Hi my name is Sherry and I live in Selah, WA . I am new to this site and will be asking questions that a lot of new people have so if there is a general place to read please let me know. I am thinking about getting to wethered ND kids and would like to know what to expect. I have already learned that I need 2 because 1 would be to lonely. The purpose for getting them is as pets and helping my husband with the weeds. However, we would like to know how to care for them properly before just running out and buying them. We live in desert area with sage bushes and desert grass as well as some other types of weeds, will the goats eat them? How much will they eat; we live on 5 acres. I have read different opinions on feeding them other things such as oats and hay. Do wND's need oats? What type of hay, I have been told orchard grass, grass hay and grass/alpha hay or timothy hay but I don't know which is best for the goats that I would get. And how much hay would they eat in a week. I'm trying to figure how much hay I will need to buy a month because we don't have covered storage for a lot of hay.
I read that they also need the loose mineral and sodium bicarbonate, worming medicine 4X year and shots once a year. Oh and hoof trimming a few times a year but that I could probably learn to do that.
Any advice from people who have owned these beautiful creatures please teach me. Thanks :-)
Replies
Hi Sherry! I am a newbie here too!
I don't have much advice as I am very new to goats myself. Looks like there is a lot of wonderful advice/info given here. I just wanted to add that I have soaking up a lot of info at Fias Co Farm. Lot's of info on just about anything!
Bobbi
Wow, what wonderful people, thank you all for you advice. We actually went to a goat breeder yesterday and told us that 2 ND's would go through about a bale of hay a week in the winter. We did rough math here and have 4-5 months of snowy winter so at minimum that is 20 bales for winter. I was also told that we would need some during the other months because we don't have pasture. We have about 1/2 acre that we just fenced in so not farmer definition of pasture. There is grass and weeds galore in it though along with sage brush. I also got on the phone with hay farmers and the smallest bale of hay so far is 80lbs. and they try to have their hay sold as fast a possible so they don't have to store in the winter. I called the feed stores here and hay can be as low as $7 a bale and as high as $15 a bale in the winter.......it all depended on how much they were able to get and how fast they were selling it. Good old supply and demand at work there.......the more you need it the more it's gonna cost you.
I however, was just told by a lady who is just starting a breeding farm that there are hay pellets that could be purchased at the feed store and given to the wethers instead of buying the hay bales. So my new question is: Could I get by giving goats pellets (if so how much) as their main food and supplementing that with some hay. If I could do that, I could cut my hay count in half and we can store 5 bales easy enough so buying 5 bales every couple of months would be workable for us.
Thanks for the warm welcome Lyn :-) I would love to show some pics but it sounds like they need more hay than we can deal with for now so I have to back burner my plans on getting them. Stinks, because I had to cuties already picked out :(
Hi Sherry, Welcome to the site, I'm also a newbie, I've had goats now for a year. I found this site to be full of great information. I have three withers and two doe's. We have them for pets because my husband is allergic to dogs. LOL
Have fun with your goats and I'd love to see pictures when you get them.Thanks for your help Deborah. We didn't realize that they ate that much hay. Right now we have no place to store hay to keep it dry and my husband is allergic to it so I would have to do the work and farmers here only like to sell it by the ton so I don't think I would last long loading and unloading a ton of hay. So it looks like my dreams of getting the goats is out. And yes, I love Washington too, grew up here and left after high school; tried Florida and Boston but came back home to settle down. Bremerton is a very pretty place to live or even visit for the day.
If you click on the "Forum" link at the top of the page, a list of categories will pop up. "Goats 101" is a good one to get you started. The "Photo" section is also great because people post pictures of housing, hay feeders, etc.
Wethers are VERY easy keepers. They will eat just about everything. I'm in Illinois, and there isn't anything here that they won't eat, including thistle (ouch!) and poison ivy. They especially love young trees and bushes because they are browsers by nature. If you have a lot of pasture through the summer, they don't need hay at all. And during the winter, wethers should have only grass hay. Alfalfa is too rich for them. Also, NO grain for wethers older than about six months because it causes urinary stones, which are painful and deadly. During the months when there is no pasture, two wethers probably wouldn't go through more than a bale to a bale and a half of hay a week.
Loose goat minerals, yes. Baking soda is not normally needed for wethers, but is important for milkers that are eating grain daily. Vaccines are controversial. I stopped giving them after a couple years, and I know quite a few other experienced people who quit giving them also. Do NOT deworm on a schedule; this is very old advice, which has resulted in dewormer resistance. Wethers are very easy keepers and rarely have trouble with worms. If they are going to be on five acres, I'd deworm them the day you bring them home, and then you will probably never have to do it again. Most breeders give a dewormer the day kids leave. Hoof trimming is not any more challenging than clipping your own fingernails, so anyone can learn to do it.
Welcome! I'm jealous of anyone who lives in Washington. We lived in Bremerton in the late 1980s and loved it. Wish I could go back there!