Bucks can breed for quite sometime. Someone on here had a 10 year old (I think) breed their girls last year.

As far as the alfalfa goes. It is high in calcium. You want their total diet to be a 2:1 calcium to phosphorus. I believe alfalfa is a 5:1 ratio so you would have to feed something else to balance that ratio out.
Ammonium chloride or other acid agents will not dissolve calcium stones like it would phosphorus stones. The only fix if he were to get a calcium stone from too much calcium is surgery if he can't pass it on his own.

just a tip for getting your first buck, secure his area as if it were Fort Knox! Bucks can be very destructive and escape artist.

 

Just a note on him being registered: Papers doesnt mean better quality. I have lived in both worlds and while registered offers lineage background and such...i have seen some poor quality goats that should have never been registered. If running registered goats is a future you are hoping to do, .then yes..get registered so when you get registered girls, their offspring can be registered etc.. ask to see his dams udder and daughters matured udders...
With that said...as mentioned, a healthy well bred Bucks can work for many years. But how they are fed, mineral intake and how hard they were worked can make a difference. At 4 years old..hes not old, so unless there is some under lining issues...he should be able to service for many years.

I want to ditto the above statement about having a buck pen set up. Dont share a fence with the ladies, give some space between. And he will need a buddy...a lonely buck can be destructive and can turn mean. A wether buddy matched with his size and age, horns or no horns etc will make a huge difference.

You can balance alfalfa with grass hay, forage and graze.

Best wishes on your next step in goats!!

 

I HIGHLY recommend electric fence installed inside a strong physical fence. Keeps them from being able to figure out how to destroy the physical fence. I don’t trust just electric for bucks. Ever. The hormones are real.

 

congrats! i love my boys, but they do not have a brain in the fall. Totally gone. I forgot to trim my boys this summer, so i decided to yesterday. OMG it was so much harder then it needed to be. They were just nuts. should of took me all of a half an hour, took 2 hours and im sore. Didnt help that my "old" doe decided to come down and visit the boys.

I used to have a two fence setup, but now i had to make it one. It sucks during rut. I bought a quality hot wire solar charger. Well its not very high quality. I have had four replacements and it decided to stop working again last week. I am just trying to charge 3oo feet of wire. '
So if you can use an electric/battery charge zappr not solar. I use horse no-climb which works really well.

Anyways 9 months out of the year my boys are super easy going. Get fat on air and not super stinky. Now they are dripping urine, make goofy noises that the neighbor laughs at and just want to fight with each other none stop. I do have 5 bucks though... 2025 to my old guy who is 2018. The "old" man is very liked in the doe herd. They adore him. I have kept too many daughters of his, so he wont get anyone this year and hopes he will sell soon(hes much too nice to retire here).

I wouldnt care on age, you can have his semen tested for quality if your spending the big bucks Younger is easier to handle but being a mature adult you kind of know what you are getting into.
keep us updated on your search.