Natural Goat and Alpaca Care (Vitamin C, Seaweed,Iodine, Sulfur MSM, etc) [2 ed.] 0643065253, 9780643065253

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Natural Goat & Alpaca Care P A T

C O L E B Y

SECOND EDITION

Dedicated to goats of all sorts. There are no animals quite like them!

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Coleby, Pat. Natural goat and alpaca care. 2nd ed. Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 0 643 06525 3. 1. Goats. I. Title. 636.39 © Pat Coleby 2000 First published 2000 Reprinted 2002

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Contents Preface

v

Acknowledgements

vii

C H A P T E R

1

Goats world-wide

1

C H A P T E R

2

The farm

7

C H A P T E R

3

Types of husbandry

25

C H A P T E R

4

Acquiring stock

35

C H A P T E R

5

Breeds

58

C H A P T E R

6

Feeding practice

78

C H A P T E R

7

Psychological needs of goats

99

C H A P T E R

8

Management

105

C H A P T E R

9

Minerals, their uses and deficiency signs

132

C H A P T E R

10

Vitamins and their interaction with minerals

153

C H A P T E R

11

Health problems

167

C H A P T E R

12

Breeding

262

C H A P T E R

13

Goats for milk

276

C H A P T E R

14

Goats for meat and skins

296

C H A P T E R

15

Showing goats

303

C H A P T E R

16

What it’s all about — goat’s milk

315

C H A P T E R

17

Alpacas and llamas

Appendix

319 339

Soil analysis

339

Suppliers of vitamins and minerals

340

Bibliography

345

Index

349

Preface Since writing Australian Goat Husbandry in the late 1970s, I, like everyone in the goat business, have learnt much—not all of it pleasant—about the farming and care of goats. Every time I check some information in the first book I realise how far we have come in the last 20 years. Also, for about 12 years I have worked with many in the camelid industry, and am still struck by how similar they are to goats in their basic requirements. So now, as we enter a new century, it is fitting that Natural Goat and Alpaca Care goes into an updated edition (second edition for NGC) with an added chapter on alpaca and llama care. I have updated many sections to include our increased knowledge and have also expanded the meat section as we now have a viable goat's meat industry—something that has been a long time coming. This book is intended to help alpaca and goat farmers of all kinds by providing an easily understood and comprehensive guide to all aspects of farming and looking after these animals, whether one has two or two hundred, whether for fleece, meat or dairy. Today there is a great deal of highly technical information available; I have tried to present this in simple terms. Those who are more curious could investigate further by referring to other publications. This book should be studied at the outset of any operation, not just kept until an animal is ill and a treatment is needed! Much of the husbandry I write about is the direct result of other people's and my own experience over a period of many years. Like everyone I am still learning: the most recent victory was an answer to blackleg that worked! The husbandry consists of non-invasive drug-free remedies that are as natural as possible. To this of course is added basic land care which is founded on the Albrecht model. Pat Coleby, Maldon, 1999

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Acknowledgements Goats Owen and the late Iris Dawson of Pearcedale, Victoria, for checking the manuscript of the first edition of Natural Goat Care and pointing out my mistakes. Owen is also responsible for most of the illustrations that appear in this book. His encyclopaedic knowledge of goats and how they are made has always been invaluable to the goat-keeping fraternity. Sandy Green for the photos of the Anglo Nubian doe and buck, and several herds. Christine Johnson for photos of Saanen does. Richard Wood (breeder) and Mrs Faint (owner) for the picture of the British Alpine buck (UK). Simon Dresens and Euan and Ann Rayner for the photos of Toggenburg does. Special thanks to Liz and Frank Wroe of Vermont Angora Stud for providing and helping me to obtain Angora photos. Sarah Gundry and family of Cohuna Cashmeres for pictures of Cashmeres and Cashgoras. Graham Wilton of Shegra Park for more of the same. Terrawina Quarantine station for some of the pictures of Boer goats. Doug Stapleton of Cudal Stud for clarifying quite a few points of early Angora history. Special thanks to Dr Bernard Jensen of Escondido, California, for allowing me to use the table on goat's milk contents from his book Goat's Milk Magic. Alpacas and llamas Thanks to the many people who have shared their knowledge of these two fascinating animals with me. Lynn Jacobi for trusting me with Hoffman and Fowler's excellent book The Alpaca Book.

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The veterinary surgeons from the USA whom I met at Tocal in July 1992 when we were all talking at the inaugural Alpaca Industry Seminar. Karen Baum DVM and Eric Sharpnack DVM both shared information with me and answered my questions about camelids in their home setting. Geoff Halpin for always treating my enquiries about alpacas with consideration.

Finally I am indebted to CSIRO Publishing for producing this edition of Natural Goat and Alpaca Care. I hope I have not overlooked anyone and that they will bear with me if I have!

C H A P T E R

1

Goats world-wide Goat history The goat, the ‘poor man’s cow’, was possibly the first animal to be domesticated. Yet their origins as companions and servants of humans are lost in the mists of time. Today, paradoxically, they remain quite the most undomesticated of our animals and will revert to their feral habit very easily. From the earliest times children were reared on goat’s milk when their mother’s milk was not available. The does either suckled the children directly, or a piece of rag dipped in the milk served as a ‘teat’ for the child to suck. This method was used until the invention of the teat as we know it today. Goat’s milk was always highly regarded because of its reputation (not always deserved) of being much healthier than the milk of other animals. Today we know that goats are subject to diseases like all stock, but, if well kept, they are able to uphold their reputation as a disease-free animal. Before the days of refrigeration, travellers on ships took goats with them to ensure a fresh milk (and meat) supply, and marvellously, the animals survived. Voyagers in Australia’s First Fleet, as is shown by the following extract from Captain John Hunter’s Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (page 31), took their goats along. Table Bay (South Africa) October 14th 1787. We embarked on board Sirius…with a number of sheep, goats, hogs and poultry…A quantity of livestock also put on the store ships amounted to…four goats. The officers each provided themselves with livestock…not merely for the

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voyage, but with a view to stocking their little farms in the country to which they were going; every person in the fleet determined to live wholly on salt provisions in order to land as much livestock as possible.

This was sacrifice indeed and showed how seriously the possession of some source of milk was regarded. Until our knowledge of the cause and spread of disease brought about modern quarantine laws, goats were shipped all over the world from their various countries of origin. Australia and New Zealand were among the few countries that did not have indigenous goats of some kind. In New Zealand, goats were apparently left by Captain Cook’s original fleet. Those left on the mainland may have disappeared but there is evidence that he did land some on Arapawa Island. The descendants of these were not examined closely until 1973, when the goats were found to be quite unlike any breed in the world today (see Chapter 12). Milking goat Most of our milking goats stem from breeds in the mountains of Europe: the well-known Saanens, Toggenburgs and French Alpines (from which derive the British Alpines). Nubians, as we know them, were the result of crossing some of the Eastern breeds and in the nineteenth century were considered the best milking goats in the world, famous for their long lactations and high production. Europe, Asia, Africa and more specifically Spain, Malta, India, China, the Americas and the Middle East all have their varieties of goat, but there were not apparently many serious attempts to breed them up for milk as was done with the Swiss and Nubian breeds. Goats for fleece Fleece goats also did their share of travelling round the world, probably intended as a source of meat on board the sailing ships, and hopefully to provide the nuclei of Angora or Cashmere flocks in the new countries. Angoras are believed to have evolved from goats in Persia known as the Paseng, or Bezoar; however opinions

Goats world-wide

3

differ as to whether Capra falconeri or Capra aegagrus was the actual progenitor of the Angoras as we know them today. Both types were famous for their long, spirally twisted horns and very fine silky fleeces. Since biblical times hair from goats has been spun for making curtains and temple furniture. Their skins were used by nomadic peoples world-wide for clothes and containers for liquids. It is unlikely that we would recognise those goats today as either Angoras or Cashmeres but rather something in between. Angora origins The Angora region (from whence mohair goats get their name) is located in what used to be known as Asia Minor and is now Turkey, about 400 km from Istanbul. It is harsh mountainous country, where winter temperatures are extremely cold but swing up to 35° to 40° Celsius (95° Fahrenheit and above) during summer. The average rainfall is about 200 mm per annum. Photographs taken in Turkey during the 1870s show small, well-covered animals, with no facial cover and the fleeces obviously fine and of good character. It was noted by travellers who managed to battle their way into the remote region that all animals in the area, dogs and cats as well as goats, had exceptionally fine silky hair. This was attributed to climate and/or some other local factor; so many believed that this would be lost when the goats were taken to other regions. However, the importations to America, after initial troubles, mainly due to the goats that were used for upgrading (a common cause of difficulty), were found by 1900 to be producing fleeces that compared favourably with those of the country of origin. The grease in the fibre of the Texan goats, and to a degree the South African goats, was apparently a characteristic of many early Angoras in their native land. The Texans have, for various reasons, selected for it and it is now an accepted characteristic of those goats. Australian Angora breeders will find that these goats, like Merino sheep, may be subject to fly strike; good husbandry is therefore necessary to combat it as it is in the sheep industry. Types of Angora fleece vary, which probably stems back to the beginning of the nineteenth century when the pure-bred goats of

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Angora could not provide enough fleece to meet the demand. Upgrading was the only answer—as it has been many times since— and Kurdish goats provided the numbers. This resulted in a mixture of types that still shows up nearly two centuries later! A very bad drought in the latter part of the nineteenth century killed many of the goats of Angora. Again, other breeds were brought in to build up the stocks. The general consensus was that the resulting goat was a better animal in many respects than its predecessor. The bucks were reported as producing fleeces of 3–4 kg and the does’ fleeces of about 1.5–2 kg. In the 1850s, Turkey (Asia Minor) was producing about a million kg of mohair (sic) per annum. It was reported at that time that the mohair from South Africa, in spite of some very fine specimens of Angora goat in that country, was of inferior quality. First fibre goats in USA—Cashmere or Angora? In the mid-nineteenth century a Dr Davis, who was sent to Turkey from the USA to help in the culture of cotton, so impressed the Sultan that he was given a flock of Angoras, among which was one pure-bred Tibet goat—a Cashmere. When these goats came to their new home in the USA, they passed into the hands of a Colonel Peters and for many years, even as late 1860, were all regarded as Cashmeres. They were thought to be the goats from whose fleeces the famous Paisley shawls were made, as they were spun so finely from the Cashmere that they could be passed through a woman’s wedding ring! Eventually the mix-up in identities was sorted out, and the two breeds, whose product is not so very similar, except for the fineness of the fleece when compared with sheep’s wool, were accepted as breeds in their own right. Most of the Angoras were farmed in the southern states of America and, incredibly, appear to have survived the carnage of the Civil War. There they formed the basis of what has been one of the great Angora populations of the twentieth century. There were at least three more importations into the USA of Angoras during the latter part of the nineteenth century and the earlier part of the twentieth century, all of which helped establish the foundation for the importations to Australia in the 1980s and 1990s.

Goats world-wide

5

Mohair production Since the latter part of the nineteenth century the farming and breeding of Angoras in the USA, particularly Texas, has been responsible, with South Africa, for much of the mohair processed in the world today. The first Texan Angoras were released from quarantine in Australia in 1992. Those from South Africa followed soon after. Mohair figures from the 1988 International Mohair Association report are: Turkey 2.8 million kg, South Africa 11.5 million kg, Texas 6.95 million kg, Australia 1 million kg; Argentina, Lesotho and New Zealand were still below the 1 million kg mark. Fibre goats in Australia Since 1960, farmers in Australia have worked on improving the quality and quantity of both mohair and Cashmere so that today Australian production of these fibres is a force in world markets. Cashgora, the cross between the two fleece breeds, is also becoming a marketable commodity. The New Zealanders in particular have concentrated on this product. Meat industry The Australian goat meat industry dragged behind the other goat concerns for many years. This was partly but not wholly due to the seasonal and uncertain supply. However the arrival of the Boers some years ago changed all that and they are now very much part of the farming scene in Australia. A significant number of sheep breeders are either replacing their stock with Boers or running them as well as Merinos. In Africa they have been known for many years as a docile and fast-maturing meat goat. In the last thirty years they have been promoted in a very professional way, and as a result are now to be found in most countries of the world. They come in black and white and there are now an appreciable number of the reds here as well. Broad-acre sheep and cattle farmers are taking these animals on as they do not need extra fencing and are much easier to control than fleece or feral goats.

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Goats on farms Goats are at last beginning to be accepted, even by those not connected with them, as productive farm animals, for fleece, milk and meat instead of being a music hall joke. In Australia, fleece and Boer goats are now being run in conjunction with many of the big Merino flocks. Station owners have realised that goats complement many other grazing animals due to their slightly different eating patterns. Commercial milking Commercial milking operations are to be found all over the world, ranging from 20 to 200 goats. The majority produce cheese and yoghurt, while a few also sell unprocessed milk. In Continental Europe, commercial milking goat farms have a long tradition, but in the UK, USA and Australia they have only been an accepted part of the farm scene since the end of the Second World War. Pasteurisation Unfortunately in Australia for some years now it has not been possible for the small goat-keeper to sell unpasteurised milk, following the sale of some very dirty milk. Sadly the industry brought the prohibition on itself. NSW now licenses some farms to sell raw milk. In the UK the rule has been relaxed for specific dairies and hopefully we may yet get back to selling wholesome clean milk again in the not too distant future. This will be covered at length in Chapter 13.

C H A P T E R

2

The farm Choosing a property Choosing a property is more often a matter of finance than any other factor. But assuming money is not an object, choose a farm with plenty of established trees, and if possible, areas of young trees which can be fenced off until they are large enough for the goats not to wreck the foliage. Dry-land farms are better than wet swampy ones; marginal land that is wild and of little use for commercial agriculture will often suit goats very well. They will, however, tame it in a few years, when it should become part of the regular farm operations. Coastal belts with high humidity and rainfall are not good for goats, or other types of stock. If the buyer has a couple of properties lined up it would be worth spending $100 on an analysis to see which would be the cheapest to pull into line. If there are established fences, they will need to be made goatproof, or, which is what I do, they can be managed so that the goats have the run of the farm. The larger stock are confined to their own paddocks, so that only the boundary fences will have to be goatproof. Goats do better when choosing the grazing that suits them, according to the weather and time of year. Established sheds are highly desirable on any property, placed so the goats can use one or some of them as shelters when they need it. For milkers, the plant and sheds will be needed for drafting, milking and feeding. For fibre or meat goats, shelters and drafting yards will be necessary, and for the former a shearing complex as well. Meat goats will need drafting yards and loading facilities and would appreciate having shelter in some form.

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Natural goat and alpaca care

Goats are complementary to sheep as they find quite palatable many plants that the sheep will not touch. Cashmeres and meat goats run with sheep will be fine but it is important to remember that Angoras must be supervised at kidding time (see Chapter 12). It should also be remembered that goats, sheep (and deer) share the same internal parasites. Running goats with cattle, unless the farm is fairly large and run on sound organic lines, is not a good idea. Cattle in small areas tend to pug up the ground too much. Years ago goats were often run with cattle as they were reckoned to stop contagious abortion. In fact the abortion was not contagious, but was caused by a weed, so several cases would occur at once. The goats ate the weed without any ill effects—so no abortion. Horses and goats seem to get on well, the goats often eating what the horses leave in the way of weeds and different grasses. There should be plenty of room and care must be taken to see that the horses do not chase the goats.

Mineral requirements Goats and camelids have higher mineral requirements than other domesticated animals because they are natural browsers. Deer also share this characteristic, as those running them in traditional farming situations are discovering. Trees and shrubs are higher in minerals than grass. Their roots reach deep into the soil to obtain the minerals, which have not been leached and farmed out as they have on the surface. Those who farm goats or any other browser must remember this high mineral requirement. If they do not, the moment of truth, with sick and dying goats, almost invariably occurs within three years. When the land is as bad as in the analysis on page 10, it arrives much earlier. The deficiencies catch up and the farmer is left wondering what happened—this is when the enterprise is usually abandoned. Meat and fleece goats that are not invariably hand fed like milkers can be given the basic stocklick used by other species (explained in Chapter 6). Camelids will take this too. Iodine is not, strictly speaking, a mineral and cannot be shown on an analysis, but most of Australia, including Tasmania, is iodine deficient. Seaweed products help to supply the shortfall.

The farm

9

Soil analysis The single most important factor is to have a full analysis done of the land, so that the exact state of the mineral balance is known. Then remedial action can be taken where necessary, and the goats’ diets may be supplemented with those minerals that are missing. Treating land with minerals is less damaging for the environment than conventional fertilisers and goats, like all stock, do not benefit from the latter. In fact whenever there is trouble on the farm it can in 99% of cases be traced back to the annual top dressing with chemical fertilisers. It has been known for some time that phosphatic and nitrogenous fertilisers inhibit a great many minerals, especially copper, 100%. On page 10 is an analysis by the firm SWEP, whose details are given in the Appendix. Understanding the analysis Desired level is an indication of the best levels for mixed pastures under reasonable rainfall conditions. These can vary as they depend on the cation exchange capacity (CEC) which is different on every farm. CEC is the soil’s ability to hold and release nutrients as necessary; calculating it depends on the amount of hydrogen in the soil. It takes many years to degrade the soil—restoration can be achieved much more quickly. The unexpected bonus of this sort of reclamation project is not only the visible improvement of the pasture, but even before that becomes obvious the improvement in the condition of goats and alpacas will be very marked. They all do best on chemical-free, naturally treated soils. Remedial measures The analysis above is a fair example of a good-to-middling analysis in Australia. Once the gypsum and dolomite have been spread, the farm should be well on the way to recovery if the process is followed up by aeration. The low potassium level will rise as the land is being treated naturally; in the animal’s diet, cider vinegar is useful for supplying the missing potassium until it does. See Chapter 10.

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Natural goat and alpaca care

Example of a soil analysis from an Australian farm Items

Result

Colour: dark grey Texture: fine sand loam pH (1.5 water) pH (1:5 01M c12) Electric conductivity EC us/cm Total soluble salt TSS ppm Available calcium Ca ppm Available magnesium Mg ppm Available sodium Na ppm Available hydrogen H ppm Available nitrogen N ppm Available phosphorus P ppm Available potassium K ppm Available sulphur S ppm Available copper Cu ppm Available zinc Zn ppm Available iron Fe ppm Available manganese Mn ppm Available cobalt Ca ppm Available molybdenum Mo ppm Available boron B ppm Total organic matter OM % Total phosphorus ppm

5.00 4.5 200 660 860 160 207 114 8.20 13.60 121 4.10 0.20 3.00 23 2 0.03 0.30 0.60 9.90 217

Cation exchange CEC capacity Exchangeable sodium ESP percentage Calcium/magnesium Ca/Mg ratio

Desirable level