# Raising a calf with goat's milk



## Lstein (Oct 2, 2014)

So I have two Nubian does, one kidding early Feb and the other early April...hopefully. It's just me myself and I so I'm probably going to have milk coming out of my ears! Lol!

The main reason I have them is to keep my fridge stocked and so that I can feed any extras my other does have. But, depending on how many extras I get, I think I will still have milk coming out at least one ear. Solution? Bottle calf!! 

I was just wondering if anyone had experience with this, I've raised calves on milk replacer before so I know some of the basics...but is there anything special I should do with the goat milk?

Just getting prepared in case I need to go that route (actually hope too) Thanks!


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## J-TRanch (Jan 31, 2014)

That's my plan! I plan on getting a few heifers calves and raising them for possible replacement heifers to start our herd out!  


Owner/operator
J-T Ranch Dairy Goats
NW KS


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## Ranger1 (Sep 1, 2014)

It is exactly the same. I raised a calf on goat's milk two years ago and he did wonderful!


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## Ikkaya (Mar 23, 2014)

We did this year and had no issues. Saved money and we are raising our own meat.


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## lovinglife (Jun 6, 2013)

Calves do great on goat milk! I tossed that idea around, but I think for me I am going to get a few pigs, though a bottle calf butchered young would be nice too....hmmm, maybe I need MORE milk goats....:book:


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## Summersun (Apr 24, 2014)

This is my plan also. I purchased 2 Nubian and a Saneen. I also have 5 pygmy or pygmy/Nigerian crosses. I will use the milk for my husband and I. I want to make soap, lotion, butter, ice cream etc. But I'm still going to have way too much milk, especially since I will be milking at least one of the pygmy cross does as well. 

So I'm buying steer/bull calves to raise and butcher.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

This is pumpkin and she is a goat milk calf  she's the only one I've done so I don't know if this is common or not but straight goat milk gave her milk scours. I watered it down, I think it was 3/4 milk 1/4 water and it fixed it and she grew just as well as the other calfs on mamas.
Now the only problem with your plan is beef is SO high right now (yay for us lol) new born calfs here are crazy high. I watched drop calfs (dairy bull calfs) sell for $300-$600. Now of course it changes from place to place but still I'm sure high.

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## Lstein (Oct 2, 2014)

J-TRanch said:


> That's my plan! I plan on getting a few heifers calves and raising them for possible replacement heifers to start our herd out!
> 
> Owner/operator
> J-T Ranch Dairy Goats
> NW KS





Ranger1 said:


> It is exactly the same. I raised a calf on goat's milk two years ago and he did wonderful!





Ikkaya said:


> We did this year and had no issues. Saved money and we are raising our own meat.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Goat Forum





lovinglife said:


> Calves do great on goat milk! I tossed that idea around, but I think for me I am going to get a few pigs, though a bottle calf butchered young would be nice too....hmmm, maybe I need MORE milk goats....:book:


Wow, I had no idea so many people did this! Great! :clap: Thought I was alone in this, since there's really not much info out there about it.



Summersun said:


> This is my plan also. I purchased 2 Nubian and a Saneen. I also have 5 pygmy or pygmy/Nigerian crosses. I will use the milk for my husband and I. I want to make soap, lotion, butter, ice cream etc. But I'm still going to have way too much milk, especially since I will be milking at least one of the pygmy cross does as well.
> 
> So I'm buying steer/bull calves to raise and butcher.


The same exact scenario here lol, I want to make all the great stuff with goats milk but I really do want calves. Oh darn, may have to get another goat in the future...rats rats rats



Jessica84 said:


> View attachment 81764
> 
> This is pumpkin and she is a goat milk calf  she's the only one I've done so I don't know if this is common or not but straight goat milk gave her milk scours. I watered it down, I think it was 3/4 milk 1/4 water and it fixed it and she grew just as well as the other calfs on mamas.
> Now the only problem with your plan is beef is SO high right now (yay for us lol) new born calfs here are crazy high. I watched drop calfs (dairy bull calfs) sell for $300-$600. Now of course it changes from place to place but still I'm sure high.
> ...


It's funny, there's an ad for a calf with almost the same exact coloring for sale here. I just love cattle with that coloring!

I agree, calf prices here are insane! I've seen some go for as much as $600 for angus. But there's a farm not to far away from me that breeds his Holsteins to black angus. Since all that maters is color apparently...lol or so it seems. My dad/neighbor get calves from him all the time to graft onto cows that lost their calves and they're around that $300-$350 so hopefully I can get one for around that this year.


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## J-TRanch (Jan 31, 2014)

Around here is insane our 6 month old calf just sold for $1600. 

Day old bottle babies are 400-500$ !!

If there was one for 350 it would be snatched up in a jiffy! 



Owner/operator
J-T Ranch Dairy Goats
NW KS


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## J-TRanch (Jan 31, 2014)

Not sure about the sale barns right now... Our calf was sold at the sale barn. The day old calves I saw on online forums


Owner/operator
J-T Ranch Dairy Goats
NW KS


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

Well, I need to be selling calves in your areas! Drop bull calves here are $15-80 depending on the breed, heifers are $200 without papers, $500 with papers.

But to go back to the topic, we have always raised calves, pigs, puppies, kittens, human babies even, on goat milk. They all turned out great


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## J-TRanch (Jan 31, 2014)

Little-Bits-N-Pieces said:


> Well, I need to be selling calves in your areas! Drop bull calves here are $15-80 depending on the breed, heifers are $200 without papers, $500 with papers.
> 
> But to go back to the topic, we have always raised calves, pigs, puppies, kittens, human babies even, on goat milk. They all turned out great


Man that's cheap!!!

I'm not sure about dairy. My comment was about angus. It's what we have
That calf was a dark red color... So of course it sold high. :/ irritating that it's all about color

Owner/operator
J-T Ranch Dairy Goats
NW KS


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Here black is gold. Makes no sense to me either but we play the game lol. Like my pumpkin above would be knocked down so much not only because of the red but also the longhorn white on her. If a black one came in that was built just like her they would love it. 
$15? I wonder if there's a way to buy those and ship them to another place. Dang that would be a big profit!!


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## nannysrus (Jun 21, 2014)

Jessica84 said:


> View attachment 81764
> 
> This is pumpkin and she is a goat milk calf  she's the only one I've done so I don't know if this is common or not but straight goat milk gave her milk scours. I watered it down, I think it was 3/4 milk 1/4 water and it fixed it and she grew just as well as the other calfs on mamas.
> Now the only problem with your plan is beef is SO high right now (yay for us lol) new born calfs here are crazy high. I watched drop calfs (dairy bull calfs) sell for $300-$600. Now of course it changes from place to place but still I'm sure high.
> ...


Cattle prices here are sky high right now as well. We will get bottle calves off a local farmer come February

Samantha

"5 minutes of fresh air is equivalent to 5 mg Valium"


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

Around here as long as it's beef, it's pretty high. There is some color trend, but not that much difference. And if I remember right, bull calves are worth more than heifers too. Add some dairy in the mix tho....and it drops the value a LOT. You can go to the dairy near me and pick up bull calves for a hundred dollars....but that's pretty much all they are worth when you're done feeding them too. 

A lot of people around here feed goat milk to calves.


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

I used to own a dairy farm. I had a herd of 65 milk cows. I also had 65 milk goats. To begin with, I rasied all the heifer calves on goat milk. After a bit, we started milking the goats directly into the pipeline to be added with the cow milk. At that point, we mixed goat and cow milk for the calves.

The calves grew like weeds! No scours, no health problems, just big girls!


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