I have raised lots of goats on whole cows milk. I have never ever had a problem with weight or anything else. I don't know why people think its so bad? Goat milk replacer is cheaper but.. is that the reason. I am a little upset by the goat owners on this thread right now. Lots and lots of goats are raised on whole cows milk, check out UC Davis, CA with their goat program, its JUST FINE. OT I don't care if I have proper English. I live on a farm and my animals could care less if I write to you in a "proper" way. You can't burn your goats horns now, they are too big, you need to visit a vet or talk to the people that are selling your goats to do it. You may end up with a skull/brain infection or serious brain damage if you try this now. Your too new to goats to do it yourself. Acorns.... you can do research but I think you will be just fine. Don't starve your goats :) and they will free range on all the good forage. They will have some respect of the brush that isn't good for them. On a side note I hope your buying the goats from the same general area. They will be less likely to venture on the new toxic food they see on your property. I bought a goat that was brought to me about 7 hours south, first thing the goat did was test all my ferns. I had a 600 dollar vet bill for a goat I ended up selling anyway. Its all in the research. There are also some goat video's for newbies if you don't like reading. Take notes though! Use No-climb goat fencing with a single line of electric on top. This is good for the predators that like to jump or if you have a line of Nubians that want to jump. You can also ask the breeder if they are jumpers. They should be honest with you on that one.

sorry it has been several days, i have been quite busy, the baby goat ended up only living for 24 hrs. he started having quite a problem breathing, and started foaming at the corners of his mouth and out his nose. also after his first bowel movement, he started acting like his stomach was cramping, then he started squirting. He never did stand up. he was like a little skeleton with skin, poor thing. the momma doesn't act like anything happened. yes he was mostly boer, the momma was boer/oberhasli mix thanks

I use to live on a 120 by 200 lot with about the same number of animals before I moved where I live now.My new property is near Kennetcook in Nova Scotia.I bought four acres of treed land at the end of April.It's my intention to build on the land.I had planned on erecting a barn for the livestock and moving my dogs and cats as well as myself to a rental house for the winter.Now that idea is on hold.I am currently living in a town close to my job. I have the same two neighbours looking in on the cats for me.I try and make it out to the property at least once a week.I lost a few weeks of work because of what happened.I thought that the SPCA would return and it took me nearly a month to realise that was'nt going to happen. It has been hell and I can't help but worry that I'll never see either of my two dogs again.The farm animals mean something to me as well but nothing like the two dogs.It was the worst feeling to come home and find both gone.I had been warned that the goats would be taken if I did'nt erect a barn for them in six weeks time.That moved me and my neighbours to work on the pole barn.Nothing like trying to balance a new job,care for the animals and worry about getting a barn erected in time.When the six weeks passed my neighbours and I thought that the SPCA had been blowing smoke. No such luck,and now I have a pole barn that is half completed,I sort of lost interest for a few weeks,but have decided to finish it in hopes the SPCA will contact me about what is required to regain ownership of the animals. I worried so much about the goats and dogs when they were first taken.Thought of how much stress the dogs would be under,my female most of all.She shuts down if she is scared and will refuse to move from the spot she is in.She's never bitten but I don't know how she'd react to someone she did'nt know grabbing her.My male is the opposite and probably greeted the officers when they entered my home that day. As for the goats the big thing was the feeding change they would face.I had been feeding my goats timothy hay as well as a variety of fruits and vegetables.Daily they were getting lettuce,squash,potatoes,tomatoes,corn and stocks,apples,bread,kiwis,avacados,turnips,cabbage,greens,beets,beans,peas,ect to eat.I had made arrangements with a local fruit and vegetable stand to let me have their older stock.The only thing wrong with it was age.It had to be taken off the shelf to make room for newer produce. I plan on returning to my property in early December and finishing the pole barn.It won't be anything fancy but I do hope it will be good enough,if there is such a thing,for the SPCA.I am still hopeful that I'll have Meagan and Schooner home for Christmas.I really don't know what prompted them to take the two dogs with the rest of the animals.They claimed that the shed was'nt large enough for five goats.It may not have been but two were suppose to be slaughtered early in November.At that point the goat shed,at 32 square feet was more then large enough for three does.AS for the chickens they had a coop.Not a large one only about 30 feet square but it was 8 feet high and none of the birds seemed to have any problems with overcrowding. The rabbits,as I have since found out,can live outside as long as they have covers over the cages they live in.I had that for each and every rabbit I owned.I asked a fellow breeder of rabbits how long a 25 KG bag of pellets should last 30 rabbits.Her answer was about a week,which was how often I had to buy a bag.Every 7 or 8 days I was buying a bag for them.The lifespan of the pellets is 30 days so the bag I purchased two days before the raid is now too old to use.By the time I found this out the pellets were nearly 25 days old so I can't even give them to anyone else to use. I'm sorry this post is so long but I needed to vent.It may prevent someone else from going through what I've been dealing with.There is nothing worse then raising animals from the time they are babies and then having all your hard work taken from you in a single day.Sherry P.S. Which area of Canada are you from?

For those interested in the tomato garden he starts that part of the tour right at the 4 minute mark of the first link. The string trellis, tomato pruning set up is almost identical to mine, so his methods interested me. He recommends snipping off suckers until "there's a good bloom". As far as I understand indeterminate tomato growth, each vine is going to set one flower cluster every third leaf branch. So there won't be a "good bloom" (imo) until he lets several suckers flower at once. There's a little contradiction there. He says prune until it happens; I'm pretty sure it doesn't happen until pruning stops. In the market or greenhouse forum here there was a few professional growers saying they prune their tomatoes to one stem until they're three and a half or four feet then leave them alone. That's probably/hopefully what Ryan meant to suggest, and that's how I want to try the string trellis next year (with a half dozen plants). One problem is it gets hard to support with just vertical strings as he suggested. Once all the suckers are vigorous and producing suckers of their own, you either spend a ridiculous amount of time dropping multiple strings vertically to each and every sucker that then need to be clipped or wrapped a couple times a week; or, as I figured out late this year, tie off some horizontal strings (connecting everything) between six and eight feet. Three horizontal strings across the whole shebang 8 inches apart in height did the job better than a dozen or more vertical strings. Think of it like an elevated weave where needed. Also interesting how he used strings for peppers and eggplant. Thanks for the links.