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Can I use McDowells for my goats? - McDowell's Herbal Treatments

QUESTION

I would love to ask you some questions in regards to naturally mineral supplementing my goats....

I feed my 4 dairy breed girls a diet of lucerne and oaten chaff, organic oat, wheat and barley kernals, rosehip granules, seaweed meal, dried nettle, dolomite and a tiny bit of copper sulfate (to maintain a low worm load). I have always found it very easy to find mineral ratio mixes for the horses (the one on your website is a good example) but I have never found a natural mix for ruminants. Only recently have I started feeding the girls dolomite as recommended in the goat Pat Coleby book, I just wanted to find out your advice on mineral supplementing without using pre made artificial goat feed pellets.

Also, my goats are currently running with a buck and I was wondering if you had any other feed advice to support them through their pregnancy.

ANSWER

Goats have a higher requirement for many minerals than sheep. Copper in particular. They are browsers of many herbs and trees by nature, which is much higher in minerals than pasture alone.

Goats can be supplemented with dolomite, kelp, garlic, apple cider vinigar but they also need a lot of brush to eat. The mineral supplementation required will really depend on the pasture they have access to and the soil.

I like to supplement pregnant goats with raspberry leaves as they get closer to parturition. This is nice and mineral rich as well as the benefits to uterine tone.

Selenium is a big one also for preventing retained placenta. Getting a good mineral block can help, or in very deficient regions you can get a selenium bolus I believe.

Herbally, you can add in the following to try and get the extra minerals they need;

Rosehips - High in Cobalt and Copper, as well as Vit C and Iron
Selenium - is found in Garlic and Brewers Yeast as well as Rice Bran Pellets (as an additive)

You can freely given them any kind of herbs that you give horses so feel confident to mix it up as you would for the horses.

I hope that this is helpful,

Cath McDowell and Kerrie Hyland

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