Grain feeding goats

[Rob30]

I keep 35 boer cross goats. Some with very large horns. I am looking for ideas on how people manage feeding large numbers of horned goats their grain. I want to suppliment the hay because I don't think they are getting enough out of it. Plus most are in their third trimester, some have already kidded.
I know local sheep farmers just lay the grain in a windrow on the snow, but that seems like they would waste alot, and I keep my goats in paddock, so they don't have enough clean areas.

[goatkid]

When I worked for a goat breeder, I grained her horned Boers in those rubber feed bowls they sell at the feed store. I scattered several throughout the pen and the goats ate with goats they got along with.

[MillsFarmFamily]

We have boers and my DH devised troughs from large PVC pipes (10"-12") he got from the road crews that were just discarding them. He sawed them in 1/2 lengthwise and then added wooden legs. Works great, and if you put them in the pen perpendicular to the fence goats can eat from either side.

[fishhead]

My goats wouldn't eat much of the grain that fell on the ground. I built a trough but got tired of being battered around while trying to add grain.

[trnubian]

It sounds like it would be "safer" for you if you did not have to get in with your goats to feed. They do love thier grain, but that's a lot of goats comin at you at one time.

when we had sheep (about 50) we would use 2 by 8's and nail them in a V shape for the trough. The legs were a sort of X on either end. Kinda like a mager. Cheap and easy to make.

If I were you I would put it along a fence row where you didn't have to enter the paddock. Just pour it over the fence into a feeder.

[annie716]

We have about 25 Boer x's in one group and feed with several feeders on the floor, we have one feeder attached to the wall that I make out of hardwood boards, its about 4 inches deep and wide, about 10 feet long and worked really great when it was along the side of the pen that could be reached from the alley, now it's a race to get the pellets in before we get trampled. When we redid the pen we had to hang our hay racks on that side. We have 4 plastic half barrels (prob 20 gal size) when I feed I put some in one and drop that as fast a possible while carrying a bucket to the others that I first put in different locations around the pen and the wall feeder. Have to move real fast to stay ahead of them as they always think the next dish is going to be something better. We really need to come up with a better way too, just haven't had the time to think about it!

[arcticow]

If you just want to supplement, have you considered cottonseed cake or maybe a beef concentrate cube(range cubes)? I have fed them to dairy does, can be spread out on top of hay or fed in troughs. Takes more time for them to eat,gives them something to chew on, and very little waste compared to grain.

[DocM]

Instead of trying to saw long lengths of PVC pipe, just get 10' lengths of plastic rain gutter, thread them through the holes in cinder blocks, set them around, supplement with sweetlix meat maker blocks. When I pasture grain my sheep, I have a separate penned off area in a corner that I feed in. It has an outside gate and a gate into the open part of the pen. I pour a little grain on the ground in the pen, step into the small area, close the gate, fill the feeders, then let the animals in. That way I don't get trampled while trying to fill the feeders. All my goats are dehorned and I feed them conventionally, through a gated head feeder (actually hog panel wire they can stick their heads through) and I stand outside the pen to feed them.