Feeding
Whether
you are a novice goat owner to an experienced rancher, it seems there
are always the constant questions about what and how much to feed.
After many, many changes over the years with our herd, figuring out
what works best and what doesn't, I think we have finally narrowed
things down for our herd. But as always, one thing is not going to
work for everyone. Depending on what part of the country you are in,
whether you are dry-lot feeding or pasture raising your goats,
management and feeding issues are going to vary.
Goats
have many nutritional requirements and are one of the harder to keep
livestock, at times. Milking does and growing kids need calcium. The
most common source of calcium for goats is good Alfalfa hay or
pellets.
Remember
when you are feeding goats, you are feeding the rumen. The goats
rumen is a very complex system, and requires lots of nutrients from
hay, pasture and browse. Goats are browsers, which means they eat
lots of forage and cannot do well just off of a pelleted or grain
based diet. Turned out in a lot with forest and grass pasture,
typically the goats will go to the forest first and eat the leaves,
bark and various things first before going to eat the grass. Whereas
sheep on the otherhand, will not typically eat the leaves and bark
like goats do, they'll go straight for the grass (which has earned
them many nicknames, but this book isn't about sheep).
What
we have been feeding our herd for years now, is this.
Milkers
get Alfalfa or Alfalfa/Orchard grass hay twice a day. After the
morning feeding, during the pasture months, they will go out and
browse all day long. During the winter months, they get fed more hay.
On the milk stand, each milker gets between 1 to 1.5 pounds of grain
each milkling. So a doe, depending on production and size,will get a
total of 2 to 3 pounds of grain a day. We feed a 14% protein grain,
with 3-4% fat.
Kids
get fed grain once a day and then are given lots of alfalfa or
alfalfa/orchard grass hay. It is best for kids to have free-feed hay.
I am not a big grain fan, so if the kids are growing well and don't
seem to be lacking, they will not get any grain at all, only hay and
milk. If you are bottle raising your kids, the longer you can keep
them on the milk bottle, the better. They get a much better start in
life this way. Our kids are typically bottle fed until 5 months of
age.
Dry
does and bucks get pasture all day (when it's there), and alfalfa or
alfalfa/orchard grass at least once a day. If the pasture is not
good, they get fed hay once in the morning and once in the evening.
If
there is any animal that is thin for some reason, first start out
with trying to figure out why they are thin. Worms, mineral
deficiency, etc. Once you have that taken care of, you can give them
Black Oil Sunflower Seeds, Rice Bran, Soybean Meal or Calf Manna as
these are all very high in fat and protein.
Suriyah
