How long to grain wethers?

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I've never kept wethers before. I have a four week old nigerian buck who will be castrated shortly. I will be selling him and want to pass on the right info to new owners. How long should he be getting grain? On the website at Fiasco Farm they continue to grain their wethers into adulthood. This seems to go against what I've always heard that wethers should not be given grain to prevent stones. Thanks for your insight.

-- Lynn (moonspinner@bluefrognet.net), March 12, 2002

Answers

Hi Lynn,

As an adult, our wether received a small amount of Blue Seal lamb finisher that has ammonium chloride in it. He really didn't NEED the grain but since he was in with the adult does, it was hard to feed everyone else and not him, so he was tied separately and fed a small amount (barely a cup)just to keep him happy. I found it important to have salt available for the boys too, it increased their water intake. I'm sorry, I really don't remember when he made the transition from kid wether to adult wether. When we were graining him as a kid, I used a mix of the lamb finisher and Blue Seal Coarse 14, but I really wasn't happy with all that molasses. So, I cut back on that and added oats.

By the way, the polydomes have arrived!

-- Charleen with Obies in WNY (harperhillfarm@yahoo.com), March 12, 2002.


Charleen, Let me know how the poly-domes work out for the goats. I have two large paddocks that don't have shelter and I would love to use them for the goats.

-- shari (smillers@snowcrest.net), March 12, 2002.

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