Nigerian Dwarf Bottle Feeding Schedule

 


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Even if you dam raise your kids, it’s inevitable that you’ll wind up with a bottle baby at some point. Our does have large litters, as many as five at a time, and it isn’t uncommon that we end up with one or two (or three) per year that are put on the bottle. This is the feeding schedule we use for our Nigerian Dwarf bottle babies; you can approximately double the amounts and use this for standard sized goats as well. Minis would be somewhere in between.

So much of feeding bottle babies is intuition and individual decisions. I’ve tried to pinpoint specific weights to give you an idea of how much to feed, but the best advice I have is to watch your babies and their activity level/overall behavior. Well fed kids are bright, alert, active and constantly exploring the world. Kids who aren’t feeling well will be just the opposite, standing around, lethargic, crying out or frantically seeking milk. Always go by what your kids tell you over what an article online does.

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Silage Making with Lawnmower Grass Clippings

We experimented this summer with silage making from lawnmower clippings.  The first barrel wasn’t a complete success–mold made it several inches down the barrel–but it was enough to convince us to keep trying, so in July we ensiled 4 barrels of grass clippings sourced entirely from our lawnmower.

We opened the first of those barrels today, so I wanted to show you the results, along with a step by step explanation of silage making with nothing more than an air tight container and a lawnmower with bagger attachment.

Silage making is so incredibly simple I’m surprised it isn’t more popular.  It took me quite a bit of searching initially to find resources that talk about it and in the end, we were pretty much on our own.  This guide is my hope of spreading the word so more people can create a sustainable, nearly zero cost food source for their livestock. Continue reading “Silage Making with Lawnmower Grass Clippings”