What do you feed your boers?

[allenslabs]

I am trying to make sure I am getting these boers all they need. I've got dairy goats down pat but understand there is a difference in the 2 styles of meat and dairy.
Right now I'm feeding them a 16% dairy mix and then just grass hay but will plan on feeding clover/timothy later on once the round bales get here. I would love to be able to feed square but around here that's about $3 a bale for what I can find versus $10 for these round bales and so even if they do waste a lot that's still cheaper. And so far they like even this grass stuff. Now the ones that have to be kept in the barn are fed alf/orchard grass mix as that's what I have in the square bales I stockpiled cheap in exchange for work.
Am I missing anything? They also have water of course and minerals in front at all times. How much do I need to feed per day without worrying about making them too fat. Right now they are getting about half a gal a day each.
Thanks for any and all help all!!

[KSALguy]

Alfalfa hay is the best for ALL of your goats if you can get it, the richer the hay is in legumes and leafy weeds and stuff the better if you have to use grass,
do they have access to good brows to eat all day? also hay all day is best so they have something both to munch on that wont make them sick and so they can balance any other food in their diet with the roughage from the hay,
its really no differint than feeding dairy you just dont need to grain them as much as long as they have plenty of Hay and Browse. grain is a supplement to them that is only needed when they dont have enough of everything else or are feeding multiple growing kids.
i would look into getting Alfalfa for all your goats if its available and reasonably priced,
other than that it sounds like your doing ok,

[KimM]

I'm still learning but for now I'm feeding, per head, 16% ADM Goat Power pellets, about 3 cups a day along with 1 cup each Forage Replacer pellets and 1/2 cup dry beet pulp. (fed in two feedings) plus free choice grass hay (that's all I can find) and what browse is left, when they'll leave the barn. I have a Sweetlix block out plus loose mineral.
They rarely touch the minerals.

Voices of experience, feel free to offer any suggestions!

There's a meat goat nutrition seminar I'm going to in November so I hope I'll learn a few more things.

[Sher]

Hi..we feed our boers pasture and alfalfa hay. No grain..unless you are a momma and just had kids. If you are..you will get a small ration of grain twice a day til they are weaned. Other than that..minerals and plenty of water.

They are fat and sassy on this..good luck to ya .. that is a nice looking herd you got!

[mammawof3]

We now feed a recipe we got on line-from a study done on meat goats-It comes up to being right at 10 1/2 cents a pound. We get it ground at Lawrence co. farm supply-it is similair to their "goat mix". We got the best growth on kids using a pellet-free choice from Oden feed mill-but that will run into money quickly-so we tried to find something to give similar results. The doe herd looks good on this-i think the replacement doe kids are getting fat-they get approx. 1 1/2 cups each-daily-the herd gets about 2 cups each daily-they all have access to round bales of grass mix hay (because that is what we bale-for the cows and horses-wish we had alfalfa!) and free choice to all the acorns, leaf falls ect, that the woods is supplying now-and wind fall pears. We also baled some briers/which they seem to enjiy! We also went to this feed, for the added decox and ammonium chloride-(stuff the pellets contained)-will see if, the does getting the small amount of decox will "clean up" the environment more, to not have a huge cocci load on the kids-(something else i read about)???? Won't know if this made a big difference,till after kidding --so. Still not so sure about the added ammonium chloride-we did loose a fair wether to urinary calculli this year-first time for that-we wanted a feed we could feed everything--our buck eats w/the girls-so--
I also noticed, that just the past 2 weeks-the herd is INHAILING the minerals--i mean, i can't keep enough out there!! Must have to do w/early pregnancy or something?? I put a 1 pound coffee can out-they ate it ALL in one day!!!--they have access to the minerals all the time-just are suddenly scarfing them-the replacement kids are not doing that w/theirs-so-- Enjoy your goaties!

[allenslabs]

Mamma~ I get my feed from Law Co Farm Supply also. They're pretty nice. So your feed mix isn't the mix they have available? I get my dairy mix there and it's a special mix I have and my goats LOVE that but it's too high I think for the boers (17.5-18.5%) so I thought I would try something different for them.
As far as grain goes I would rather feed a really good grain ration and be able to feed hay as it's just about cheaper that way. And I really to do aflalfa 1.it's hard to find and 2. if you do it's expensive for straight aflalfa ($65 for a straight round bale and 3-5 a bale for square) and so I think the clover/timothy should work. If not the neighbor will take it all off my hands for me. I know my horses will eat it and my dairy will still get the same as usually but I think the boers will take a bit less as far as hay goes as my dairy goats are saanens and they seem to eat a LOT! HAHA!! These boers though I'm suprised how well they're doing and how little they seem to eat in comparison. It's interesting.....

[mammawof3]

Originally Posted by allenslabs

Mamma~ I get my feed from Law Co Farm Supply also. They're pretty nice. So your feed mix isn't the mix they have available? I get my dairy mix there and it's a special mix I have and my goats LOVE that but it's too high I think for the boers (17.5-18.5%) so I thought I would try something different for them.
As far as grain goes I would rather feed a really good grain ration and be able to feed hay as it's just about cheaper that way. And I really to do aflalfa 1.it's hard to find and 2. if you do it's expensive for straight aflalfa ($65 for a straight round bale and 3-5 a bale for square) and so I think the clover/timothy should work. If not the neighbor will take it all off my hands for me. I know my horses will eat it and my dairy will still get the same as usually but I think the boers will take a bit less as far as hay goes as my dairy goats are saanens and they seem to eat a LOT! HAHA!! These boers though I'm suprised how well they're doing and how little they seem to eat in comparison. It's interesting.....

It is similair to their mix-BTW my goats LOVE their mix also!! Anyway-it comes out to around 15%-which i think is fine for the Boers--my 2 dairy get it also--but have not milked them on it yet? We will see...
500 lbs. rolled corn
160 pounds beanmeal
30 pounds dry mollasses
100 pounds alfalfa pellets
175 lbs. soybean hulls
10 lbs. ammonium chloride
5 lbs. goat mineral
7 1/5 lbs. calcium
3 lbs. Decoxx
3 1/2 lbs. ADE
Yes, they are nice people there. Not sure how this compares in price to their mix-i did use their mix this summer when i was milking. But don't remember cost-i could look back on records i guess. This looks and smells alot like theirs--my goats love it.