Calves/steer with Goats

as long as you get a young one you shouldn't have a problem I raised a 2 wk old up with the goats and will be doing more.

 

Yep as long as they get used to one another. I have a 8 month old bull calf, a 2 year old steer, a 2 year old cow, and should have 3 babies before long in with my 7 year old Lamancha buck and they get along fine. The 8 month old tries to challenge the buck sometimes but they work it out and go about their business.

Autumn

 

The only problem is the poop. They will get in the goat shed and leave gooshy cow patties. Living with bucks wouldn't be as bad as the dairy girls. Those cow patties can be a source of filth for the dairy girls which in turn could cause mastitis. I had 2 calves in the pasture with my dairy girls and I didn't like the mess in their shed. After that the calves had their own pasture and shed.

 

My goat pen and barn isn't done (started) yet, but I had planned to have 3 pens. Well 2 really with 1 small one attached to the barn for at night and allowing them into that one and 1 large pen and rotating. I plan to house a couple calves and chickens with them. Calves to eat the grass they don't, and chickens to spread the poo. Originally we were gonna have a bunch of pens and rotate the calves after the goats, but decided the pen we will be using isn't going to be so easy to divide and still have barn access as we planned. Anyone with patty problems have chickens??? Since getting chickens that free range our 20 acres (but stay within a fairly close range to the hay barn) we have had NO landmines (cow or horse) that last long after we release the poominaters in the morning after milking!!

 

We run baby calves with our boer goats. We built a gate that will allow the goats into the feeding area/sleeping area that the calves can't fit into. Calves do leave alot of nasty poo, which can cause illess. If you are going to run them together, I would recommend an access gate for goats only into the sleeping and feeding area. We do not run them with our milkers and we keep our milkers separate from all the other goats.
Tara

 

I grew up on a dairy farm so know what cattle are like. How do you not have problems with your steers riding your goats? I tried, a few years ago, to keep a steer we raise up ourselves in with a mini horse and 2 goats. The steer was super tame, Jersey cross, and only 5 months old by the time he was riding the goats and mini around. I loaded him in the trailer and took him back to mom's house the next day.

Steers are like wethers and still want to "jump".

 

D Bar J Acres thats kinda funny, we have the opposite problem with our calf. She's about 5 months old and lives with the big bucks and the bucks are in full rut. Their keep taking turns trying to ride HER instead. So I guess it runs both ways, lol.

Ray

 

Jennie, this is one of the problems we had with the calves, until we started weaning them off the cow at 2 mo. and putting new ones on. It seems that after 2 mo. old the calves get more aggressive toward the goats.
The cow and goats have the same pasture...but the goats have their own area and shed. I am NOT feeding that cow alfalfa! There's a creep gate with a bar across it that the goats can escape from the calves.
Kaye

 

We've always raised our calves in with the bucks. I keep the calves in a small pen with shed till they are 3-4 weeks old, then turn them out with the bucks.
We've kept them with the bucks till up to 10 months old with no problems at all.
Becky

 

I used to have cows but not any more. They were not a problem with the goats but I don't miss that poop at all!

 

I've never kept the goats/calves together...but we've got plenty of space. The biggest thing is the hay/grain issue...the calves get free choice grain and no way do the goats get that much. Also we don't feed the calves alfalfa hay, just grass hay or pasture.