September Topic: Are they stunted?

By September, most of you are evaluating your spring kids for their growth and breeding potential. When evaluating your kids, it’s important to be able to determine if their growth is on track with where they should be. Most full-sized dairy breed kids (Saanen, Lamancha, Nubian, Oberhasli, Toggenburg, and Alpine) should put on about 10 lbs of body weight per month in their first 8 months. If not gaining 10 lbs per month, they should at least be consistently gaining weight each month. Watch out if they stop gaining weight or if they lose weight.  If your kids are not hitting their growth curve, then it’s time to look at them closely and determine why they are stunted.

1.       Is it their genetics? I hesitate to blame genetics for poor growth unless the kid comes from a miniature breed or combination of full-sized and mini-breeds. It is true that some breeds grow slower and are generally smaller than others but blaming genetics can cause you to overlook obvious management and health issues. Be very cautious of buying "mini" goats from people if they can not directly point to the goat's ancestor who came from an actual miniature breed (Nigerian Dwarf or African Pygmy). These goats are probably just stunted and won't ever live up to their full production potential.

2.       Do they have parasites? This is the number one reason why kids can be stunted. The digestive system of the kid goat is not mature enough to handle repeated onslaughts of damage done by internal parasites. The two main culprits of kid stunting are coccidiosis and tapeworms.

Coccidia are a single-celled parasite that naturally occurs in the soil. Most species have their own type of coccidia and it can’t spread between species. Most adult goats are immune to coccidia infestations and do not suffer from coccidiosis unless stressed or ill for other reasons. Kid goats, however, are EXTREMELY prone to damage by coccidia. The coccidia parasite has a three-week life cycle (21 days). It usually infects the kids at birth when they are exposed to the soil and bedding in the barn. It travels into their intestines and begins its reproduction and feeding cycle. Three weeks later the kid may have smelly, brown diarrhea due to the coccidia bursting from the cells of the intestinal lining in order to spread to other goats. This bursting and subsequent diarrhea is called “coccidiosis” because the kid is sick from coccidia infestation. Once the kid has diarrhea, the damage to the intestinal lining is already done and it is too late. The kid will always be prone to malnutrition and will be stunted. The symptoms of coccidiosis are brown, smelly diarrhea between 22 and 28 days old, followed by lethargy, anorexia and death. Coccidia show up very easily on a fecal sample so it is highly recommended to have a fecal sample done if you suspect coccidiosis.

It is very important to prevent coccidiosis by putting your kids on a preventative treatment plan. The best way to do this is to treat all of your kids at exactly 21 days old with a 5-day round of either Di-Methox, Sulmet, or Corid. All three of these broad-spectrum antibiotics will kill the adult forms of coccidia and stop the reproduction cycle. Repeat this treatment every 21 days until the kids are 4 months old or more in order to keep coccidiosis from stunting your kids. Be sure to start on exactly day 21 because the coccidia will be in the adult phase and waiting even until day 22 can cause intestinal damage.

Be very wary of relying on grain blends that contain Rumensin or Decoquinate for coccidiosis prevention. Most kids are not eating enough grain at 21 days old for this to have a preventative effect. Once the kids are older and consuming grain at a steady pace, then these preventative treatments are helpful.

The second parasite that causes stunting in kids is the tapeworm. Like coccidia, most adult goats are somewhat immune to tapeworm damage. Kids rarely die from tapeworm infection but they can be stunted by the worms robbing nutrients from them. Tapeworms not only cause damage to the goat’s growth, but they cause damage to your pocket-book. Why would you spend so much money on goat feed just to feed the worms and not the goats? The symptoms of tapeworm infection are slow growth, pot-bellies (not caused by bloat or fatness), rough hair, tapeworm segments found in feces, and tapeworm eggs found in fecal samples under a microscope.

Tapeworms should also be preventatively treated for in you kid goats. Starting at 28 days old, give each kid a dose of Valbazen dewormer or Safeguard dewormer. Both of these medicines are effective against tapeworms. Repeat the deworming every 28 days until the kids are 4 months old or older.

3.       Do baby goats need minerals? YES! Baby goats should be put on the same mineral supplementation schedule as your adult goats. This should mean that they have loose minerals available at all times, and that they are supplemented with copper boluses and extra selenium at regular intervals. Weaned kids need a supplemental calcium source so they should be fed alfalfa hay, silage, or pellets with their grain ration. Alfalfa is high in calcium and essential for keeping goats healthy.

4.       Are they getting enough milk? Kid goats are fast growing and need to have enough nutrients and calories in their daily diets to accommodate this. Kids are born on a pure milk diet. Their stomachs are designed to digest only milk for the first few weeks. Slowly, they change and are able to digest grain and hay. How do you know your kids are getting enough? If your kids are dam-raised, you should weigh them every week to make sure they are gaining weight consistently. Check mom’s udder daily to make sure that it is producing milk, that the teats are not blocked and the milk is coming out, and that the kids are evenly consuming milk from BOTH sides of the udder. A kid who is getting enough to drink will be energetic, bright-eyed, and gaining weight. 

If you are bottle feeding, then you will know how much milk your kids are getting. Here is a feeding schedule for your full-sized dairy kids:

    Day one- 6 oz. (per feeding) colostrum, every 4 hours.

    Day two- 8 oz. (per feeding) colostrum/whole milk, 4 times a day

    Day three- 10 oz. (per feeding) colostrum/whole milk, 4 times a day

    Day four- 10-12 oz. (per feeding) colostrum/whole milk, 4 times a day.

    For the next week- 12-16 oz. (per feeding) 4 times a day.

    For the next 2 months- 20-32 oz. (per feeding) 3 times a day.

    For the next 1 month- 24-32 oz. (per feeding) 2 times a day.

    10-12 oz. (per feeding) once a day for two weeks.

Be extremely careful when increasing amounts of milk per feeding because baby goats can’t spit up, like human babies, when they drink too much so they will get screaming yellow diarrhea or bloat. It can be fatal to suddenly overfeed a baby goat too much milk.

5.       When do I wean them? Most people recommend weaning between 8-12 weeks of age. Feeding a kid milk after 12 weeks will not generally increase their weight gain. Most people coincide weaning time with the time that their buck kids need to be separated from their doe kids. It is recommended that bucks and does be separated at 10 weeks old and definitely by 12 weeks old. Some bucks are precocious and can be fertile at a very young age. Doe kids can be fertile very young but they are not mature enough to be bred at this time.

Dam-raised kids will not normally self-wean so you should separate mom from kids for at least one month to get the kids to stop nursing.

6.       How much grain do I feed them?  Like I said, kids are fast growing and have high nutrient and calorie demands. Grain helps to give them a boost in both of those categories. Grain and hay should be introduced at 3 days old. Kids won’t be able to digest much of it at this age, but the exposure to it will help them “prime” their digestive tracts for future digestion. The amount of grain offered should be slowly increased to a maximum amount at weaning time. The maximum amount can vary, depending on the type and mix of grain, but most full-sized dairy kids should be eating about 4-8 cups of grain a day. Watch their consumption and lower the amount of grain offered if they are not eating it within 1 hour of feeding time. Be careful not to increase grain too much at once because this can cause sudden bloat and death.

Cornell Goat and Sheep Health Day

Dear Goat and Sheep Enthusiasts,

 

We are having to cancel both Caprine Outing (scheduled for September) and the Cornell Sheep and Goat Symposium (scheduled for November) this year.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause folks.

 

The good news is that we (the Cornell Department of Animal Science) will be hosting a Goat and Sheep Health Day on the same weekend that Caprine Outing was scheduled to take place.  The event will take place primarily on Saturday, September 21^st, 2013 at Morrison Hall and the Livestock Pavilion on the Cornell University Campus in Ithaca, New York. 

 

We will also have some activities on Friday evening, September 20^th, 2013 such as 1) a cheese making workshop taught by Holly Phillips of Straitgate Farm, 2) Goat/Sheep Bowl led by Jo Ellen Roehrig,  and 3) “Basic Health Management for Goats and Sheep” taught by Dr. Michael Thonney.

 

Saturday’s activities will include tracks geared towards 1) the 12 yrs. old and under crowd, 2) the teen crowd, and 3) adults. All youth 16 years and younger must be accompanied by adults.  Adults can opt to attend the youth workshops with their children or attend the adult activities. We will also have a recreational goat track ( Mark and Janet Collier) with limited space where youth can make a pack saddle frame and learn about managing and handling pack goats, etc.  There will also be a workshop on pack goats in the adult track.

 

The 12 and under crowd will get to work on crafts such as leather making, fiber arts - felt making, dyeing, etc., cooking with lamb and goat (fudge making and lamb burgers?), and a hands-on workshop led by Dr. Susan Kerr DVM on making sure your animal and their products are top notch in quality. They will also have hands-on activities on how to tell if your goat is sick, handling lambing and kidding, and management skills such as hoof trimming, eartagging, etc.

 

The teen track will have workshops on evaluating breeding stock animals for show and commercial use, quality assurance (where they will do hands-on necropsies looking for human caused damage- taught be Dr. Susan Kerr, DVM), and on possible careers in livestock health (moderated by Dana Palmer). They and the adults  will have hands-on practicals on dealing with dystocia and weak kids, management skills and emergency health care.  

 

Dr. Mary Smith DVM will lead a field necropsy workshop (space limited) geared primarily at adults and young adults.  She will also teach a lambing and kidding workshop for all ages and a workshop on “Highlights of the International Sheep Veterinary Congress in New Zealand” which is geared towards adults and will focus on innovative programs to control or eradicate specific contagious diseases in sheep and goats. The adult track will also include a sheep and goat parasite workshop series for those adults and older teens wanting to obtain FAMACHA certification. This series will include a lab on fecal worm egg evaluations. There will also be a lecture geared towards adults on “new innovations in goat and sheep parasite control” which will include the preliminary results of our copper oxide wire particle studies as well as the results of other recent research in the U.S.

 

For those of you who want to spend either Friday and/ or Saturday night in the Ithaca area there are some options.  We have blocked rooms at some hotels in Ithaca and Cortland. Prices are relatively high because it is also Homecoming Weekend.  In addition we have rented 4-H Acres in Ithaca, NY for Friday and Saturday night for 4-H families and 4-H clubs.  All adults who stay at the camp must be screened as approved chaperones by their respective counties.  There will be both a girls/women dorm and a boys/men dorm. You will need to provide a cot or air/foam mattress and sleeping bag for each of your participants.  We will provide an extra chaperone of each gender in the event that you are bringing youth that are a different gender than your chaperones. A limited amount of tent camping is also permitted. Again, this facility is limited only to enrolled 4-H families or clubs.

 

I am hoping to send out the schedule and registration form for our September 21^st Cornell Goat and Sheep Day by this Friday, August 23^rd. Some of the workshops will be limited in space and we will be very serious about registration deadlines. We will also be posting it on-line at http://www.sheep.cornell.edu/ , http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/goats/ and http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/4H/goats/ . Stay tuned! 

Upcoming Events

Saturday, August 24, 2013 -- "Truly Wild" wild edibles workshop led by Pat Banker at Heaven Hills Farm in Lake Placid in coordination with the Cornell Cooperative Extension and Franklin County 4H. Take a walk with her and learn about all the late summer edible plants in the Adirondacks. Also learn about which ones are good or bad for our goats. Starts at 1pm. The “Truly Wild” workshop cost will be a one-time $10 per participant fee with a special rate for families not to exceed $30 for the entire 4-part series.  Pre-registration is required. Register by calling the Cornell Cooperative Extension Office, 518-483-7403 or by calling Pat Banker, 518-327-3457.

Saturday, August 31, 2013 -- "Farm 2 Fork Festival" at Riverside Park in Saranac Lake. From 9 am - 2pm. A celebration of local food and local farmers. There will be tasting tables with food prepared from the local farmer's markets, as well as other food vendors. Farm stands and craft vendor booths will be there. Several workshops will go on throughout the day, including one on goats and goat care. Goat milking demos will also be part of the day. Come on down to Saranac Lake for a great day of food and farming fun!! Free to walk around, bring money for the great local food and crafts.

 Saturday, September 28, 2013 -- "Rural Skills and Homesteading Festival" at the Paul Smiths Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC). From 10am - 4pm. Workshops presented throughout the day on everything from mushroom farming to butchering chickens. The Goat Club will be there to do a milking demo at 11:30am. There will be a Farmer's Market and crafter booths. $5 per person or $10 per carload. For more information see : http://www.adirondackvic.org/Adirondack-Rural-Skills-and-Homesteading-Festival-2013.html

Evaluating your dairy kids for their good qualities

Here is a checklist of things to look at when evaluating which dairy kids to keep and breed, and which kids to get rid of. This works for adult goats too. I pulled this off of the “Caprine Conformation Clinic” group on Facebook.

FIRST- depth in the heart girth- when viewed straight on from the side the chest floor should be below the elbows, the deeper the better. Related to this- you should see chest/brisket in front of the point of shoulder & front of the front legs. The elbows should be snug to the barrel.

SECOND- Width in the chest floor- This can be hard on fuzzy babies. Put your hand under their chest from the front- feel how wide the flat base of the chest is. Also feel for fullness in the crops- put your hand from side to side across the back, right behind the withers- feel the spring of rib? You want width in the crops- it corresponds to the chest floor (usually).

THIRD- Width in the head- who has the wider muzzle from the front and deeper jaw from the side?

FOURTH- Cannon bone- Look at them straight on from the side, standing normally. Draw an imaginary line parallel to the ground from the knees towards the back of the goat- are the hocks higher than that line? Then the doe is short in the cannon bone. Level is good, sometimes you will have a little more length in the cannon than the hock. A doe that is level from knees to hocks may have short cannon bones- but in that case she isn't short in the cannon bone, she is just short! If the doe is shorter in the front, she will likely be high in the rump or low in the front end.

FIFTH- Length/width of rump- Use a ruler if you need to. Measure from the hip to the pins- who has the longer rump? Sink an imaginary plumb line down from the point of hip to the ground- remember the fore udder will seldom be further forward than this imaginary line. Watch from the rear- whose rump is wider, who walks with more openness into the escutcheon, when they stop naturally, who stands with more width between the hocks?

SIXTH- Legs & topline- watch them walk straight at you from the front- do they track straight? Toes pointed forward? Are the pasterns upright? Are they short and strong looking? When in motion, from the side, does the body look long? Do they level out over the topline and rump in motion, or do they reach far enough under the body with the hind legs that the withers appear to be uphill (that is good)?

SEVENTH- Feel the ribs for bone pattern. The ribs should feel flat, be widely spaced, point towards the rear (flank), and the last rib should be as long as possible. The rear cannon bone, from the rear, should look flat on the sides, not round like a Boer leg.

July Topic: Introducing New Goats Into a Herd

Here are a few tips for when you bring new goats to your herd.

1.       Quarantine all new goats – Regardless of where your new goats come from, it is a good idea to quarantine them from your other animals for a few weeks. This quarantine period is not only a good time to test the goat for diseases, deworm them, trim hooves, and treat for external parasites, it’s an important time to allow the goat to get acclimated to you and your farm. New goats have to get used to your schedule and personality. They also have to adjust their digestive systems to your feed and to the microbes on your farm. Stress of moving to a new farm can cause a goat to stop eating or have other issues so quarantine time is good for lowering stress levels before introducing the new goats to your herd.

2.       Let them see each other but not touch – After the initial quarantine period and after the new goats are deemed healthy, it is good to move them from isolation into a separate but visible pen/pasture. House the new goats in an area adjacent to the old herd so they can smell and see each other but they can’t physically contact each other. This allows the new goats and old goats to get used to each other without the stress of fighting over new territory and herd status.

3.       Allow your old goats to meet the new ones on neutral turf – Your established herd has a territory that they will defend from intruders. This territory includes existing pens and pastures that they normally have access to. When putting a new goat in with a herd for the first time it is good to put the herd into neutral territory that they don’t normally go to. Put the new goats in a new pasture or pen area and then bring the herd to them.  This will help to limit territorial aggression during the introduction period. Don’t just throw a new goat fresh from traveling into an established group of goats! This will cause a major fight!

4.       Know when to interfere – There will almost always be some fighting when a new goat is introduced. It’s part of a goat’s social herd structure to have a hierarchy and to defend their place in it. Some fighting is to be expected. The fighting can last anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. Usually one goat from the old herd will be the aggressor. This goat feels that their place in the herd is being threatened by the new arrival. Most of the time you should not interfere with the fighting because the new goat needs to establish its place in the herd. The time to interfere is when there is blood/injury, or constant fighting for more than 1 hour and the fighting goats can’t get a break, or very hard fighting where injury is possible.

5.       Remove aggressive goats from the area if there is a fight – It is better to remove the aggressive goat from the fight than to take away the one that is getting beat up. The aggressive goat needs time to calm down and readjust before being put back into the herd. Also once an aggressor is removed from the situation, the other goats will have a chance to meet and greet the new goat without a fight. 

6.       Feed all goats equally – Even if most of the new and old goats are getting along, it is a good idea to be careful at feeding time to make sure that everyone has equal access to the food. Most goat bullying occurs around the feed trough and hay manger. Feed new goats separately if possible. If not possible to separate, then have ample manger and trough space for each goat. Dominant goats are in charge of allowing the subordinate goats to eat. There needs to be enough space at a shared feeding station for the subordinate goats to get away from the dominant ones and have a chance to eat in peace.

Parasite Management and Copper Oxide Wire Particle Study Update

August 12, 2013 – Goat Parasite Management and Copper Oxide Wire Particle Study Update

Location: Asgaard Farm, 74 Asgaard Way, Au Sable Forks, NY 12912

Time: 1:00pm - 4:00pm

Join Rhonda Butler of Asgaard Farm to learn how she controls internal parasites in her herd and how it affects her pasture management system. Rhonda will share how she incorporates multiple species grazing and other techniques she has used to control parasites. Hear about the dairy goat herd, what products they are marketing and gain advice for your own goat dairy. tatiana Stanton Small Ruminant Specialist for Cornell University and Betsy Hodge St. Lawrence CCE will explain the rationale for using Copper Oxide Wire Particle (COWP) in sheep and goats to try to control barber pole worm and a summation of their COWP studies with sheep and goats thus far. Overuse of chemical dewormers has allowed the barber pole worm (H. contortus) population to develop resistance. A new option to control H. contortus is dosing with copper oxide wire particles (COWP).
Asgaard Farm is a multispecies farm which raises hogs and cattle as well as having a goat dairy. They market pastured pork and beef and process goat milk products including soap, award winning cheeses and caramels.

Registration Fee: $10/person and $15/two or more people per farm

Pre-Registration Deadline: Noon August 9th

To pre-register and pay, please contact the Registration Coordinator, Stephanie, by phone at 585-271-1979 ext. 509, by email atregister@nofany.org, or shop online at http://tinyurl.com/nofanyevents.

Sponsors: Supported by USDA Risk Management Agency, Outreach and Assistance Program

Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Animals

This quote came from a blog post about heartworm treatment in dogs, but I found the first two paragraphs to be important for all species of animals.

“Much of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is offered either as an addition to conventional, science-based treatment or in situations in which conventional therapies are unavailable or ineffective. This doesn’t excuse offering treatments that haven’t been properly tested, and it doesn’t mean such therapies can’t do harm. However, such an approach at least avoids the harm that can come from delaying or rejecting effective treatment.

However, sometimes CAM providers actually believe their practices are an appropriate and effective substitute for conventional medicine, even in the case of serious disease. This attitude is truly inexcusable when, as is usually the case, there is no sound evidence to support the belief and when irrational and inaccurate denigration of conventional treatments is used to scare people away from medicine that could really help their pets.”

 – from http://skeptvet.com/Blog/2013/06/there-is-no-natural-or-holistic-heartworm-prevention-or-treatment-proven-to-be-safe-and-effective/