June Topic: Copper

 If your goats look like this:

 

Or this:

Or this: 

 

Then they are probably copper deficient. On the adult goats in these pictures, you can see that their hair is very long and bushy. It's also faded and looks like "sun bleaching". Rough, faded hair is a clear sign of a copper deficiency. If your goats haven't shedded yet, then they may need some added copper to help give them a boost. Another big sign of copper deficiency is if the goat's tail tip is bald. If the hair separates at the end of the tail into a "fish tail" look, then copper is definitely needed.

Classic "fish tail" copper deficiency

 

Besides the bad hair, copper is extremely important for parasite resistance in goats. Copper deficient goats have been proven to be less able to fight off parasite infestation and more prone to ailments caused by parasitism. If your goats look scruffy and you can't seem to get ahead of the parasites, then look towards copper supplementation as a key to their health.  

 Most goats in the North Country are naturally copper deficient, in my experience. Dietary copper is not available in the hay or pasture in large enough quantities for goats. Thus copper must be added to the diet. A good loose mineral blend made specifically for goats is a good start. It will help with all deficiencies, not just copper. Look for loose minerals that contain at least 1500ppm of copper. Sweetlix Meatmaker 16:8 is a good choice. Ward Lumber does stock this mineral blend. Most other feed stores can special order it. 

Be sure to use a loose mineral blend to supplement your goats. Mineral blocks, salt licks, and even the softer goat blocks are not ideal. They are too hard for a goat's small mouth to get enough from and they either use salt or molasses as a binding agent to help form the block. Too much salt or molasses is not good in the diet. Loose goat minerals are all that is needed. Don't have salt licks or other mineral sources out at the same time as your loose minerals because goats will tend to eat those tastier options and ignore the more healthy (and less tasty) loose minerals. 

Even with constant access to a high copper mineral blend, goats still need added copper supplementation in the North Country. The easiest and safest way to supplement copper is to use Copasure goat boluses. These can be found online at Jeffer's Livestock Supply. They are are gel capsules full of tiny copper rods. When the goat swallows the bolus, it will sit in their rumen and slowly dissolve. The copper rods are broken down over time and slowly absorbed into the blood stream. Be sure to use the smaller goat-sized Copasure and not the large cow-size. You can buy the cow-size but you will have to break the boluses apart and resize the dose for goats. It is recommend to give goats 1 gram of copper per 20 lbs of goat. Copasure comes in 2 gram or 4 gram sizes. Use whatever combination that will add up to 1 gram/20 lbs. Start bolusing your goats at 6 months old and repeat this dose every 6 months.

Some tips for bolusing: 

• Dose the goat with copper when their stomach is empty. Preferably 6 hours after feed removal. This will maximize the possibility of the bolus staying in the rumen where it can be absorbed and not being flushed out of the system. 
• Use a bolus or balling gun to shove the bolus down the goat's throat. You want them to swallow each capsule without chewing it. Chewing the copper will not hurt the goat but it will increase the likelihood that the copper is not fully absorbed. 
• Follow the copper boluses with a dose of Vitamin A, D, E gel, or Selenium/Vitamin E gel or Probios gel. The gel will adhere to the capsule and cause it to settle in the bottom of the rumen for slow absorption. 
• Don't feed the goat for at least 3 hours after dosing. Feeding them immediately will increase the chance that the boluses will be flushed out of the rumen by the food, thus not absorbed at all.

*I got the first three pictures off of the local Craigslist. I apologize if these are your goats. You might want to look into supplementing them with copper because they look very deficient.*

Product Review: Chaffhaye

*I don't get anything from Chaffhaye for this review* - Rose Bartiss

As you are all hopefully aware, a healthy goat diet must include some form of alfalfa. Alfalfa is naturally high in calcium. Goats have very high calcium demands in order to produce kids, milk, and meat. Goat milk contains more calcium than cow milk, so added dietary calcium is essential to replace the calcium that leaves their bodies through their udders. Over time, a goat's body becomes naturally deficient in calcium as the demands of kid and milk production take a toll. Older goats must have added calcium in order to maintain good bone density and blood calcium levels.

Unfortunately in the Adirondacks, baled alfalfa hay is very hard to find or extremely expensive. Alternatives to alfalfa hay have to be used in order to keep goats healthy. For years I had used alfalfa pellets for my calcium supplements. I fed my goats a diet of 1 cup of grain and three cups of alfalfa pellets twice a day per goat. The milking goats got more alfalfa pellets while on the milk stand. I chose alfalfa pellets because they were easily available at all feed stores and not very expensive.

Last year I learned about a new product called Chaffhaye. It's a bagged, chopped, alfalfa silage product. Being a silage product, it is slightly fermented and contains healthy yeasts. I started feeding my goats 2 lbs of Chaffhaye per day last fall. At first the goats didn't like it at all. For the first two weeks they didn't eat very much of it. After a few weeks they developed a taste for it and now they trample me over for their daily Chaffhaye ration. This trampling was a good thing because I could put out bowls of Chaffhaye in the pasture and they would run from the barn straight to the pasture without any issues. I no longer had to play "goat round-up" every morning to get the goats out in the pasture.

After six months of being on Chaffhaye, I can say I am very impressed with the product. I had two pregnant goats on the Chaffhaye for the winter. They have since kidded and are now in lactation. Both goats looked great during their pregnancies and both goats look fantastic right now. Anyone who has milking goats knows how hard it can be to keep a freshly kidded and now lactating goat in good condition through the stress of production. In year's past my Alpine, Lucy, has always lost a great deal of conditioning during lactation. She produces a gallon of milk a day, which takes a lot out of her. Usually I have to wait until the fall when her lactation slows down in order to start putting any weight on her and keeping it there. This year has been different. Lucy is mid-lactation and looks fantastic! She has maintained her condition much better this year and the only thing I have changed is she now gets 2 lbs. of Chaffhaye a day instead of alfalfa pellets.

Chaffhaye has an advantage over alfalfa pellets in the fact that it is a coarsely chopped alfalfa. It is very fibrous and adds to the digestive fiber for the goat. Fiber is important for goats because their rumens are designed to digest long fiber. The good bacteria in the rumen are healthiest when they have lots of fiber to digest. Alfalfa pellets do not contain any long fiber. A goat eating Chaffhaye has more fiber to digest for a longer amount of time. This is a good thing for their digestive systems.

Chaffhaye is also better than pellets because it is fresher since it is a wet fermented silage. Pellets are dehydrated and powdered alfalfa. The process of drying, powdering and compressing the pellets causes a major loss in nutrients. Chaffhaye is bagged directly in the field so nutrient loss from the field to your farm is minimal.

I am super pleased with my herd's condition after using Chaffhaye for 6 months. I plan to continue to use it as my calcium supplement. 

Chaffhaye is available in 50 lbs bags from Ward Lumber in Jay or Malone for $17.99 per bag.

Goat Night was Great!

The second Goat Night at Ward Lumber was very successful. Rose Bartiss gave a presentation on "Breeding, Kidding, and Milking". She brought four of her kid goats from this spring -- two Boers and two Alpine/Oberhaslis -- to visit with the crowd. There was free pizza (complete with goat cheese on it!).

If you didn't make it to Goat Night but want a copy of the presentation, please contact Rose Bartiss at rosesgoats(at)gmail.com.

ADK Goat Club Next Event: Goat Night!

The next ADK Goat Club event will be Goat Night: Part 2 at Ward Lumber in Jay, NY at 6:30pm on Tuesday, June 4, 2013. Rose Bartiss will present a lecture on breeding, kidding, and milking. There will be free pizza and refreshments. To register for Goat Night, go to www.wardlumber.com.