Home Messages Raising lambs on goats

Raising lambs on goats

	Member	Message
	Sagemountain	Posted 08/19/12 01:08AM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		Do any of you use a goat to raise your bummer lambs? If so what is the breed you use?
	1stgenshowman	Posted 08/19/12 08:47AM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		I've seen a lot of different breeds of goats used for raising lambs. I don't think any specific dairy breed matters as long as its tall enough for the lamb to get under it to eat, its well mannered, and produces a good amount of milk. I would look into Alpines if i had to pic one breed in my opinion.
	Shoein	Posted 08/20/12 10:16AM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		We have used goats for years, our best mannered nannies have been Nubians or Nubian crosses. The last one we had for 6+ years and she was a Nubian/Saanan cross. She was awesome and would take anything, she helped raise a calf, a foal and lots of bummer lambs. The one thing I tell people who want a nurse goat is that you have to make them into a pet early on, and NEVER let them bond with their own kids. It sounds mean, but I watch my nurse nannies and am always there when they kid to pull the kids off before she can lick them. The first year is especially important. Seems like after you take their babies they are looking for something to love and bummers are all too willing to reciprocate. Just my experience, Jamie
	EmsoffLambs	Posted 08/20/12 10:26AM  Changed 08/20/12 10:28AM
		So Shoein, how do you raise the kids? Do you milk the goat and raise the kids on a bottle? We've had several Jersey nurse cows and they were always very willing to take calves. Our cows came from dairies, where they pull the calves after they get their first meal of colostrum. The cows we got were so happy to have something to mother, they just loved any calves we'd put on them.
	OG	Posted 08/20/12 11:36AM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		Alex Fambro and I ran around 1,000 club lamb ewes at the Fambro ranch and lambing that many ewes resulted in a lot of bummer lambs which was labor intense and to solve the problem we purchased around 50 hd. of Nubian milk goats. In a three sided loafing shed next to the bummer pins we cemented 6 inch oil field pipe through the center of the loafing shed stretching through the cemter from end to end a distance of about 75 feet. we used 4X4 welded wire panels to separate into two sides and above the panels we attatched a cable much like a zip line...we made troughs out of plastic pipe and attatched to the welded wire panels. we put dog collars around the milk goats neck and attatched an 0 ring to the collars..we had cable straps with snap hooks attatched to the zip line..we would put feed in the trough, open the gate and the milk goats would run to the feed, then we would snap her collar to the line attatched to the zip line..after all goats were hooked up and eating their ration we would open the gate to the bummer lamb pen and they would come running to nurse their "momma"..the fastest lamb hooked onto the teat of the first milk goat and they all found their milk supply with the youngest slowest bummer lambs hooking up last...the Nubians were great donors of their milk and were more interested in eating than what was pulling on their nipples...the entire process from hooking the does to the zip line to turning them loose took less than 20 minutes twice per day. when the bummer lambs got full they usually would head back to their barn area and the stragglers were easy to drive back to their barn area. The reward...the bummers thrived off the Nubian's milk and in many cases had more bloom than their counterparts raised on their dams at weaning time...OG
	ksjoat	Posted 08/20/12 12:27PM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		We had a toggenburg sp? that was outstanding. She would take lambs every year and she had a awesome udder. Didn't have the big teats that the nubians had. We always had trouble with the lambs being able to nurse the nubians. But they did give alot of milk.
	hampshowman	Posted 08/20/12 02:16PM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		I have a Nubian and a Kiko. it works great. kiko hates it and is hard to catch though.Kiko milks a gallon a day and nubian milks a half gallon.
	Shoein	Posted 08/20/12 03:58PM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		Emsoff, I give the kids away, I will feed them the first couple of feedings, including the colostrum off their mom for a couple feedings and once they are solidly on the bottle I just give them to the neighbor kids! LOL! At one time we had a neighbor who had 3 years worth of twins out of my favorite nurse goat, all of them wethers and all of them huge pets. Goats aren't worth the hassle for me, but having a nurse nanny around is a must. :)
	lm1668	Posted 08/20/12 10:48PM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		I spent many summers when I was a kid running the fair circuit with a local dairy goat breeder. We would take around 60-70 head from fair to fair all summer long. I slept on a cot in the isle right by the kid pens. We would hand milk the does and feed it to the kids in a lamb bar. We showed Alpines, Toggenburgs, Saanans and Nubians. No doubt each individual was different and there where always exceptions to the norm but I can remember these generalizations from my experiences. Best milkers: 1)Saanan 2-tie) Toggs & Alpines 4)Nubians Easiest to work with: 1)Alpines 2)Saanans 3)Toggs 4)Nubians Strongest and most bull headed: 1)Nubians 2)No close second Cutest babies: 1)Nubians 2)No close second Saanans and Toggs seemed to, quite often, have giant teet sizes, with Alpines being mid range and Nubians being smaller. If I where getting one to milk and then bottle feed bummer lambs, then I'd look for a Saanan. If I wanted a cute pet that would serve the purpose while being entertaining, then I'd get a knot head Nubian. For the best all around, I'd get an Alpine. note: compiled data is probably outdated :)
	1stgenshowman	Posted 08/21/12 12:23AM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		I wouldn't say your to far off on the teet sizes and that fact actually affects on how much added work there is in getting lambs to suck off goats. There were several different sized teets in the goats we were putting lambs on. Couple had extremely large teets, most were mid sized and a few with smaller teets. the smaller and mid sized ones worked the best but the extra large ones worked really well for one lamb that had a really bad parrot mouth who's mom has really small teets that she couldn't suck off of. Each size has its place
	Shoein	Posted 08/21/12 09:53AM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		1668, its funny that you say the Nubians were the most bull headed, we have had numerous over the last decade that were by far easier to work than our alpines. But I will say, my favorite goat and the one that stayed with us the longest, produced well over a gallon a day, was a Saanen Nubian cross named Ellie. We had her for 6 years and this spring she had her first set of trips and went septic and died. I kept her doeling and raised it on the bottle and she will hopefully step into moms shoes, but it will be hard to replace her. She raised 11 lambs one year, staggering the birth dates over three months, never batted an eye when we added the next lamb to the pen and had 7 lambs on her at the peak. I then hand milked her for a couple more months and froze milk for reserve for the next year. She was awesome!
	lm1668	Posted 08/21/12 01:58PM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		Possibly just the bloodlines we were working with. They were super strong and harder to show while on the road and the biggest pains to sort out and get through the milk house on the farm. These people had a couple hundred head on the farm with a small percentage of them being Nubians. They always said that if they weren't showing them (Nubians) they'd have none on the farm. That being said, I remember one particularly strong Nubian named "Rosie" that always placed good at the shows. She was hard to show and an average milker. She and her babies every year were always my favorites. If i could have taken one home with me it would have been "Rosie", can't answer why.

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