Nanny Goats for pet lambs?

[Bojangles]

Never done it but seen plenty who do. What is everyone’s experience of it and what’s best way to do it

 

[Devil's advocate]

Lambs are supposed to be too rougth to suckle goats, tender udders.

Milk the goats out then great.

How about a milking breed of sheep? I've wondered if milksheep lambed 6 weeks earlier than the main flock could be trained to multi suckle in an adopter type gadget. Grazed in field next to farm & called in to eat nuts out of the trough in an adopter.

Artifical feeding likely cheaper & easier. Lambs might do better on foster mum though.

Milking sheep often disease ridden things though, MV & other similar diseases. Same applies to goats.

 

[gone up the hill]

Goat prices are off the clock currently so wont be as cheap to use them as you might think.

 

[Woolless]

The only thing I know about this was my auntie's pet goat had to be shot after getting horrendous mastitis as a result of suckling pet lambs.

 

[neilo]

I’m told Pygmy goats are great for the job, as they let anything suckle. You just Chuck the Cade lambs in a pen with them apparently, and let them get on with it.

I was tempted to give it a try at one point, but getting hold of high health status Pygmy goats isn’t easy, and the goat equivalent of Mv is apparently quite widespread, and can be passed to lambs through milk.

 

[Jerry]

I get colostrum and milk from a nearby goat farm.

Far better than powdered alternatives.

And far better than keeping the bloody things!!

 

[Devil's advocate]

I get colostrum and milk from a nearby goat farm.

Far better than powdered alternatives.

And far better than keeping the bloody things!!

Its the colustrum that tempts me to a few milking type sheep, but the problems keep putting me off. Things like sheep that need forumla one care, mastitis to watch for.

Zwarble cross dorset horn lambing 6 weeks before main flock, is something I mull over.

 

[Agrivator]

Goat milk has only about 66% of the Dry Matter, Protein and Butterfat of sheep milk.

They have been used for generations for feeding lambs, but what do you do with them for the other 10 months of the year - apart from watching them go mountaineering on wall tops etc.

But they are far more intelligent than sheep. I once saw a calf fenced in to a corner of a shed with a 12' gate.
A nanny goat came into the shed at any time of its choosing, stood alongside the gate to let the calf suck, and when the calf had emptied one side, she turned round of her own free will to let it suck the other.

Can you imagine any sheep having the nouse to do that- apart from a BFL of course.

 

[SLA]

Best cades I’ve had was cows milk (straight from the “house” cow) mixed with half rate lamb milk powder. They do well on goats milk but don’t let the lambs suck and goats are making good money so probably cheaper to use cow milk and or lamb powder.

 

[Gator]

Dad had goats for a few years, as already said font let lambs suckle them, hated milking the bloody things in-between milking cows.
ABit off topic...sorry..
A bloke used to come every day for some goats milk as much as we had left over. His 4 year old son had really bad eczema and they had tried everything, creams and pouchions that the doctors could come up with, nowt worked, an old woman said to try goats milk, after afew weeks the difference was unbelievable, docs couldnt believe it. He kept coming everyday till the goats went. Sons now fit and healthy.

 

[Devil's advocate]

Best cades I’ve had was cows milk (straight from the “house” cow) mixed with half rate lamb milk powder. They do well on goats milk but don’t let the lambs suck and goats are making good money so probably cheaper to use cow milk and or lamb powder.

Often thought south devon milk would be idea if fortefied a bit. Great source of colustrum too.

 

[ilyria]

I milk the goats out , teats on a couple of them are way too big for lambs mouths. I keep a few zwartbles to adopt extra lambs on to. Had a couple with 4 each using them as milk bar this year no mastitis. As long as plenty of food in front of them they were grand.

Goatwise when they're not donating milk for feeding lambs they've donated milk for feeding foals and the rest of the time the milk goes into soap