Milk Goat Feed Question

[TheNelsons]

I am having trouble finding dairy goat feed here where I live and what I can find is VERY pricey.
I was wondering if anyone has a good combination that they use? Is there anything I can add to either goat/kid or sweet feed to up the protein levels?

Thanks,
~Steph

[BlueHeronFarm]

We use a dairy lactation feed that is marketed for both cows and goats. (acco brand) BUT - if you are home-mixing barley is very high in protein. Alfalfa pellets are good, too - also high in calcium. A lot of people here make their own mixes -- you're sure to get other good suggestions.

[DQ]

I happened across the feed breakdown of the feed used in the meat goat performance test at langston university. it was remarkably similiar to equine senior products. I'm not sure if it was used as a full feed or supplement to forage products at this point. I have found a local feed mill that produces an equine senior product that has alfalfa (high calcium) as one of its main ingredients along with grain products. 16% protein. I am currently switching slowly to this. and I think my doe may have actually gained weight and she freshened two weeks ago! from everything I read I was expecting her to lose weight. I was mixing grain and alfalfa pellets. this sure simplifies things, just a thought.

[trnubian]

I use a cattle dairy pellet that I get from my KENT dealer at our local elevator. It is a 38% protein. (The dairy pellet makes them milk like little cows )

I mix the pellet with oats, and cracked corn.

for 10 lb. I mix (18% protein feed)

3.5 lb. of oats
3.5 lb. of cracked corn
3 lb. of dairy pellet

[southerngurl]

I mix about 2 parts Barley, 1 part Oats and 1 part Black Oil Sunflower Seeds.

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Steph a vet near you in Seguin has her does photo on the front of the Acco Doe-lac, so I know it is in your area. I have her email if you want to contact her and see what she is using...I know she improves the doe-lac with black oil sunflower seeds and a supplement knock off of Calf Manna and some oats.....I improve oats with a calfmanna knock off and crimped corn So I don't have to feed the doe-lac

Not a fan of sacked by product feed tags you have no idea what is in it...and Langston's formula is for meat goats, fine for bucks and growing doelings, not a dairy feed though. And you want to move away from high percentage mollassed feeds. Most goat labels are expensive by product feed tags that contain little real nutriton and it's why you have to feed it at 1 pound for every 30 to 50 pounds of body weight!

Dairy goats milk from alfalfa...they keep their body wieght from grain, might just as well use real grain. They drink more water from their cravings of salt, so use this to have a mineral salt out that has all the other parts of the nutrition (copper, phos, selenium, kelp, yeast, probiotics etc...) they need. Most other things, passed the alfalfa for protein and calicum, oats for carbs, corn or BOSS for fat, is fluff. Vicki

[lynpea]

Originally Posted by Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians

Steph a vet near you in Seguin has her does photo on the front of the Acco Doe-lac, so I know it is in your area. I have her email if you want to contact her and see what she is using...I know she improves the doe-lac with black oil sunflower seeds and a supplement knock off of Calf Manna and some oats.....I improve oats with a calfmanna knock off and crimped corn So I don't have to feed the doe-lac

Not a fan of sacked by product feed tags you have no idea what is in it...and Langston's formula is for meat goats, fine for bucks and growing doelings, not a dairy feed though. And you want to move away from high percentage mollassed feeds. Most goat labels are expensive by product feed tags that contain little real nutriton and it's why you have to feed it at 1 pound for every 30 to 50 pounds of body weight!

Dairy goats milk from alfalfa...they keep their body wieght from grain, might just as well use real grain. They drink more water from their cravings of salt, so use this to have a mineral salt out that has all the other parts of the nutrition (copper, phos, selenium, kelp, yeast, probiotics etc...) they need. Most other things, passed the alfalfa for protein and calicum, oats for carbs, corn or BOSS for fat, is fluff. Vicki

so what would be the % on this? Just alfalfa, corn and oats?

[CountryHaven]

Here is the exact quantity that I mix. I'm sure some will have differing views as to it's quality but it works wonderfully for me and the girls look good, milk good, and love it once they're used to it. Each bag is 50 pounds:

1 bag cracked corn
3/4 bag sweet feed
1/2 bag oats
1/2 bag rolled barley
1/4 bag shredded beet pulp
1/4 bag black oil sunflower seed

That makes about 150 pounds of mix (fills one large garbage can) and costs $21.00 for the 150 pound mix. Total cost of all of the various bags is more than that, but I have left overs of the oats, barley, to make another batch, and of the beet pulp and BOSS to make 3 more so it breaks down to about $21.00 per 150 pound batch for me.

[CountryHaven]

Oh I also feed my dairy girls one pound of alfalfa pellets in the morning, and one pound in the evening seperate from the mix above.

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

I feed 3 pounds of alfalfa pellets to each of my goats each day....milkers, dry does (there are few ever unless they are very bred) bucks and kids, obviously the kids don't eat anywhere near 3 pounds, they get as much as they want always...leftovers in the feeders each day are part of the bucks ration.

I am using 6 pounds of good clean race horse oats, 1 pound of good clean crimped corn, (there should be no powder in eaither bag) 1 pound of a knock off of calf manna, and 1 pound of soybeanmeal. This is mixed together fed to the kids as much as they want without being wasteful, the kids are now 6 to 10 weeks old and are eating alot already even though they are on full milk...I fed this mix years ago, and had forgotten just how much kids love soybeanmeal. I changed the BOSS in it to corn because of the price of BOSS here and my feed dealer (who although I am in the National Forest is only 10 minutes from my farm) doesn't carry them.

The girls are getting between 1 and 2 pounds on the milkstand at each milking.

Now I do have a wonderful mineral mix....Bluebonnet Tech Master Complete..it is a quality product...I also copper bolus my stock and give bo-se shots, which are pretty much a must for my area. So having a mineral mix in a sacked feed isn't important to me. I don't feed sweet feeds. A sweet feed isn't going to add anything but byproducts to you mixture, and molassas which draws flies and makes for an acidic rumen that you then really do need to have baking soda out. I don't want to feed baking soda because it is another source of sodium and I want my girls when they crave their salt to go to their mineral. Vicki

[trnubian]

Originally Posted by lynpea

so what would be the % on this? Just alfalfa, corn and oats?

The alfalfa hay can be as high as 19% protein. Or much much lower depending on the quality of the hay.

Corn protein averges out at around 8% and oats average around 12%.

So depending on how you mix the grain (not the alfalfa) you will never get anything higher than 12% protein (you would have to feed straight oats in order to do that. A half and half in lb. of corn and oats is a 10% protein feed.

[ailsaek]

Could a person just grow the horse corn, oats, sunflower seeds, and alfalfa instead of buying it? And where does pasture come into things?

[CountryHaven]

Good point on the sweet feed vicki and I am planning on phasing that out. I had put it in because most of the girls were used to sweet feed prior and the taste of it got them eating the 'dryer' feed. I think I'm going to up the barley and oats in my mix and do away with the sweetfeed in the next mixture.

[CountryHaven]

Pasture would come into play in the either 'free choice hay' or 'pasture' or a combo of both. Hay wasn't mentioned in my posts because I just left it at 'assumed' that all the girls got free choice hay along with the posted grains. Since the original poster was concerned about the cost of bagged feed that's what I was posting towards.

My girls get the grain mix on the milk stand twice a day.
Alfalfa pellets in their stalls morning and night.
Free choice hay and pasture during the day
Free choice hay in their stalls at night.
Fresh water in all locations (except the milk stand of course)
Free choice minerals in their stalls.

I still need to make minerals available to them outside but haven't yet managed to put up something that will keep it from getting wet if it rains. That's on my 'short list' of things to do.

[DQ]

the ingredients that are in the equine senior knock off are alfalfa and grain products, amongst of course, mineral supplements, brewers yeast etc....I see little difference in buying alfalfa pellets and grain products minerals, and probios and mixing it yourself when I can buy it essentially, pre-mixed. the downfall that I see, and am concerned about is that I really don't know what "grain products" contains. Many equine senior products contain beet pulp also, which many people seem to like to add to their goats feed. I like simple things when possible and don't want to be buying all sorts of products to have to mix and match if I can find something that is already done for me! I give a calf manna knock off (boost) also, to up the protein to my girl on the milk stand and everyone gets free choice alfalfa. the fact that the breakdown of the product was similiar to the meat goat performance test feed only turned me on to the idea of looking at an equine senior product as a feed for my goats , and I in no way wanted to suggest that a meat goat and a dairy goat have the exact same needs. but I would suggest it might be worth picking up and reading the feed tag of an equine senior product available in your area and comparing it to what you think your goats needs are.
I have to add that some of the equine senior products I looked into have too much molasses . the particular one I use has very little.

[TheNelsons]

Originally Posted by Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians

Steph a vet near you in Seguin has her does photo on the front of the Acco Doe-lac, so I know it is in your area. I have her email if you want to contact her and see what she is using...I know she improves the doe-lac with black oil sunflower seeds and a supplement knock off of Calf Manna and some oats.....I improve oats with a calfmanna knock off and crimped corn So I don't have to feed the doe-lac

Not a fan of sacked by product feed tags you have no idea what is in it...and Langston's formula is for meat goats, fine for bucks and growing doelings, not a dairy feed though. And you want to move away from high percentage mollassed feeds. Most goat labels are expensive by product feed tags that contain little real nutriton and it's why you have to feed it at 1 pound for every 30 to 50 pounds of body weight!

Dairy goats milk from alfalfa...they keep their body wieght from grain, might just as well use real grain. They drink more water from their cravings of salt, so use this to have a mineral salt out that has all the other parts of the nutrition (copper, phos, selenium, kelp, yeast, probiotics etc...) they need. Most other things, passed the alfalfa for protein and calicum, oats for carbs, corn or BOSS for fat, is fluff. Vicki

Vicki,

I know who you are talking about, we are very good friends and until lately I feed/milked her goats for her when she had to go out of town, but I am very pregnant now and can not. She does not use dairy lac anymore so it has become hard to find, I think she quit using it due to the cotton seed in it not being good for an LGD that gets into it.
She is currently using LaCuesta made by west, I think it is pricey, plus I have VERY few goats so I can not buy it in bulk.
Also I want to mix thier feed myself so I know what is in it.

I also wanted to say that I think you are the one she got that cute little bucking from this season, he is adorable and doing well.

Thanks for all the advice and I think I am going to be able to get this done I appreciate it!

~Steph

[TheNelsons]

Thank you EVERYONE for all the words of wisdom... I totally appreciate it and I have many new things to think about and try...

You guys are all great and and wonderful source of help..

~Steph

[Qvrfullmidwife]

Steph we have laquesta right around the corner and yet we dont use it...our goats started turning their noses up at it and we had several episodes of opening a bag to find it moldy.

We use bluebonnet feed's nature blend 10 horse feed...it is only 10% protein, but he bulk of their diet is hay and alfalfa pellets (having a brain burp here, cant recall if it is 16 or 17% protein for hepellets). The grain they just get on the milkstand. We have a few who also get beet pulp, not for any huge dietary need but because they came to us well grown and this was what they were raised on, so I figure that I am asking them to do enough transitioning to move to a new house, in one case, a totally new climate, and still make nice babies and lots of milk, so the least that I can do is make sure that we at least have their familiar comfort food to topdress their milkstand grain with. At anyrate, you should be able to get bluebonnet somewhere near you if you are down here...we get ours at Tractor supply.

[CountryHaven]

Oh, for those of you who say you don't like mixing feed and prefer to keep it simple--you're looking at it all wrong... lol, really. I LOVE mixing feed. (Okay, I don't LOVE carrying all the bags, but that's what I have a husband for... at least that's what I tell him), but the actual mixing... I love doing that. I sit there with the bags all around me and the big can I mix into (one of those big garbage cans used soley for feed storage), and I feel like a mad scientist at work. It's fun. I imagine the theme song to some mad scientist movie playing in my head as I scoop and mix -- Im sure if someone walked in on me doing it I would indeed look quite 'mad'. haha

[DQ]

I get it about liking to mix feed its just not for me unless absolutely neccessary! I used to love cleaning tack. smoothing the oil on, rubbing it in, it was very theraputic, some people thought I was nuts. but I get to carry all the feed sacks around here and carrying out a 50 lb sack on my shoulder while fending off 9 goats that are trying to get it about kills me ! some day I will have a way of backing up to my feed room, but its not happening anytime soon, I have to walk 200' and go through 3 gates. that took the fun out of for me real quick, especially in the ice! bad set up. bad bad bad. I think everyone finds what works for them adn there goats and situation.