Buck shaking and a little blood

Some Noble Goat as AC in it, just have to read the labels. If you can't find that then feed the noble goat and sprinkle the AC on it.

My bucks are on alfalfa year round, but no grain. I will occasionally give them wheat hay which is high in phosphorus and low in calcium as a counterbalance to the alfalfa. I did lose one to UC, a wether, but he was on wheat hay only and now I know better. Most of my friends feed thier bucks alfalfa.

I'm just going on what my vet told me to feed my buck. I will check back with him to make sure I understood correctly. After losing an expensive animal lm very cautious with feeds.

There is so many varying ideas on how to feed bucks it can be maddening. Most of us don't have a way to actually test the feed to see what the nutrient content is and it can change based on where it is grown, by variety, and by the fertilizer that is used on it. Water can play a part in this too.

The level is supposed to be 2:1 calcium to phosphorus but how does the goat owner figure that out? Alfalfa is high in Ca and wheat is high in P. The real problem in UC is not the calcium, it is caused by too much phosphorus in relation to the amount of Ca and that is what got me. I was feeding wheat hay, thinking I was doing good not feeding alfalfa. Well the wheat hay is super high in phosphorus so I was doing it exactly wrong and my boy paid the price.

All the producers I know with goats that are not on straight pasture feed their bucks alfalfa. Some add the AC to the minerals or buy minerals that have AC in them already.

It is maddening. And so confusing.

It is tricky to try to figure out an actual balance and I doubt very much that many folks actually take in hay to get testing for content each time they buy it. I personally tried to get our tested and nobody in the county offices even seemed to know what I was talking about---I tried the county extension in the neighboring county and they too gave me a look like I was speaking Greek.

He was eating grain and alfalfa and had a problem so the balance must not be there.

I have a bunch of books on goats and raising goats but they are all seriously lacking when it comes to bucks and their nutrition. Most books devote chapters to does, what to feed when they are pregnant, prior to kidding, after kidding, and normal. None of mine have even a paragraph about buck nutrition. And that's a shame because a healthy buck is just as important for breeding as a healthy doe is.

Bucks are considered throw aways and it's a real shame. Unfortunately for the bucks, the does and wethers are the money makers and wethers are considered terminal so the only goal of most producers who are in research pools is to get them to slaughter weight. So the only animal intended to be kept alive in the researcher's mind is the doe and therefore she's the only one who needs to be researched and worried over. Wethers only need to be kept alive long enough to make slaughter weight. It's sad but research dollars aren't spent on the pet goat world or the small producer who needs to make a single buck last for years.