My Routine

Feeding

• I feed dairy quality alfalfa to my whole herd and have had no issues with this.

• The milking does get a quality grain twice a day when they are in milk.

• Fresh water is available at all times.

• Growing kids are given grain as well.

• I feed medicated grain to kids until they 6-7 months old and keep their areas very clean (especially water buckets!) to prevent any cocci issues.

Supplements

• The milking does have baking soda available to them as well.

• I feed Purina minerals free choice to the entire herd.

• Kids are given their 1st CDT and Bo-Se vaccinations at about 2-3 weeks old. The 2nd CDT is given a month later.

• Kids are also wormed with Ivermectin at 3 ten-day intervals starting at about 2-3 months old.

• Adult goats are vaccinated with CDT and Bo-Se annually. Copper boluses are given 1-2 times a year as needed. The reason I give bo-se and copper is because the Pacific Northwest is fairly deficient in selenium and copper which goats really need to be healthy.

Cleaning

• I clean kid stalls and barns weekly and put clean straw down for them. Pens are raked out weekly as well. This helps keep the grass growing. We also have a small pasture I let them out to browse in every week in the Spring through Fall months.

Maintenance

• Hooves are trimmed about every 6-8 weeks as needed.

• The entire herd is dusted for lice every Spring.

• The herd is wormed with ivermectin paste annually/as needed.

Pregnancy

• I start giving does a high-quality grain about 2 weeks before they are due to kid. This gives them the extra nutrition they need at this critical stage for growing babies and producing milk. It also gives me a chance to introduce first fresheners to the daily milking routine before I need to start milking them :)

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• Please keep in mind this is my routine that works for me and the herd, please be sure and do your own further research to find what works well for your herd in your area.