grain ???

[caroline00]

We have 2 goats and one cow.
I give my goats a 12% sweet feed and my cow a 16% dairy grain while milking. Can I give my goats the 16% or do cows get things in thier feed that goats cant have? They both cost about the same. I see pellets in the goat grain and bits of corn in the cow grain...

What do you think?

[HappyFarmer]

Typically meat goats get up to 18% protein depending on age & season. We normally feed sweet feed, 16%. We add sunflower seeds for additional protein & a shiny coat, and of course loose minerals. We have meat goats, so protein is important. Milkers may have different needs, but I doubt it would hurt them.

Many say sweet feed for goats can cause rumen problems when the molasses turns to acid. This may be so however I've never experienced any problems.

[mygoat]

Sweet feed isn't exactly desireable for goats. A dry feed formulated for goats in particular. It's usually pelleted. I feed Kent goat feed, as example. The molasses in sweetfeed, i've heard, isn't good for goats.
16% is the most common type fed to goats, I'd say. Also, it depends on what you're feeding; Wethers and bucks should NOT get grain, and only pregnant or lactating goats really need it. My goats only get grain if they're pregnant or lactating, so dry does, bucks, as wethers do NOT get grain. If you don't feed grain you should either have a really good browse filled pasture (weedy/brushy) and/or hay availible 24/7.

[DocM]

I feed a dairy goat feed which is basically dry cob with pellets. I now stay away from sweet feeds for three reasons: it molds easy, my goats will fight to get at it, and it attracts more nasty rodent type animals to my barn. Nutrena makes it and it is formulated at 16% protein. I feed it to my bucks and working wethers too, but they don't get very much. It's more of a treat for them.

This is just one of several threads about feed. I think so much depends on where you live, what kind of conditions and stresses your animals face (shows, extreme cold, multiple kids, milk production), and I really doubt anyone feeds the same way or the same feed year round, I sure don't. My goats are on different diets every season, either getting ready to kid, showing, drying off, pregnant and lazy.. You need to experiment until you know what it takes to keep your own goats in the condition you want them. Admittedly, I like my girls to look like they have some meat on their bones - translated, they're a little fat - not too bad, but I like to see them come through winter without needing a ton of conditioning to get ready for show season. I am constantly adjusting the diet for individual animals too, my dry yearlings don't eat the same as my 7 yr old doe in her fifth pregnancy. Add in supplements for what your area lacks, be it copper, selenium, or both, or maybe like me, you have a goat that is constantly borderline on thiamine, or maybe again like me you have 2 does that are always fatter than cows no matter what you feed and then some that look skinny and you're trying to bulk them up with extra beet pulp and such.

Ask 20 goat owners what they feed, get 20 answers. Listen to your gut (or your goat's guts)

[HappyFarmer]

[QUOTE=DocM], or maybe again like me you have 2 does that are always fatter than cows no matter what you feed

lol. I have one who looks pregnant ALL the time (She's wormed!). She just has a really, really good working rumen.

[PygmyLover]

it is always good to give a 16% or higher grain. I love sweet feed, my goats have done well on the same feed for 12 years.

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

My grain is only a 12%, no molassas. My goats get their protein from the alfalfa pellets they eat 17%. Anything above 12% to 14% in your grain means it has soy or cottonseed meal in it, or fish and feather meal My grain is raw grains...oats, barley some corn.

The biggy with molassas is the iron, the acidosis it causes in the rumen and the FLIES. It also masks really enferior products that a goat would not normally eat in grain mixes...including molds, rancid oils, and keeps the dust down in chaff (called grain by products on tags). And pellets can be the worst offenders, they contain alot of molassas. Biggest offenders are the cheaper horse and mule type feeds, or the cheapest class of sweetfeed your feed dealer carries. It's quite literally an all by products feed tag because it is everything left over from that weeks milling, literally swept into the hopper, a mineral called calf pack is added and liquid molassas summers and dry molassas winters (so the sack doesn't turn to cement) and you are paying $7 for a 50 pound sack of chefs choice that is up to 25% molassas.

So, it's not just that this product is good and this product is bad, it's how it's used in conjunction with other things. Vicki

[mpillow]

I go 1 bag sweet(14%) and 1 bag not sweet(16%) and mix( this helps solve the cement bag issue).....I like the added molasses in winter(it gets cold here) and I've gone down to 14% sweet animal feed(non-specific)....that I also feed to calf, pigs (1 part 14%sweet 3 parts corn at finishing stage) and the chickens get it sometimes too if I run out of layer pellets. The only alfalfa pellet is rabbit food around here....but our hay is really good stuff...plus mangels and pumpkins.

All is well with the farm critters despite all the rain.