Feeding milking does without store feed?

[Dirtslinger]

Are there home grown feeds that can be used in lieu of bags from the feed store? I'd like to grow as much feed as possible for storage over winter, and hoping there are good home-made alternatives.

[Bearfootfarm]

All feeds are "home grown" The ones you buy are just grown at someone else's home. You can grow whatever is good in your area, but without the equipment to harvest and process it, it may be hard to produce enough to serve your needs. Also, the feeds you buy often have additives such as minerals and vitamins that you wont be able to add yourself.

A lot depends on how many animals youre trying to feed. With just a few you may be able to raise enough yourself to supply them, but unless you have the land and machinery to grow and harvest grain crops, you will be just as well off to buy it. If you have storage facilities for a years worth, you should try to find a place to buy in bulk instead of "by the bag" Unless you have several acres to devote to grain crops, theres no way you can grow the variety that is found in purchased feeds, in quantites sufficient to feed more than one or two animals for a year.

[Dirtslinger]

I have no way to harvest grain crops, aside from sunflowers and corn. I can easily do winter squash for storage. And any crops that store ok.
Plan was to offer loose minerals.
Buying feed from the store during the entire lactation and pregnancy period really takes away from the self sufficient aspect which attracted me to goats in the first place. I'm hoping to find a home grown alternative that doesn't leave the girls deficient in any way.

[Blue Oak Ranch]

I feed mine a grain mix that I mix myself: 4 parts organic whole oats, 2 parts organic whole wheat, 1 part organic cracked corn, 1 part black oil sunflower seed, and 1 part calf manna.

I like the results I see with this grain - good condition and lots of milk. Whole grains with lots of soluble fiber improve the butterfat. No molasses - it changes rumen pH and my does hate it anyway. Growing kids get a little, adult does get it only in the last part of their pregnancies and on the milkstand. Bucks only get it when they're getting their hooves trimmed/shots/etc.. The goats are fed organic alfalfa pellets, browse, and pasture.

With the exception of the calf manna, I *could* grow everything here...I just couldn't harvest it or store it efficiently. The organic feed component is a big plus for me. I'm lucky, though, to have a feed store that carries organic whole grain for a decent cost (about $14-19 a bag, depending). Yes, more expensive - but, I don't have to pay for machinery, labor, or equipment to harvest or threshing, and don't have to pay for a building large enough to store a year's supply. I don't have enough land to grow a year's supply, though - a single winter, maybe....

If you're lucky enough to have the equipment and the storage, whole grains are going to be your best bet - oats, barley, wheat. Corn is fine in small amounts, but it's labor intensive to husk and shell corn by hand. You'd have to have a good estimate of how much grain you need per doe and translate that into how much to plant. A lot of that, too, will depend on the fertility of your soil and your growing season.

If you're talking green stuff - browse, pasture, hay diet - that's different than milking grain to provide energy and increase milk production. You can raise dairy goats on pasture/browse alone - but you need a good pasture/browse stand management and a large area to rotate them around in. There was a study on pasture feeding done comparing milk production on pasture vs. alfalfa....but I dont' have the link any more - search for forage and dairy goats and you should find it. The forage based milk production was pretty good! I don't remember whether they also used a grain, though.

Cheers!

Katherine

[APPway]

Blue Oak Ranch
I have to ask as I am not really sure but I notice you feed all organic but by feeding the calf manna would not that make the animals then classified non organic.
The reason I am asking is I have been thinking about adding it to my feeds but did not know what it would do to the organic feeding program and resale of organic fed

Thanks for any Info

APPway

[stanb999]

Originally Posted by Dirtslinger

Are there home grown feeds that can be used in lieu of bags from the feed store? I'd like to grow as much feed as possible for storage over winter, and hoping there are good home-made alternatives.

Why not try to nix the grain and go with a diet of alfalfa and veggies/ with good grass hay. This would be an easy diet to do and keep the goats in good condition.

I'm going to be feeding a sunflower and buckwheat mix with the whole plant ground in. This with the mineral supp. will be a complete ration. As the only thing the sunflower lacks is lysine and the buckwheat is quite hi in this. With this you have to treat it as strait grain because the goats can get fat if given too much. Sun flowers are high in fat.

Most of the answers you get here are from people with pet goats. So be for warned.

I hope this helps.

[LMonty]

any reason why you cant feed whole dried "corn on the cob"?

[Laura Workman]

Whole dry corn can crack their teeth, but if you shell it and crack it in a mill, you should be good to go.

You can also grow root crops to feed through the winter. People did that a lot before there were feedstores. However, be prepared to spend considerable time growing, harvesting, washing, and chopping your root crops. Kale is a good forage crop, as is comfrey. If you get an older version of David Mackenzie's "Goat Husbandry," you will find that he goes into some detail with regard to feeding goats with minimal "feed store" input.

[Tam319]

If you are interested in feeding grain but want the 'do it yourself' aspect why not try to find a local area farmer who will sell you bulk grain.

I buy my grain bulk from the local feed mill. They will mix the ration to my specifications.

Good luck,

[Patty0315]

Feeding whole corn will lead to bloat and fat goats.. Not to argue with Stan But lots of us do not just have pet goats. Some of us expect are goats not only to pay for themselves but also bring in an income !

Goats will eat almost any root crop , squash , pumpkin etc. Sunflowers are good also.There main part should be oats or barley. Look into Amsih farmers if you have any. There are many machines that can handle smaller yield crops and they may be able to help you . Maybe Lehmans has something. You may also be able to buy in bulk from local farmers. Look around you may be surprised at what you find.

Patty

[FalconDance]

Ditto on the above. If you can't grow your own grain, local farmers will often sell you surplus from their fields. Our local grain mill used to mix my grains at no extra charge and it was a LOT cheaper than the already-packaged stuff. A great deal more nutritious, I'd bet, as well (although couldn't prove it unless it was analyzed, I imagine). I was even able to purchase the blackstrap molasses at the elevator that I then mixed in with the nursing does grain. Kinda messy, but I used a galvanized washtub on a stand (no bending over!) and it worked like a charm .

For minerals, a feed store found me a goat safe mineral block. I'd chip off little bits to put in for the rabbits, too, and everyone was happy and healthy.

~Falcon

[Patty0315]

You want to use loose minerals . Goats cannot get enough from the blocks. If they don't carry a good goat mineral use a cow one.

Yes I can also get molasses from the mill. I mix my feed 4 parts oats , 1 cracked corn , 1 sweet feed {in winter} , and 1 boss.

Advantage is not only are the goats doing well on it but I can feed it to the whole barn ! No seperate feed for each group of animals.

Patty

[stanb999]

Originally Posted by Patty0315

You want to use loose minerals . Goats cannot get enough from the blocks. If they don't carry a good goat mineral use a cow one.

Yes I can also get molasses from the mill. I mix my feed 4 parts oats , 1 cracked corn , 1 sweet feed {in winter} , and 1 boss.

Advantage is not only are the goats doing well on it but I can feed it to the whole barn ! No seperate feed for each group of animals.

Patty

But I still think you can raise goats without going to the feed store. They are raised without the grain all over the world.

I also agree that keeping one bulk feed is better if you can feed it to everyone. Thats my plan with the sunflower and buckwheat mix. I figure if I plant about 1 half acre of each that would yield about 1500 lbs of seed and another 3000 lbs of stalk/hay or 4500 lbs of feed. The prep./seed time is about 1 day. The harvest is about 2 days or about 3 work days total.
With feed prices at about 12 cents a pound thats 540.00 dollars of feed. This time frame is for harvesting by hand. Thats 160.00 a day. Not too bad.

[Egypt Run]

what is boss?

[Oldntimes]

BOSS
(B)lack (O)iled (S)unflower (S)eeds

[Patty0315]

Yes you can raise them without store bought feed. But the demands of milk production with yields that we expect will not happen without good grain. If you can grow and process your own then you can go without the feed store for the most part.

Patty

[Blue Oak Ranch]

Originally Posted by APPway

Blue Oak Ranch
I have to ask as I am not really sure but I notice you feed all organic but by feeding the calf manna would not that make the animals then classified non organic.
The reason I am asking is I have been thinking about adding it to my feeds but did not know what it would do to the organic feeding program and resale of organic fed

Thanks for any Info

APPway

Yep - the goats are not certified organic. I feed as much organic as I can, but I can't fully go organic with the goats because I give them supplements and meds (copper, minerals, antibiotics, wormers) when they need it. These are show animals as well as my milk girls....and I'm not going to let them suffer from something treatable. They're more likely to stress or pick up disease from shows than stay-at-home goats, and the weather here is so mild we don't have good parasite kill - no freezing temps. So....they're as organic as I can make them, and I don't give them meds just for the heck of it.

If I didn't show....well, then I think they'd be fine without meds. They also need to be large and well grown enough to compete, so good parasite management is key to avoiding stunted growth (just ask me about my two rescue goats). If I were willing to take a loss on an animal due to accident, then no meds would be okay as well. I had the does get into the avocado trees last year, which are highly toxic to goats. If they were strictly organic, they'd be dead because I wouldn't have been able to treat them. I can't afford to lose $800 show animals. I couldn't just watch them suffer and die. Once treated with medications, they'd have to be pulled from organic production.

So, in the long run, the only non-organic feed they get is the Calf Manna and the black oil sunflower (very, very expensive to get organic, and I can't get it in quantity). I will be growing a bunch of BOSS this year, so some of it will be organic (how much will depend on if I can store it and if I can beat the birds to harvest ). I figure the benefit of the amount I feed per goat per day is worth the fact that it's non organic, since they're not certified organic anyway. I make sure my customers know my feed program and my approach to meds...and most are fine with that. It's still better than anything else they can get locally.

For me, a lot of the organic feeds are fed because of the lack of pesticides, herbicides, and so forth - a lot of bagged grain is now sprayed with something weird that makes the back of my throat close up - to keep the insects out, the feed company said. Ick. Roundup Ready alfalfa is already being trialed and sold in California - no way do I want my goats eating hay that has been sprayed up to 6 times a year with Roundup.

My poultry are raised organically - turkeys and meat birds. The most they get on meds is if they're injured, and that's usually pine pitch salve and superglue for suturing wounds. I rarely have such problems, though. My old show birds/rare genetics birds were treated the same as the goats - nearly impossible to duplicate bloodlines were given meds to save their lives. I don't have those any more, but will be getting layers this year for organic eggs.

I think you can do dairy goats on little purchased feed - a lot of that will depend on how many goats, the area/range you have for them, and the available time you have to put into it. Hay is going to be your biggie, unless you have adequate forage all year round and can manage it effectively. The root crops and squash are a good addition, but they can't completely take the place of hay and/or browse. For milking does to produce at the rates I expect, grain helps reach those production goals without having goats that look like walking skeletons. Yes, many goats are raised and milked all over the world without grain or purchased feeds or meds - but frankly, I don't want my goats to look like those goats. I don't have acres and acres of brush and a little boy to herd them all day, and I want a goat to give a gallon a day, not a cup - and still place well at the shows. I know a lady here that doesn't do meds or deworming - she milks 10-12 does in season and gets MAYBE 1 1/2 to 2 gallons of milk a day at peak. From all of them combined! I don't have that much time for such small returns.

A lot of livestock production is going to be region-specific - your parasites, your available feeds, your native browse and available land. So it's hard to say one formula fits all. What might be your best option is to raise your goats conventionally for a year - and then experiment with their diets. If you still see the same growth rates and milk production, you're doing great! Bartering milk for hay and grain with a neighboring farmer might work for you too.

Cheers!

Katherine

[farmgirlmama]

I want this info too......

[APPway]

Thanks Katherine
I knew your Poultry were all organic as are mine but I have been trying to figure a way for the goats to be Thought maybe You would have a answer LOL
I understand about the sprayed Alfalfa. That is why we grow are own also it has been organic for the last 6 years and just beautiful.
Keep up the good Work
APPway

[homeacremom]

Originally Posted by Laura Jensen

Kale is a good forage crop, as is comfrey.

I don't think kale is such a good idea actually. All brassica crops like kale are iodine inhibitors just like false tansy (flixweed). Perhaps in small amounts there would be no harm done but I'd rather stay away from it altogether. HTH