black Walnut hulls are good debuggers as well. Not sure if you have access to any of those.
Chook? Oh, you mean CHICKEN! Do you have comfrey growing for them? I believe it is a good source of protein for them as well.
SNAKES and milk? We have a snake that is called a Milk Snake here in the states. It got that name because it was routinely found in and around the milking areas. Turns out it was NOT after the milk, but the MICE that really liked being in those areas. Might do some observing on this.
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IdahoHerbalist wrote:
Artemisia species and Black Walnut hulls are good debuggers as well. Not sure if you have access to any of those.
Chook? Oh, you mean CHICKEN! Do you have comfrey growing for them? I believe it is a good source of protein for them as well.
SNAKES and milk?
I’ve got two types of artemisia growing but the goats will rarely touch it. Black Walnut? I did, but the goats ate it :LOL: :crying:
The Comfrey thrives here. It’s one of those plants that a lot of chook breeders grow just to keep their stock in good nick.
We have King Brown, Eastern Brown, Red Belly Black, Taipan, Death Adder, Tiger, and carpet snakes here. It’s the Eastern Brown and Red Belly Black snakes that go after the milk the most. We’ve been told the Death Adders are here but we haven’t seen one. They are little and deadly and kill quite fast. The Browns and Tiger snakes are vicious! And the Browns are the most deadly!
Chicken? oh, you mean CHOOK! :flapper:
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Diatomaceous earth is also good for killing insects on plants. It works the same way it does on the worms, by scratching the wax on their exoskeleton so that they die of dehydration.
We have goats too. Nobody milking right now though…just free loaders.
Doc
Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.
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It’s good to sprinkle around the shade house for snails and slugs….white ash from a fire is good for that too. Oh dear, here I go again, white ash is wonderful to put around bee hives to stop ants from getting into hives. (I had to put that in while I thought of it)
What sort of goats do you have Doc? We had Alpines and Nubians for years but they really didn’t like the green, wet climate when we moved here. How much land do you have? Any sheep? Cattle? We gave away our sheep because we couldn’t get on top of the dingo problem. I miss spinning the wool.
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Very restricted 🙁 they brought in gun laws with the Port Arthur shooting. Pass the rules and you can have a gun licence for life. We had two acres back then with a fox problem. We got our licence. Next thing they say is the licence is good for only five years. Then it became a photo licence. Then it went to, you have to have forty acres or a letter from someone allowing you to shoot on their land.
We’ve only got eight acres (and we use five council acres too) but because we are surrounded by farms that are hundreds of acres, and we have livestock, we got special permission from the Federal police to keep our rifle licences.
There is another way; a person just has to be a member of the Australian Sporting Shooters Club. (We found this out only last year)
Every now and then, the police turn up to inspect our gun cabinet. A bit inconvenient, but our local police are always friendly and we know they don’t like the gun laws either.
We’re sitting ducks when things go bust in the world and someone wants to take us out. Blow guns are illegal as well as sling shots with wrist braces. We’re really good archers (oh yeah, crossbows are illegal 🙄 ) my sister is getting brainwashed; she believes hunting knives should be illegal too. Most of the Australian population are city slickers and can’t see the need for rifles.
If I were you guys, I’d hang on to your gun rights with a tight fist. It starts out benign but once they have a simple law in place, it can be amended any way they please.
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Fey wrote:
What sort of goats do you have Doc? We had Alpines and Nubians for years but they really didn’t like the green, wet climate when we moved here. How much land do you have? Any sheep? Cattle? We gave away our sheep because we couldn’t get on top of the dingo problem. I miss spinning the wool.No sheep or cows. We have an acre dedicated to the goats. Right now I have an alpine and a saanan. Last year they got out and ate my gingko tree. Now they are smarter and harder to keep in.
🙁 I told them if they got the itch to see if any of my other medicinal plants were edible, I’d be finding out if goats are edible!
Doc
Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.
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Poor goaties. Mean Doc. 🙂 sometimes even electric fences won’t keep them in. Are they boys or girls or its?
(I’m only writing this next bit for people who might be thinking of getting goats or sheep. I’d like to know why it happens though Doc)
There’s one thing we noticed with both sheep and goats, if they aren’t allowed to have babies for a couple of years then they can never get pregnant again. When we first had goats, we thought we were doing the right thing and letting the girls have a rest. A goat breeder explained the folly of our ways. We tried it with one of our sheep….Ewelene…she had one baby one year, twins the next, let her go two years and she didn’t kid ever again. (She went to 16 years old)
Is your Gingko a boy or a girl? There’s a female tree in town tucked away in a corner of a park, and the fruit reeks. I had a little taste and thought it tasted ok. Then I felt very strange, looked it up, and the fruit is NOT to be eaten. The kernel inside is eaten sparingly though. What I thought was very strange about Gingkos was when the leaves are picked for making medicine. You’d think it would be when they’re lush and green, wouldn’t you? Picking the leaves when they begin to turn yellow doesn’t seem right.
Toowoomba has hundreds of Gingkos. Some of the streets are lined with them. They grow reasonably easy from cuttings (I got 3 females going that way) but they come up from seed so easily and then it’s just a matter of grafting a boy bud onto the seedling. Personally, I like the girl trees.
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Fey wrote: Poor goaties. Mean Doc.
🙂 sometimes even electric fences won’t keep them in. Are they boys or girls or its?(I’m only writing this next bit for people who might be thinking of getting goats or sheep. I’d like to know why it happens though Doc)
There’s one thing we noticed with both sheep and goats, if they aren’t allowed to have babies for a couple of years then they can never get pregnant again. When we first had goats, we thought we were doing the right thing and letting the girls have a rest. A goat breeder explained the folly of our ways. We tried it with one of our sheep….Ewelene…she had one baby one year, twins the next, let her go two years and she didn’t kid ever again. (She went to 16 years old)
Is your Gingko a boy or a girl? There’s a female tree in town tucked away in a corner of a park, and the fruit reeks. I had a little taste and thought it tasted ok. Then I felt very strange, looked it up, and the fruit is NOT to be eaten. The kernel inside is eaten sparingly though. What I thought was very strange about Gingkos was when the leaves are picked for making medicine. You’d think it would be when they’re lush and green, wouldn’t you? Picking the leaves when they begin to turn yellow doesn’t seem right.
Toowoomba has hundreds of Gingkos. Some of the streets are lined with them. They grow reasonably easy from cuttings (I got 3 females going that way) but they come up from seed so easily and then it’s just a matter of grafting a boy bud onto the seedling. Personally, I like the girl trees.
My goats are girls. I think they want to be nuns. Had a boy goat in with them all sumer and they hardly talked to him.
:irked: Yeah, pick the gingko leaves when they start to turn color in the fall. That’s when the flavanoid content is highest.
I’ve only ever seen boy gingko trees. I think I actually heard that the girls are against the law in the city limits because they’re so stinky.
Doc
Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.
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Maybe the boy wasn’t doing his job. Usually it’s just the smell of the buck that brings the girls on. We had a buck once that would carry on getting the girls worked up but at the same time he’d be making “yep, yep, yep” noises. It was a real laugh to hear him. He sounded so enthusiastic. Another Nubian girl would scream like someone getting murdered when she was in season. I’m glad most of them are content with just a tail wag.
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Doc, most dairy goat breeds are only fertile in the fall/early winter.
They might have gotten into your medicinals because they need something in them. I grow rhubarb, and I KNOW the leaves are poison, but sometimes the goats and chickens eat the leaves. Raspberries are growing a couple feet away and they love it, sometimes they want the rhubarb. They only get a mouthful before I pull them away.
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Elizabeth wrote: Doc, most dairy goat breeds are only fertile in the fall/early winter.
They might have gotten into your medicinals because they need something in them. I grow rhubarb, and I KNOW the leaves are poison, but sometimes the goats and chickens eat the leaves. Raspberries are growing a couple feet away and they love it, sometimes they want the rhubarb. They only get a mouthful before I pull them away.
I know. I was just hoping.
Doc
Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.
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