What Is Goat Colostrum? (Answered!)

I was talking with my friend the other day about whether or not health supplements are of any use in the average person’s life.

There are so many on the market now, we agreed, that surely there was a lot of nonsense to comb through to get to the really valuable stuff.

Everything is marketed as a dietary supplement now, more or less.

Since I keep goats, though, one thing he mentioned, which surprised me, was that he had seen something called goat colostrum as a supplement.

He didn’t know what this was—I was able to illuminate him.

What is goat colostrum?

Colostrum is the first thing that your goat’s udders will produce days after kidding. It is not quite milk, but rather a richer and somewhat fattier substance designed to help kids through those really vital first few days. It’s a kid’s essential first food.

Colostrum might be called a kind of proto-milk, then.

It’s produced by the same glands that ultimately produce milk, but it isn’t quite milk yet.

It’s something else.

Like many species, the first couple of days of a goat’s development see a huge amount of weight gain.

Colostrum is really essential to that.

Let’s look further into this.

 

What is goat colostrum good for?

That depends on whom you are asking for.

I’ll get into its advantages as a dietary supplement for humans in a little bit, but as a goat keeper, there’s one thing that you really need to know about colostrum.

Colostrum is essentially a richer, fattier form of milk that is produced by a doe a few days after kidding.

It helps the kid through those critical first few days, when it really needs to gain a great deal of weight on each day.

Ordinary milk wouldn’t provide for everything it needed.

So, colostrum is vitally important in the development of any kid.

If the kids aren’t being suckled from the mother immediately, then they will need some kind of colostrum replacement.

You cannot just bottle feed them a milk alternative.

It also grants them immunity against disease in only the first few hours.

The kid should suckle an adequate amount of its mother’s colostrum within those first 12 hours to have the best chance of survival.

As you can see, it plays an absolutely essential and critical role in the early development of kids.

However, it has also become a miracle dietary supplement.

 

Does goat colostrum work?

First of all, let’s contextualize this question.

When we ask, in a general sense, does it work, we can say yes.

Colostrum is essentially a special formula that plays an absolutely vital role in the development of a kid immediately following its birth.

Colostrum strengthens the goat, prepares its immune system against disease, and helps to build a maternal bond between goat and kid.

The broader question, though, is about whether colostrum ‘works’ as a dietary supplement for humans.

The only answer is that it really depends on what you want it to do.

Colostrum comes from many animals, and it is rich in immunoglobins, lactoferrin, and many antibodies.

So, it is most commonly touted as an immune system booster.

A variety of small-scale clinical trials have shown a number of auto-immune benefits to consumption of colostrum.

So, there is some evidence it does have concrete benefits.

The next thing you’re probably wondering is if it’s palatable.

 

What does goat colostrum taste like?

Well, firstly, colostrum typically is not consumed in the raw form as it comes out of the goat.

It is condensed into pill form, most likely—it would not be palatable to most of us in liquid or raw form.

So, I would really just say you needn’t worry what it tastes like.

It shouldn’t taste of anything, as long as you swallow the capsule without breaking it.

If you were wondering about adding colostrum supplements to your diet but were worriked about the taste, don’t be.

In pill form, its tasteless.

 

What happens if a baby goat doesn’t get colostrum?

The short answer is that it would be very, very bad, and the goat most likely would not survive.

If the goat doesn’t get colostrum and isn’t being intervened on by humans to provide it something, then this means it isn’t being fed at all.

It is only prepared to drink colostrum in those first few days.

If the goat gets milk but no colostrum, its immune system will be massively diminished.

As I said, antibodies are one of the most important things contained within colostrum.

While you will get some amount from ordinary milk, it won’t be enough.

What can often happen in kids is that they lack the strength to stand up, bleat, and suckle.

In this case, the doe may struggle to form a bond with it at all, let alone the lack of nutrients from not feeding.

The simple answer to the above question is that the goat would die.

So, make sure it gets colostrum.

 

What does colostrum do for adults?

Colostrum has become something of a wonder-child in the dietary supplement world, then.

It is extremely rich in fat and proteins, and so condensed and formulated in the right way, there’s good evidence it works well as a supplement.

In any case, as a goat owner, what you should be concerned about is whether or not any newborn kids are getting the right amount of colostrum.

Those first few days are really critical, so if for whatever reason your goat is not suckling the kid, you need to be sure they get plenty of colostrum.