Love -R- Goats Farm breeding ADGA LaMancha & Nubian dairy goats 







 

Herd Status
Breeds We Have
CAE Prevention / Kid Personalities
De-Worming Methods
De-Licing Prevention
Feed
Housing
Kid Care
Medicine
Milking
Vaccines
Visitors
Scrapies Program
Tempermant
Goat Myths
Things you should know




















We maintain a semi-closed herd; which means only goats from tested herds are brought in.
Goats are not brought in from just anywhere. Outside breedings are not available unless you
have a clean herd; meaning no CAE or CL.




















































Visitors:

If you would like to see the goats in person before placing a deposit, visitors are 
welcome. You must call first to set up a date and time! Setting up a date and time is a 
must. Things are extremly busy here, and we do maintain a locked gate. 



































Scrapies:

Love -R- Goats farm is enrolled in the Scrapie program. However, we do not put the tags in
our goats ears. We can give you a scrapies tag for any goat you buy however or if you wish
it can be placed in their ear. 







































De-Worming:

We do our own fecal tests to check for worms and de-worm when needed with either
Valbazen, Ivomec or Synanthic. It depends on the type of worm that we are dealing
with and the age of the goats. Cydectin is rarely ever used. UT (University , TN)
has even told people to never use Cydectin on kids under six months of age. Valbazen 
should never be used on pregnant does during a certain stage of pregnancy (It can cause 
abortions and deformities in the kids if it does not abort them). Synanthic is our 
de-wormer of choice with Ivomec as second choice. Keep in mind I do our own fecals so I
know what works for us and what doesn't.

Goats need a chemical de-wormer. If you trust herbal de-wormer then do fecals OFTEN
If you purchase a goat; no matter where from, a good practice is to have a fecal done and
de-worm accordingly. Be sure to tell your vet you want to know the exact egg count the
fecal shows and what type parasite. A well known herd had several goats nearly die due to using herbal wormer.

To check for anemia it is best to look in there lower eyelid the gums are not as accurate. 
Pale pink or white eyelids indicate you have a very bad anemia problem. For your 
goats sake please take a fecal sample to a vet if you suspect your goat has worms!

Below is the Famacha chart it tells the degree of Anemia.





























De-Licing: 

Our goats are de-liced with Cylence to prevent lice. Yes, goats can and do get lice, that is why
we find it is best to always use prevention. Cylence works great and we use it two  
to three times a year as a prevention method. The dose we use is 1cc per 25 lbs dripped
down there back. 



































Vaccines:

We give CD&T (Tetanus and Enterotoxemia) vaccines to all our does one month before they are
due to kid! BoSe (Selenium and Vitamin E) is given when needed. 

Kids are given a CD&T shot at 3-4 weeks of age and another 3 weeks later. After that goats 
need a yearly CD&T booster shot. We use Bar-Vac CD&T shots on all of our goats.
Vaccinations are very important to give they could very well mean the life or death of your
goat. 





































CAE Prevention/Kid Personalities: 

All of our kids are bottle raised, none are left with there dam. Kids are removed from
their damn the moment they are born. They are raised like this for CAE prevention and because we
prefer to raise our kids this way so they will be friendly. Most dam raised goats we
have had expieriance with tend to be extremly wild and more likeyly to have a hateful nature towards
other goats. Goats that have been bottle raised are much easier to handle and are very
sweet natured with people. They are given pasturised colostrum by bottle within 30 mins. 
of birth; we never let them nurse it from the doe. Even if a doe is cae negative just a few
mins. with there dam can affect the kids personality and our main reason for bottle raising
is to have friendly kids! Bottle fed kids are just as sweet as a puppy.








































































































Medicines:

We keep the following medicines on hand to use if needed: Excenel , Nuflor , 
NFZ Puffer , Thiamine , Vitamin B , CMPK , Banimine , C&D Antitoxin ,
Electrolites , Probios , Mineral Oil , Milk Of Magnesia , Albon , Sulmet ,
Kaolin , Kaopectate , Iron supplement , Today , Tommorrow , Dimethox 40% ,
Nutri Drench , BoSe etc... etc... you get the picture our medicine cabinet is 
stocked with just about everything just in case we ever need it! It is much better
to be safe than sorry!

The one thing we NEVER use is LA-200 or similiar ( Anything with 
oxytetracycline in it). That is the worst thing you could buy if you have
a sick goat even vets in our area say it is no better than a drink of 
water and they are correct... We use good antibiotics if they are needed. 
































Feed:

Our goats are given grain on a daily basis. Baking soda (Does only) , hay &  
UltraLyx goat vitamin/mineral is provided free of choice to all goats. We mix 
our own feed which consists of: Alfalfa pellets , Oats/cracked corn mixture , Country Acres 
pelleted feed , Beet Pulp , Calf Manna and black oil sunflower seeds.

Bucks get strictly Country Acres medicated goat feed for urinary calculi 
prevention. It has ammoniom chloride in it for there urinary tract. Depending
on there age and size our goats get 2-4 lbs of grain a day (If you look on
Country Acres feed designed for goats it states to feed 1.64 lbs per 50 lbs.
I highly recomend using the medicated Country Acres for your kids , bucks and
wethers). Make sure your minerals have a 2 to 1 calcium/phosphorus ratio. It is
very important to have a balanced mineral, especially for wethers and bucks. And
imbalance of phosphorus and calcium can cause the bucks to develop urinary problems. 

Doe kids get extra calf manna added to there ration to insure they grow proper & 
get everything they need to make healthy & productive adults. All of our goats
get cookies , bread , cereal , horse cookies etc... etc... for treats. Treats
are not given everyday but , are given at least once a week in there grain
ration or just handed out to each individual. They love all sorts of "human
food" and are very spoiled!! The milkers get treats every day on the milk 
stand as an added bonus for them & also extra calf manna added to there
grain. If you are milking a goat she must be fed very well to keep her in
good condition and we feel they should also have some extras given to them. 

Kids are given grain twice a day and adults are given grain once a day. A doe that
is being milked twice a day recieves grain at each milking. 


































Housing:

Our bucks are kept in separate pens from our does. We do not allow them to run 
together! Buck kids are seperated at 5-6 weeks, or earlier, from the doe kids. A buck 
can and will breed young so it is a must to seperate them . Our grown bucks are 
also always housed seperately from the does. All of our does are taken to a 
breeding pen and the buck of choice brought in when it is time for them to be bred.
We do not ever leave the adult bucks and does together.

Kids are also housed in seperate areas from the adults. They are not with the
adults until around the time they reach one year of age. Buck kids are never
placed with adult bucks! Kids are housed in seperate age groups. 































Tempermant:

We bottle raise all of our kids. When we tried dam raising the kids
would run right with there dam and they never wanted petted no matter how
much attention they were shown. In our opinion, it isn't worth taking the
time to raise and breed goats with a horrible personality. Who wants to chase
down a goat simply to de-worm or vaccinate it? We certainly do not.









































Breeds:

We only raise Purebred LaMancha and Nubian's.







































Milking:

We do own a milking machine and milk every goat here. When you buy an adult
doe from us it will be use to being milked as we do not leave any of 
our kids with there moms. All of the moms are milked then it is pasturized and
fed to the kids by bottle. We remove kids at birth. Pasturized colostrum is first
fed to the kids we milk it out and give it by bottle just like the milk. A dual 
pasturizer is used on all milk that is fed to our kids.














































Kids: 

Our kids are given hay , grain and water free choice by a week
of age. We also mix Calf Manna into there grain. We want 
our kids to grow up healthy and strong. If a kid is not given the correct
nutrients as a baby it will grow into an unhealthy adult. All of our 
kids are also bottle raised given prevention for coccidios.

The kids are fed bottles 3-4 times a day there first few days then they
are on two bottles a day until 2 months of age. 









































Goat Myths/Facts

Some things I have heard or been asked before on raising kids
by bottle , goat milk etc...


#1 Do kids raised on bottle learn to eat feed and drink water on
there own without a mom to show them how?

Answer: Yes of course!!! We have never had trouble with any of our
kids and there has been over 200 kids raised on bottle here. People
who think that just because there bottle raised they do not learn
to eat and drink on there own don't know very much about a goat.



#2 Do kids raised on bottle learn to eat trees and hay on there on
without a mom showing them how?

Answer: Yes again. Do not listen to old "wives tales" like this
whom ever started them did not know there facts...



#3 Do kids raised on bottle grow slower?

Answer: No they do not in fact I saw the opposite to be true.
Kids raised on there moms seem to be slower at growing. We dam
raised many years ago and our kids who are raised on our feeding
program and on bottle grow twice as big as the dam raised ones. 
Once again this is another old wives tale just like the above
two myths are. Kids should be properly fed no matter how they 
are raised be it on a dam or bottle for them to grow up into 
healthy adults. If you bottle raise goats and have to use milk
replacer go with Sav-A-Kid or Purina DO NOT use Manna Pro 
Unimilk I have heard from many people they scour terrible
on that & that they don't seem to grow as good. Also do not
take a kid who has been bottle raised & put it directly in with
adult does or they will not grow good because kids will not get
enough to eat the adults will push them away.


#4 Do you use the goat milk for yourself? Does it taste 
different?

Answer: Yes we do. We know how our goats are took care of and 
what they are fed. Some people act like goats milk is nasty
but , it is not & I never have figured out why they think that. 
Goats milk is not much different than fresh cow's milk it 
has no unpleasant tastes or odors if your milk is handled 
right and your does are fed good. Most of the Mexican cheese
dip at restuarants is made from goat milk when some people
find this out they refuse to eat it which IMO is crazy when
these same people drink cows milk. Have you ever been to a
cattle dairy? Milk just doesn't magically appear in the jugs
& cow pastures stay much nastier than goat pastures usually do.
Also if you knew the real truth of what tests they do and do
not do on cattle dairies you would think twice about which is
the cleanest... Don't judge goat milk before trying it and
don't go by what the store bought types taste like there nothing
at all like fresh goat milk.



#5 Do kids from triplets turn out smaller than single kids?

Answer: Kids from twins , triplets or more grow just as well
as single kids. Do not let anyone tell you they don't. In our
area I have heard many times a single kid will grow better than
twins or more. We have found that not to be true for example
Lady Natika was the smallest doeling of triplets from Lady
Gray in 2005. She weighed only 4 1/2 lbs & was the smallest
dairy goat kid we have ever have. At 12 months old Natika
weighed 120lbs; however, you must feed your goat a good quality
grain & hay for them to reach there full potential no matter
there breed or litter size.

#6 Do goats have to have babies to make milk?

Answer: To me, this is a nobrainer question. I cannot believe the amount
of times it has been asked! Just like a human, yes, they have to first have
babies before they make milk. 
 



More facts/myths coming soon as I get a chance...









































Things you should know when buying a goat...

Be careful where you get your advice/information from. If you
frequent goat message boards be careful what you trust. There
are some good boards out there & some that are not. Do not
take one person's advice do your research buy goat books. I 
highly advide buying these books: Goat Medicine , Goat Keepers
Veternairy Handbook , Storey's Guide to raising dairy goats &
Goat Health Handbook. 

NEVER allow your goats to eat plants such as: cherry trees , peach
trees , plum trees , mountain laurel , poke plant , nightshades ,
rhoderdendrum , etc... Check out GoatWorld.com for an extensive list
of posion plants. 

Keep plenty of fresh water out for your goats & clean there water 
troughs often esp. in the summertime!

Be sure your goats have a shelter to get in to protect them from
rain , severe heat , cold weather , etc...

NEVER feed your goats moldy hay or feed as it can kill them.

If you currently have goats & buy an outside one do not put it
straight in with yours. Give them a few days to adjust to there
new home so they will have only minimum stress.

If you buy a kid & put it in with adult goats the kid will not 
get enough to eat & will never grow to it's full potential unless
at feeding time you stay there & make certain they get to eat &
that the adults don't run it away.  

More coming soon...