Nature-Raised with a Ceaseless Devotion towards Nutrition
Here it is. You've found us. We've omitted the artistic, webpage pictures, and have toned down the colors to prove to you that this part of our website is not for show --It's for information. This page has been a thorn in our side for quite some time. You see, writing something like this is not easy. We have what you call "tools of the trade" which we have learned over the course of many years. Over that time, we have come to realize that the way we raise our goats, what their feeding regimen contains, is quite different. But it's not only quite different. It's actually different than any other goat farms we know, or any of the one's that we've read about. The question has always been: how do we put into words that we are different? That has hampered the development of this page. But it's an essential page, nonetheless, as it contains many insights. It provides the general reader with quality, some would even say older, information and philosophies not typically found in today's mainstream. It also gives our prospective customers the confidence to make that purchase of goat kids. Regardless of why you are here, reading this information that we have compiled, we do not claim to "know it all". When it comes to nature, there is always room to grow. Naturally, some seasons of raising goats, we have felt like we didn't sharpen our skills quite like we intended. Yet at the end of that season we see that all things are truly connected and that there is no such thing as a coincidence.
A GREAT PLACE TO START IS WITH A STORY
I still remember it. Years ago, when we moved to our current property in Michigan, we started with chickens. Chickens are the gateway animal into farming. Once someone has chickens and realizes how easy they are to care for, the next farm animal is always right around the corner. That's just what happened to us. It's such a natural thing to do, to think about what you buy from the store, and create a way to axe that part of your grocery list and do it yourself. For us, it was milk. The milk that we were buying from the store was pasteurized. When we lived in Indiana we drank raw milk based on it's flavor and health benefits. Being up north in Michigan lacked opportunities to purchase raw milk. Goats, so we thought, would perhaps be the solution for fresh, raw milk.
The first goats we ever bought were unregistered Nigerian Dwarf Goats. We found them on Craigslist. As they say, hindsight is always 20/20. We had no one to give us sound advice, and we were yet to really understand where this whole farm inspiration was taking us and how big a part of our lives it would become. It's not that there is anything wrong with buying a goat on Craigslist. It's just not typically what I would recommend to people who are seeking to purchase goats for the first time. But it was hard to find goats otherwise. Many of the websites where we inquired to purchase goats were defunct and the people we contacted lacked the people skills to teach us, new goats owners, what we needed to raise them. Because of that we were really self taught from the beginning, but a lot of the advice and information that we learned was from conventional sources that did not raise their goats naturally in any way (or ones that claimed they did, but they really didn't) and actually opened the door for degeneration to occur.
Goats are a phenomenal farm animal to experience. There really is nothing else like it, especially the Nigerian Dwarf breed, due to their smaller stature, and easy-going personalities. We loved those first two goats that be bought through Craigslist, but as time went on we noticed signs of nutrient deficiencies. Particularly the first winter I can remember how they rarely, if ever, touched their mineral mix. Everything that we read said that goats need minerals, love minerals, which they do. We thought that buying a conventional, well-known mineral mix was all that we needed to do to "supplement" their need for minerals. We were also what you would consider neophytes at the time. What we know now about minerals does not compare in the least to what we knew in the beginning, which was highly predicated on trusting conventional knowledge, or the idea that "the company that makes the minerals knows what is best for my goats". Certainly that wasn't the case as spring blossomed and we noticed discoloration on their coats, missing hair, and poor resistance to parasites. From that point on we zeroed in on the fact that they didn't eat their minerals most of the winter. Something must be done about that.
Over the course of the next year, trial by fire occurred. We were bound to find a conventional mineral mix that they ate, and that turned their health around. The only problem was, no matter how many different mineral mixes we tried, no matter whether they like them or not (most they didn't), the health of our herd stayed stagnant at best. If you were to name a mineral mix, we tried it. And we tried a large amount of it, for a prolonged period of time, refreshing it often to entice eating. We even tried the individual mineral buffet method, which turns out is nothing but chemical byproducts in salt. Take any individual mineral from a goat mineral mix and research how it's made. For example, iron sulfate is made by creating an intentional reaction between iron and sulfuric acid, causing the iron to break down, producing iron sulfate. Common in most goat minerals, the iron in it comes from shavings or scrap, leaving no way to trace it's source. It's one thing to recycle metal to turn it into something practical to use, but it's another to feed it to goats. Read the label, choose the mineral, and the process is similar for each one.
Read the labels we did. The "dirty" often overlooked ingredients were toward the bottom. Most contained at least one chemical (TBHQ?!). Why did most of them contain natural and/or artificial flavoring? And we were hard pressed to find one that didn't contain corn or soy, ingredients that did not match our food philosophy for nourishment of a healthy goat. It's one thing to feed goats a lot of grain that has those things in it, and it's another thing entirely when they are supposed to intentionally fortify their healthy directly with it. So that's what it became in our mind: fortified vitamins. We call it what it is. Most goat mineral mixes are a cereal mixture of fortified ingredients intended to be absorbed by the goat for "health". So over this prolonged process of "bad" health, it made us dig deeper than we ever have before, and we found "good" health. Coincidence? Probably not.
The first goats we ever bought were unregistered Nigerian Dwarf Goats. We found them on Craigslist. As they say, hindsight is always 20/20. We had no one to give us sound advice, and we were yet to really understand where this whole farm inspiration was taking us and how big a part of our lives it would become. It's not that there is anything wrong with buying a goat on Craigslist. It's just not typically what I would recommend to people who are seeking to purchase goats for the first time. But it was hard to find goats otherwise. Many of the websites where we inquired to purchase goats were defunct and the people we contacted lacked the people skills to teach us, new goats owners, what we needed to raise them. Because of that we were really self taught from the beginning, but a lot of the advice and information that we learned was from conventional sources that did not raise their goats naturally in any way (or ones that claimed they did, but they really didn't) and actually opened the door for degeneration to occur.
Goats are a phenomenal farm animal to experience. There really is nothing else like it, especially the Nigerian Dwarf breed, due to their smaller stature, and easy-going personalities. We loved those first two goats that be bought through Craigslist, but as time went on we noticed signs of nutrient deficiencies. Particularly the first winter I can remember how they rarely, if ever, touched their mineral mix. Everything that we read said that goats need minerals, love minerals, which they do. We thought that buying a conventional, well-known mineral mix was all that we needed to do to "supplement" their need for minerals. We were also what you would consider neophytes at the time. What we know now about minerals does not compare in the least to what we knew in the beginning, which was highly predicated on trusting conventional knowledge, or the idea that "the company that makes the minerals knows what is best for my goats". Certainly that wasn't the case as spring blossomed and we noticed discoloration on their coats, missing hair, and poor resistance to parasites. From that point on we zeroed in on the fact that they didn't eat their minerals most of the winter. Something must be done about that.
Over the course of the next year, trial by fire occurred. We were bound to find a conventional mineral mix that they ate, and that turned their health around. The only problem was, no matter how many different mineral mixes we tried, no matter whether they like them or not (most they didn't), the health of our herd stayed stagnant at best. If you were to name a mineral mix, we tried it. And we tried a large amount of it, for a prolonged period of time, refreshing it often to entice eating. We even tried the individual mineral buffet method, which turns out is nothing but chemical byproducts in salt. Take any individual mineral from a goat mineral mix and research how it's made. For example, iron sulfate is made by creating an intentional reaction between iron and sulfuric acid, causing the iron to break down, producing iron sulfate. Common in most goat minerals, the iron in it comes from shavings or scrap, leaving no way to trace it's source. It's one thing to recycle metal to turn it into something practical to use, but it's another to feed it to goats. Read the label, choose the mineral, and the process is similar for each one.
Read the labels we did. The "dirty" often overlooked ingredients were toward the bottom. Most contained at least one chemical (TBHQ?!). Why did most of them contain natural and/or artificial flavoring? And we were hard pressed to find one that didn't contain corn or soy, ingredients that did not match our food philosophy for nourishment of a healthy goat. It's one thing to feed goats a lot of grain that has those things in it, and it's another thing entirely when they are supposed to intentionally fortify their healthy directly with it. So that's what it became in our mind: fortified vitamins. We call it what it is. Most goat mineral mixes are a cereal mixture of fortified ingredients intended to be absorbed by the goat for "health". So over this prolonged process of "bad" health, it made us dig deeper than we ever have before, and we found "good" health. Coincidence? Probably not.
"The goat, like its cousin the deer, needs a portion of twigs, branches and bark of woodland trees for healthful diet and suffers in health if deprived of such fare. Goats are not really grazing animals; they, also like the deer, are more of a browsing nature."
- Juliette de Baïracli Levy
AND THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER
I know, I know. I ended that last section on a cliffhanger by never really explaining what "dig deep" meant. The truth of the matter is that this is turning out to be more memoir than anything else. Or should I say ode to the goat in all of it's goat-ness? Either way, I'll continue . . .
The following year, we pressed forward, providing the best care we could. We even grew our herd by purchasing two registered Nigerian Dwarf does. At the same time, we continued to take everything into consideration and began to research a truly natural approach toward goat health. Goats, as you probably know, are not native to north America, so they do not naturally thrive here, which is why so much fortification of their diet is necessary, especially compared to other livestock. It's a typical catch-22. Goats epitomize the perfect homestead animal, yet at the same time, they seemingly need to have so much variety and supplementation in their diet to be healthy.
So by the time we got to that first cold glass of milk, we thought to ourselves what exactly are we drinking? To this point, we did a great job of providing our goats hay that was from fields that were not sprayed with herbicides or pesticides. We also played yard shepherd and allowed them to forage part of our 15 acre wood, though, being a small herd, they never ventured far. But the problems seems the same and the question always was the same: "How do we get them to truly thrive?". As that question guided our way, our knowledge for things often overlooked began to decrease, and if we were to have a logbook of what we learned about minerals, it would have these very important points:
The following year, we pressed forward, providing the best care we could. We even grew our herd by purchasing two registered Nigerian Dwarf does. At the same time, we continued to take everything into consideration and began to research a truly natural approach toward goat health. Goats, as you probably know, are not native to north America, so they do not naturally thrive here, which is why so much fortification of their diet is necessary, especially compared to other livestock. It's a typical catch-22. Goats epitomize the perfect homestead animal, yet at the same time, they seemingly need to have so much variety and supplementation in their diet to be healthy.
So by the time we got to that first cold glass of milk, we thought to ourselves what exactly are we drinking? To this point, we did a great job of providing our goats hay that was from fields that were not sprayed with herbicides or pesticides. We also played yard shepherd and allowed them to forage part of our 15 acre wood, though, being a small herd, they never ventured far. But the problems seems the same and the question always was the same: "How do we get them to truly thrive?". As that question guided our way, our knowledge for things often overlooked began to decrease, and if we were to have a logbook of what we learned about minerals, it would have these very important points:
- Goats eat browse or pasture that grows from the soil. All across the United States, soils are depleted. They no longer contain the level of minerals that they once did. Specifically, they lack the trace minerals that goats need in order to thrive and reproduce. Some of them include copper, zinc, and iodine. Soil surveys can be found online detailing the general concentrations of minerals in a specific geographic location. This survey was a great help to us because it showed what we should generally expect from our local browse. It's important to keep in mind that mineral concentrations can vary greatly from one plot of land to the next, even if it is what you would consider close.
- Minerals interact in interesting ways. Sometimes you need one or more minerals in order for another to be absorbed. Other times, high concentrations of a mineral has the potential to block the absorption of others. With so many minerals to take into consideration, it can be difficult to pinpoint deficiencies or excess.
- Fortified, chemical, man-made minerals are directly absorbed through the bloodstream. A lot of the time, they are mixed with a base of salt, which prevents overdosing.
- Water can not be overlooked for its mineral content. Water that is pumped from deep underground contains minerals from the ground in which it came. Water tables can be extensive; the minerals in water that is pumped from underground can vary widely from those found in the soil directly above it. When a goat drinks that water, whether is is from a private or public well, that goat is drinking concentrations of minerals that have the potential to interfere with the ones that are in what they eat.
- There is more to the biological process of mineral absorption than what meets the eye. It remains complicated. Easy fixes do nothing but metaphorically plug the hole of a sinking ship.
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
At this point in our journey, we were yet to branch off beyond the status quo of conventional wisdom, even though at times we thought we did. Remember, even the farms that claim they are "natural" still use fortification of some sort. The products that claim they are "natural" typically are not. Some things we tried, some we did not. Looking back, I don't think any one single thing was worse than the other, regardless of if we gave it to our goats or not. The only thing that is for certain is that none of it worked. None. We found that the tools of the trade run deep in goat culture. Many "easy fixes" exist, which do nothing but give the illusion of health. Many products are myopic, and they only focus on a specific problem, failing to recognize that all things are interrelated. Here are some of the common "tools of the trade". Some we tried, some we did not:
We moved on from one tool to the next but found no success. What we sought was peak goat health: Full color, shiny coat, disease resistant, and a general thrifty resilience --with high milk production. What we wanted their feeding regimen to be was fully natural: No soy or corn, concentrates, synthetics, fillers, and medications. After many years of thoroughly reading labels and learning (and practicing) the industry standard, we realized that, in order for our goats to truly thrive, we needed to model their care as closely to nature as possible --and that's what we did! It was due to our gritty fortitude that we ventured into the depths of the innerwebs and old tomes and found snippets of information that led us to develop a health regimen that focused on whole foods, herbs, water, and, most importantly, exercise. That's right. Whole foods. Herbs. Water. Exercise.
- Copper bolusing: This is a very common practice for goats that are showing signs of copper deficiency. It's essentially copper rods in a small capsule. They supposedly stay in the goat's stomach and get dissolved directly into the bloodstream over the course of many months. Talk about myopic. Copper absorption is highly dependent on other minerals. Bolusing a single mineral into a goat does not take that into consideration.
- Medicated feed: A lot of goat feed is medicated. It's exactly as it sounds. Lack of resistance to disease, anyone?
- Fortified gel pastes: The gel pastes are made by the same companies that make pharmaceuticals. They are essentially a bolus, but in paste form, with high amounts of minerals meant to bring a goat back to health. However, it's often used as a standard intervention to maintain "health".
- Injectable minerals: Common injectables include selenium. Usually this type of intervention is used as a worst-case scenario for ill health. However, it is also a standard practice to have these administered routinely.
- Chemical dewormers: Another intervention that is administered routinely, a goat's body learns to depend on this chemical treatment and fails to build it's own natural form of parasite resistance. Additionally, parasites build their own form of resistance to these chemical treatments, often rendering them less effective and needed in stronger and more frequent doses.
We moved on from one tool to the next but found no success. What we sought was peak goat health: Full color, shiny coat, disease resistant, and a general thrifty resilience --with high milk production. What we wanted their feeding regimen to be was fully natural: No soy or corn, concentrates, synthetics, fillers, and medications. After many years of thoroughly reading labels and learning (and practicing) the industry standard, we realized that, in order for our goats to truly thrive, we needed to model their care as closely to nature as possible --and that's what we did! It was due to our gritty fortitude that we ventured into the depths of the innerwebs and old tomes and found snippets of information that led us to develop a health regimen that focused on whole foods, herbs, water, and, most importantly, exercise. That's right. Whole foods. Herbs. Water. Exercise.
"A health rule for goat care is to walk the herd every noon through woodland. When trained, they will not stray from their keeper and that herbal and twiggy-eating walk will ensure them great health."
- Juliette de Baïracli Levy
PRINCIPALS DEVELOPED
I suppose the casual reader could scroll down to this section and get the gist of what we offer when we are selling a goat kid or raw milk. What you're about to read is metaphorically our meat and potatoes. It's some of our tried and true practices for top-notch goat health. Again, we do not claim to know how to control nature, especially the nature of the goat. But what we do know is that the health of our goat herd has never been better and is presented in the following ways:
- Our goats have beautiful coats that are shiny and dark in the summer. In the winter time they grow a luxurious winter coat that keeps them warm in the coldest of weather.
- Our goats have consistent, quality milk production. They naturally build up butterfat as the seasons move from spring to winter, just as nature intended. A milk star, an accolade bases on milk quality and quantity, is easily attainable by each goat each year.
- Our dams give birth with ease, often to two-to-four kids.
- Our goats do not show chronic immune problems or signs of disease.
- Our goats are thrifty when it comes to parasites, with a strong, naturally-supported baseline of health for resistance.
- Our goats are happy, as exhibited by being able to live out their true personalities.
WHOLE FOODS
This shouldn't be a new approach to goat care, but because "food" has been adulterated to such an extent, it really is new to most people. The common goat food found at the feed store, made of soy and corn, fillers, concentrates, and synthetics, would not constitute as whole food. Each ingredient should be pronounceable and unadulterated and in it's most natural form possible. Something often overlooked about the whole foods approach is that overdosing or getting too much of one thing over another is not an issue. In comparison, medicated feed, injectables, mineral concentrates, chemical dewormers, and boluses must be closely monitored and measured to avoid overfeeding or overdosing. For example, our goats can eat as many carrots as they want, and it isn't going to affect them in a negative way. They know when they've had their fill, and when they should stop.
Above all, a goat is a ruminant with multiple stomachs. The process of breaking down food, particularly long leafy browse, keeps everything healthy (it also keeps them warm in the winter!). Thus, the essential base feed for a goat is browse. I don't say graze here because anyone that has a goat knows that they don't eat just grass. Quite naturally, they move around more than ruminants who graze. Even if a goat finds something that it really likes, it will quickly move on and find food somewhere else rather than eat all of what tastes good. If pastured, this allows the goat to come across a bunch of different minerals, tannins, and protein levels, while at the same time, find long or short stem browse of all types, perfect for it's rumination.
Our goats are woodland pastured in the spring, summer, and fall. Our 15 acre woods of mixed forest are perfect for a goat to find a plentiful variety of different things to browse. There is definitely a correlation between the color of browse and the color of their coats. The deep green chlorophyll-laden leaves lay the foundation for a dark, lush, vibrant coat. Naturally, our goat's coats look the best in the summer after they have been on woodland pasture since spring. Over the years we have learned that they love beech leaves the most when they are young in the spring, and that they hardly touch them come mid-to-late summer. They also love red oak leaves anytime of the time of the year. It is their browse of choice. Hop hornbeam, maple, and birch all are happily eaten throughout the spring, summer, and fall. Our goats have a keen eye for wintergreen and their berries in the early spring --and it does leave their breath smelling rather minty! Needless to say, they experience a bountiful variety of vegetation as they browse our woods.
The second best whole food is hay. Hay is indispensable, particularly in the winter. Throughout the year, we provide our goats with the best hay we can find. Being as green as possible, not sprayed with herbicides or pesticides, and from mixed grassy fields is key. Our goats like the tender, long leafy hay and decline to eat coarse stems. They have access to it year round, but it is the main part of their diet in the winter. Because the mineral content of each field is different, getting hay from more than one place adds health-promoting variety that may be overlooked. It replicates the fact that goats would naturally move around and not browse the same exact place and eat from the same exact field year round.
Grain, the most easily adulterated part of a goat's diet, is the third relevant whole food for our herd. We only feed grain to our does on the milk stand or to our bucks during breeding season if they need some extra calories. Our younger kids are dam raised and they grow up drinking milk, eating browse and hay, and other whole foods that we provide. The grain that we offer is mostly human grade. It is non-GMO and traceably sourced from farms that do not spray pesticides or herbicides. It is soy and corn free, and contains no synthetics, concentrates, and flavorings. On average, our does receive one-to-two pounds of grain on the milk stand per day. Our mix includes a combination of different herbs, such as spirulina, fennel seed, fenugreek, chamomile flower, dill weed, black cumin seed, and garlic.
The last part of our whole foods feeding regimen is supplemental whole foods that we grow. I'll offer just a couple of examples so that the casual reader gets the idea. Because we grow our own food on our farm, we typically have a variety of different foods that we can offer to our goats that enhance their health. One thing, as mentioned earlier, is carrots. Our goats love carrots, especially sweet carrots that were planted in summer, grew into the late fall, and were harvested in the winter. We cut carrots up into coin-sized pieces for them. They would not really be able to eat them whole otherwise. They relish those carrots when we bring them out to them and place them in their feeders. The cut carrots (upwards to ten pounds at a time) typically do not last long at all. The same goes for summer and winter squash, carrot tops, apples, kale, blackberry and raspberry bush trimmings, and many other things that we grow that are behind a goat-proof garden fence. We have found that this supplemental food assists in their overall health, and each year we strive to provide them more of it.
Above all, a goat is a ruminant with multiple stomachs. The process of breaking down food, particularly long leafy browse, keeps everything healthy (it also keeps them warm in the winter!). Thus, the essential base feed for a goat is browse. I don't say graze here because anyone that has a goat knows that they don't eat just grass. Quite naturally, they move around more than ruminants who graze. Even if a goat finds something that it really likes, it will quickly move on and find food somewhere else rather than eat all of what tastes good. If pastured, this allows the goat to come across a bunch of different minerals, tannins, and protein levels, while at the same time, find long or short stem browse of all types, perfect for it's rumination.
Our goats are woodland pastured in the spring, summer, and fall. Our 15 acre woods of mixed forest are perfect for a goat to find a plentiful variety of different things to browse. There is definitely a correlation between the color of browse and the color of their coats. The deep green chlorophyll-laden leaves lay the foundation for a dark, lush, vibrant coat. Naturally, our goat's coats look the best in the summer after they have been on woodland pasture since spring. Over the years we have learned that they love beech leaves the most when they are young in the spring, and that they hardly touch them come mid-to-late summer. They also love red oak leaves anytime of the time of the year. It is their browse of choice. Hop hornbeam, maple, and birch all are happily eaten throughout the spring, summer, and fall. Our goats have a keen eye for wintergreen and their berries in the early spring --and it does leave their breath smelling rather minty! Needless to say, they experience a bountiful variety of vegetation as they browse our woods.
The second best whole food is hay. Hay is indispensable, particularly in the winter. Throughout the year, we provide our goats with the best hay we can find. Being as green as possible, not sprayed with herbicides or pesticides, and from mixed grassy fields is key. Our goats like the tender, long leafy hay and decline to eat coarse stems. They have access to it year round, but it is the main part of their diet in the winter. Because the mineral content of each field is different, getting hay from more than one place adds health-promoting variety that may be overlooked. It replicates the fact that goats would naturally move around and not browse the same exact place and eat from the same exact field year round.
Grain, the most easily adulterated part of a goat's diet, is the third relevant whole food for our herd. We only feed grain to our does on the milk stand or to our bucks during breeding season if they need some extra calories. Our younger kids are dam raised and they grow up drinking milk, eating browse and hay, and other whole foods that we provide. The grain that we offer is mostly human grade. It is non-GMO and traceably sourced from farms that do not spray pesticides or herbicides. It is soy and corn free, and contains no synthetics, concentrates, and flavorings. On average, our does receive one-to-two pounds of grain on the milk stand per day. Our mix includes a combination of different herbs, such as spirulina, fennel seed, fenugreek, chamomile flower, dill weed, black cumin seed, and garlic.
The last part of our whole foods feeding regimen is supplemental whole foods that we grow. I'll offer just a couple of examples so that the casual reader gets the idea. Because we grow our own food on our farm, we typically have a variety of different foods that we can offer to our goats that enhance their health. One thing, as mentioned earlier, is carrots. Our goats love carrots, especially sweet carrots that were planted in summer, grew into the late fall, and were harvested in the winter. We cut carrots up into coin-sized pieces for them. They would not really be able to eat them whole otherwise. They relish those carrots when we bring them out to them and place them in their feeders. The cut carrots (upwards to ten pounds at a time) typically do not last long at all. The same goes for summer and winter squash, carrot tops, apples, kale, blackberry and raspberry bush trimmings, and many other things that we grow that are behind a goat-proof garden fence. We have found that this supplemental food assists in their overall health, and each year we strive to provide them more of it.
HERBS
Here is where we really separate ourselves from the rest. We rely on herbs to satisfy the mineral needs of our goats. Tangibly, it has resulted in lush, cashmere coats, the softest we have ever experienced in all of years of owning goats. But in addition to that, our goats now rarely become susceptible to immune problems. Northern Michigan winters can be hard on animals, with a lot of snowfall and very cold wind chills, but our goats maintain their health throughout the season because they have access to herbal mixes and individual herbs that provide them health-giving vitamins and minerals.
We offer two mineral mixes free choice 365 days of the year. Our goats, we observe, go through spans of time where they can't get enough of them, but there are also times when they hardly touch them, essentially self-regulating their intake dependent on what their body tells them they need. The proprietary blend of herbs, organic and wildcrafted, are mixed into a base of kelp. We are sure to give them the kelp that contains selenium in the analysis on the bag (not all kelp does). They are essentially receiving a whole food version of a vitamin and mineral supplement that is superior to any other goat mineral mix. In addition to that, there is no chance of getting too much of one element over another element because of how it is metabolized and absorbed, making it truly healthy.
Singular herbs are also offered free choice during periodic times throughout the year depending on our goat's needs. For example, we often give our goats fenugreek because it acts as an extra immune support. It also does a really great job aiding milk production. We have seen milk quantity increase with the addition of a simple tablespoon of fenugreek on the milk stand. Horsetail is another herb that has incredible health benefits. Being mineral rich, it generally contains high amounts of silica which helps build tissue and heal injuries. We have come to realize through experience that if a problem arises a blend of herbs is able to fix it.
There are also acute instances when we use herbal tinctures. If a doe shows signs of labor we give her a an herbal blended tincture for a healthy birth. We have even had an instance when shepherd's purse saved one of our does lives due to excessive bleeding following the kidding of quads.
Lastly, we use a proprietary blend of herbs for parasite load management. Eaten with relish, the goats receive these as treat balls made with molasses and reverse osmosis water. We have never experienced a true parasite problem and have even had tests come back with zero parasites while using this blend. Our goats have a thrift to them that they have never had before, and they seem to repel a lot of parasite-resistant organisms that would most certainly take advantage of an animal that relies solely on a harsh chemical dewormer.
We offer two mineral mixes free choice 365 days of the year. Our goats, we observe, go through spans of time where they can't get enough of them, but there are also times when they hardly touch them, essentially self-regulating their intake dependent on what their body tells them they need. The proprietary blend of herbs, organic and wildcrafted, are mixed into a base of kelp. We are sure to give them the kelp that contains selenium in the analysis on the bag (not all kelp does). They are essentially receiving a whole food version of a vitamin and mineral supplement that is superior to any other goat mineral mix. In addition to that, there is no chance of getting too much of one element over another element because of how it is metabolized and absorbed, making it truly healthy.
Singular herbs are also offered free choice during periodic times throughout the year depending on our goat's needs. For example, we often give our goats fenugreek because it acts as an extra immune support. It also does a really great job aiding milk production. We have seen milk quantity increase with the addition of a simple tablespoon of fenugreek on the milk stand. Horsetail is another herb that has incredible health benefits. Being mineral rich, it generally contains high amounts of silica which helps build tissue and heal injuries. We have come to realize through experience that if a problem arises a blend of herbs is able to fix it.
There are also acute instances when we use herbal tinctures. If a doe shows signs of labor we give her a an herbal blended tincture for a healthy birth. We have even had an instance when shepherd's purse saved one of our does lives due to excessive bleeding following the kidding of quads.
Lastly, we use a proprietary blend of herbs for parasite load management. Eaten with relish, the goats receive these as treat balls made with molasses and reverse osmosis water. We have never experienced a true parasite problem and have even had tests come back with zero parasites while using this blend. Our goats have a thrift to them that they have never had before, and they seem to repel a lot of parasite-resistant organisms that would most certainly take advantage of an animal that relies solely on a harsh chemical dewormer.
WATER
It's obviously important that goats need fresh, clean water. We change their water multiple times a day throughout the year. During the coldest months of winter, when water freezes the quickest, we fill their buckets up with piping hot water that we have heated on the stove. They love to drink it that way, and it can be even healthier for them if made into a tea!
Water is important in a lot of other ways as well. As mentioned earlier, it's mineral content can really affect goat health. During those years that we were trying to figure out natural goat care, water was a heavy point of contention. Most people who own a private well have high mineral content in their water, such as calcium, iron, and sulfur. It most certainly has an impact on a goat's health. A goat would not naturally drink from water that was pumped hundreds of feet from underground. Instead, a goat would drink from ponds, streams, and other advantageous places above ground. It didn't take us long to realize that the long, gentle, quiet sip of water that a goat takes may actually be causing more trouble than it appears. Thus, for the health of our goats, and to rid the general headache that came with trying to figure out just how much the minerals in our water were playing a role in our goat's ability to absorb other minerals, we invested in a tankless reverse osmosis water system. The water still comes from our well, but after it is filtered, it contains hardly any total dissolved solids. The minerals are essentially taken out. From our own experience, our goats have loved this water from the beginning and, combined with all of our other practices, have only gotten healthier because of it!
Water is important in a lot of other ways as well. As mentioned earlier, it's mineral content can really affect goat health. During those years that we were trying to figure out natural goat care, water was a heavy point of contention. Most people who own a private well have high mineral content in their water, such as calcium, iron, and sulfur. It most certainly has an impact on a goat's health. A goat would not naturally drink from water that was pumped hundreds of feet from underground. Instead, a goat would drink from ponds, streams, and other advantageous places above ground. It didn't take us long to realize that the long, gentle, quiet sip of water that a goat takes may actually be causing more trouble than it appears. Thus, for the health of our goats, and to rid the general headache that came with trying to figure out just how much the minerals in our water were playing a role in our goat's ability to absorb other minerals, we invested in a tankless reverse osmosis water system. The water still comes from our well, but after it is filtered, it contains hardly any total dissolved solids. The minerals are essentially taken out. From our own experience, our goats have loved this water from the beginning and, combined with all of our other practices, have only gotten healthier because of it!
"The Goat is closely allied to the sheep being an animal of the hills and enjoying rough pasture. Goats are the most agile of the domestic animals, and above all they need abundant exercise for true health"
- Juliette de Baïracli Levy
EXERCISE
We are now led to the culminating point of our health program: exercise. Regardless of if goats are kept in a dry lot or on rotating pasture, a long walk at least once a day is essential for their health. As mentioned earlier, when we sought healthy goats using natural methods, it was decided that we had to imitate nature as much as possible. Goats, due to the way they browse for food, are natural walkers. If you were to research how many miles the average wild goat walks in a day you would find a range of numbers that trend upwards to ten miles. Why do goats walk? It could be for various reasons, and I do not know the inner workings of a goat's mind; however, food and predators certainly are a large part. A goat's nature is to run (and climb) from a predator as it's only defense in the wild. Staying in one place for too long would not be safe. But seasons also change, and the sweet grasses and forbs growing in one area during one part of the year may lead them to anther, many miles away. Dairy goats especially need this daily walk. It aids in milk production and keeps their bodies nicely toned. For growing kids it supports their development. This is not to mention that it also stimulates a goat's mind due to the different smells, sights, sounds, and tastes.
Each having his or her own unique personality, goats tend to have a silly side to the casual observer. They love to frolic; they are very curious; and they tend to sometimes get into mischief. I say that to juxtapose the seriousness of the scene when our goats take their daily walk twice a day during the spring, summer, and fall. They get upwards to one and a half hours to browse our 15 acre wood. The whole time, one of us is truly a shepherd, staff in hand, walking with them and watching over them. As a matter of fact, it's usually a family affair, as our toddlers sing, play, and explore, not to mention our livestock guardian dogs and outdoor cats are often in tow, joining in on it all. It's a uniquely enjoyable time. Everyone loves it. Though, the goats, as said, take it very seriously. There is not a more serious time for our goats. They mean business as they walk. Searching for the best browse, they move quickly and efficiently, stopping from time-to-time to really enjoy some deciduous leaves or shrubs. They are as silent as the air around us and look to us to guide them on a comfortable walk. Perhaps they, too, enjoy our company as much as we enjoy theirs.
More than anything, these daily walks are a time to bond with our goats and enjoy them in all of their glory. Each goat has had numerous songs sung to them: "There was a goat who lived on a farm, and Daisy was her name-o. D. A. I. S. Y. D. A. I. S. Y. D. A. I. S. Y. And Daisy was her name-o". You get the point. It's also a time when we can see herd hierarchy in action. We see which goats have more of a submissive personality, and which ones have an authoritative. We see who hangs out in small groups and who is a leader, guiding the other along. And most importantly, it's a time when we look them over to see if they need any extra attention. If a goat kid seems to not be keeping up, we know that we need to figure out the problem. If a doe is walking funny, it may be time for a hoof trim.
How many miles do our goats walk per day? It's hard to say, as it will never be as much as they would in the wild. But what we do know is that this is the single most important thing that we do for our goats, and regardless of distance, they get more out of it than we ever imagined. It aligns with every aspect of our farming philosophies and puts them into practice, and, perhaps, it even shows them that we love them.
Each having his or her own unique personality, goats tend to have a silly side to the casual observer. They love to frolic; they are very curious; and they tend to sometimes get into mischief. I say that to juxtapose the seriousness of the scene when our goats take their daily walk twice a day during the spring, summer, and fall. They get upwards to one and a half hours to browse our 15 acre wood. The whole time, one of us is truly a shepherd, staff in hand, walking with them and watching over them. As a matter of fact, it's usually a family affair, as our toddlers sing, play, and explore, not to mention our livestock guardian dogs and outdoor cats are often in tow, joining in on it all. It's a uniquely enjoyable time. Everyone loves it. Though, the goats, as said, take it very seriously. There is not a more serious time for our goats. They mean business as they walk. Searching for the best browse, they move quickly and efficiently, stopping from time-to-time to really enjoy some deciduous leaves or shrubs. They are as silent as the air around us and look to us to guide them on a comfortable walk. Perhaps they, too, enjoy our company as much as we enjoy theirs.
More than anything, these daily walks are a time to bond with our goats and enjoy them in all of their glory. Each goat has had numerous songs sung to them: "There was a goat who lived on a farm, and Daisy was her name-o. D. A. I. S. Y. D. A. I. S. Y. D. A. I. S. Y. And Daisy was her name-o". You get the point. It's also a time when we can see herd hierarchy in action. We see which goats have more of a submissive personality, and which ones have an authoritative. We see who hangs out in small groups and who is a leader, guiding the other along. And most importantly, it's a time when we look them over to see if they need any extra attention. If a goat kid seems to not be keeping up, we know that we need to figure out the problem. If a doe is walking funny, it may be time for a hoof trim.
How many miles do our goats walk per day? It's hard to say, as it will never be as much as they would in the wild. But what we do know is that this is the single most important thing that we do for our goats, and regardless of distance, they get more out of it than we ever imagined. It aligns with every aspect of our farming philosophies and puts them into practice, and, perhaps, it even shows them that we love them.
"The milk of such animals is beyond description for the excellent flavour and the vitality that it imparts to the consumer; a great contrast to the flaccid, bitter tasting milk of the tethered, stall-kept animals"
- Juliette de Baïracli Levy
TO OUR HEALTH!
That cold glass of milk tastes quite different now than it did before. Now we know there is nothing else like it. Nothing can compare. Looking back, there were many times that we almost gave up on our approach towards naturally raised goats. In the past we even gave in to certain conventional approaches, which only proved our point: in a world driven by robotic systems, closed mindedness, and easy fixes, real results are found from real systems modelled after nature.
Here you will find the abstract version of what we wanted to say. I present this because the process, as you now know, was not easily distilled into a short amount of words. This was the original version that was going to make up this page. If we had an infomercial, it would read as follows:
Nigerian Dwarf Goats are the perfect homestead animal. If raised the right way, they truly epitomize health and homesteading independence. A healthy, strong, and happy heard of dairy goats is just as idyllic as any other idealized picture of farm life. They are the animal that is successful in such a wide variety of different settings throughout the world, and they are are not easily manipulated to thrive in confinement and on a diet that consists solely of grain like many other livestock.
Here at Heart's Pasture, our Nigerian Dwarf Goats are nature raised. We do not feed them concentrates, chemicals, or animal biproducts, and they have strong health and do not experience problems because of it. We have seen such a wide variety of foods on nutritional labels that seem unfit for a goat and most certainly only deter peak health. Some of them include TBH, pork lard, artificial flavor, fillers, and "roughage products", just to name a few. Most of the grain formulated for goats contains poor nutrition from the cheaply commoditized grains of soy and corn. Almost all goat products include elemental concentrates or fortified vitamins, and some contain medications. Many of these things are biproducts from other industries.
At Heart's Pasture our goats thrive from our health regimen that includes whole foods, herbs, water, and exercise. Though it can never be replicated, our approach mimics nature and has resulted in happy, healthy goats.
Here you will find the abstract version of what we wanted to say. I present this because the process, as you now know, was not easily distilled into a short amount of words. This was the original version that was going to make up this page. If we had an infomercial, it would read as follows:
Nigerian Dwarf Goats are the perfect homestead animal. If raised the right way, they truly epitomize health and homesteading independence. A healthy, strong, and happy heard of dairy goats is just as idyllic as any other idealized picture of farm life. They are the animal that is successful in such a wide variety of different settings throughout the world, and they are are not easily manipulated to thrive in confinement and on a diet that consists solely of grain like many other livestock.
Here at Heart's Pasture, our Nigerian Dwarf Goats are nature raised. We do not feed them concentrates, chemicals, or animal biproducts, and they have strong health and do not experience problems because of it. We have seen such a wide variety of foods on nutritional labels that seem unfit for a goat and most certainly only deter peak health. Some of them include TBH, pork lard, artificial flavor, fillers, and "roughage products", just to name a few. Most of the grain formulated for goats contains poor nutrition from the cheaply commoditized grains of soy and corn. Almost all goat products include elemental concentrates or fortified vitamins, and some contain medications. Many of these things are biproducts from other industries.
At Heart's Pasture our goats thrive from our health regimen that includes whole foods, herbs, water, and exercise. Though it can never be replicated, our approach mimics nature and has resulted in happy, healthy goats.
"Goats have not been the subject of intensive breeding campaigns to optimize production on a grain-based diet. There are no hormones developed explicitly to improve their production. Not politicized and controlled like cows, they are an accessible and affordable "fringe" livestock. And for counterculture cheesemaking, goats provide excellent milk that responds well to a simpler cheesemaking method"
- David Asher
QUE THE MUSIC
So that's it. What is written should be thorough enough for the casual reader to get the idea that what we offer is quite different from the rest. Will we be replicated? Possibly. Will our way eventually become the standard? Hopefully. I'm sure there are homesteaders around the world right now doing something similar to us. We just don't know them. Maybe they strive for a truly natural approach to raising goats just like we do. But we will never stop striving. There is always something to improve upon. Nature can never truly be replicated and it can never be contained to a metaphoric box like the conventional approach advertises. Nature, in all of its interconnectedness, with all of its wonders, is a truly mesmerizing thing to behold, just like a Heart's Pasture goat: Brave and bold, resilient, thrifty, and beautiful --and ready to take on anything.