About bottle feeding animals

[Keren]

Seeing as how this has been brought up a few times recently, I will repeat it again, IMO if you raise a bottle baby correctly you cannot tell the difference between it and dam raised animals.

Here's a challenge for you:

All of these goats are the same age (about 4 wks difference in them, so close enough), they are roughly 13 - 14 mths old.

Which one was raised on the bottle, completely from day 1 till weaning?

#1

#2 and #3

#4

#5

 

[Loch Valley Fold]

Keren they are all very nice I like pics 1 & 5 & they are the ones that get my attention BUT if I had to choose than it would be goat #2 - in the harness.


Jane

 

[angie1]

I am not even going to try to pick. I have raised many bottle babies and have had cow/calf pairs as well and I KNOW what you are saying is so.

ps ~ very nice goats by the way. Always your goats look top notch!

 

[ga. prime]

#4

 

[mitch16]

3 or 1 maybe

Mitch

 

[grannysoo]

Who cares? They are all some GREAT looking goats! :nod:

 

[backhoeboogie]

All of them?

Most folks with bottle baby problems simply are not familiar with the process.

How many times do we read about calves not taking a bottle? Get an old towel and rub that calf vigorously as if you were momma cow licking it and watch what happens.

 

[Limomike]

I say #4 ..just because of the way it is looking up, acting like it wants another bottle! :lol: :lol2:

 

[angie1]

OK, I will guess Keren.
I would say 2 or 3 ~ probably 3.

 

[HOSS]

I'm gonna say 4 or 5 since both have expressions of goats that have been people handled. They almost look glad to see a human even though that human has some funny looking little box held up to his face that flashes a bright light while the human says "say cheese".

 

[ga. prime]

I say #4 ..just because of the way it is looking up, acting like it wants another bottle! :lol: :lol2:

Same way I was thinking.

 

[Keren]

Okay, I'll admit it was a bit of a trick question. All except #1 were bottle raised. 2 and 3 are brothers - mum was euthanased after rupturing uterus and bowel during delivery. 4 and 5 are not related, were both rejected by their less-than-brilliant mothers.

I was just trying to make the point that none of these bottle feds grew out any different to the dam raised goat in picture 1.

The look on 4's face - it was 'I know you need this gate open so you can yard us, but you're not really gonna make me get up, are you? I'm so comfy here'

 

[Limomike]

Keren,
You should be a teacher.

 

[jfranseen]

My dad milks 250 of them and bottle feeds everyone of the kids. So no offense but they all look annoying and stinky to me.

 

[Keren]

My dad milks 250 of them and bottle feeds everyone of the kids. So no offense but they all look annoying and stinky to me.

Considering your father has a significant number of goats, you should know that only intact males stink ... and none of these are intact males ...

 

[jfranseen]

Yes the bucks stink the worst, but to me all goats have a certain odor to them. Not like cattle or hogs it is just different. By the way I was looking through a goat semen catalog. Some of the Boer goat semen is very high in price. Do you use artificial insemination on your goats. My cousins farm does.

 

[Keren]

Boers in general are high $ at the moment in Australia, I cant say about US.

FB does start at $500, it is not unusual to pay $2000 for them. FB bucks start at $800. Xbred does with white heads make $160 and brown head xbreds make $250.

I do some AI, I have some straws of semen from Farmworld Warlord (he was exported from Australia to Brazil, for $40 000, he died a few months ago); when I bought them they were $250/straw, I imagine the price has now gone through the roof. Funnily enough when I'm using the Warlord semen I split the straws, put 1/2 a straw in each goat

 

[jfranseen]

That is some expensive semen. Are all of your goats for meat production? My dad breed alpines and sanines (Spelling?). My cousin onyl breeds alpines. He has been in the business longer and has a registered herd. He shows quite a bit. My dad has only grade animals and buys registered bucks. We used to milk cows when I was a kid. After having his hip replaced a couple of times he sold the cows. Goats are a little easier on the body than cows.

 

[Keren]

We have a mix of FB registered Boers and crossbred high percentage boers. Have about 300+ does at the moment, 50% would be the FB reg'd, 50% xbred. We serve a number of markets but our main market is wethers for domestic consumption, we turn off about 10 - 12 lot fed wethers at 5 - 8 mths per week, trying to produce a 12 - 14kg carcase. Some lesser markets that we also access are the seedstock market (FB does and bucks) both within Australia and also to a large extent export to Malaysia, local plus export to Malaysia crossbred seedstock does as well, and also the export meat market mainly to the US, which takes goats of all ages/size over a 10kg carcase, but mainly they just get cull does and bucks (sorry, we send our crappy meat to you).

I also have 50 + angoras, main market there is selling fleeces privately to handspinners, full fleece skins, with some reg'd seedstock sold, and of course some meat production from young wethers as well as cull bucks and does.

Also a handful of reg'd dairy does (2 saanen, 1 british alpine, few Toggies on the way) mainly for milk for poddies, milk for myself, also try to sell some seedstock.

I show all three types as well.

Dairy goats I find easier on the body than cattle, but Boers are probably rougher than our cows

 

[msscamp]

Yes the bucks stink the worst, but to me all goats have a certain odor to them.

Maybe it's a psychological(sp?) thing, or perhaps a feed thing? My bucks stink to high heaven, but my does don't have any kind of smell at all.