From birth to weaning

Scroll down to find information on:

  • Colostrum management

  • Dis-budding and tattoos

  • 100% bottle raising and working full time

  • Cold Milk and the Mini-fridge Lambar

  • Heat Lamp Igloos

  • Dual raising in the show goat world

Colostrum mangement

Coming soon...

Disbudding and tattoos coming soon

Cold Milk and the Mini-Fridge Lambar

Its January 2026 in Florida and we are enjoying our cooler winter weather. Despite that, the hot days will be here before we know it and since we wanted to try 100% bottle raising this year, we had to find a solution to the problem of how to keep our kids fed during the hot days. Working full time means we can't refill lambars mid-day, and morning and evening chores must be a manageable amount of work. Studies have shown that feeding young goats only twice a day will slow growth, which can have negative impacts on health.

So, that brings us to feeding cold milk. If we are not home to deliver warm milk, then it can be fed cold and given free choice. Studies have shown that goats grow just as well on cold milk as warm milk, and because it is cold they do not gorge themselves which can lead to bloat. The milk will ideally stay around 40 degrees and stay out constantly. 40 degrees is refrigeration temperature, which is ideal to slow the growth of any bacteria.

Living in Florida, it gets very hot early in the year, and milk left out for more than an hour or two quickly warms to the point where bacteria can multiply rapidly. Even leaving several cold packs in the lambar, we just could not keep milk cold all day. Necessity was the mother of invention, and the idea of the lambar mini-fridge was born. Everything except the ends of the nipples stays at 40 degrees constantly, meaning the equipment can safely be cleaned far less often. The temperature is monitored twice daily to ensure no malfunction, and when one milk container is empty, it is swapped with a fresh clean one. We do this every day to every few days, and containers are washed and sanitized between use before being refilled with cold pasturized milk. We will monitor closely as the warm weather returns to see how he fridge holds up. So far, we and the kids are LOVING it!

Links to articles on feeding cold milk: