No Grain?

[big rockpile]

When I had my Goats I always gave them a little grain.Always figured it would be easier to have them coming to a bucket instead of trying to drive them.

I have a neighbor that has about a hundred Goats.I asked him if he gave them any grain? He said the only thing he gives them is Mineral.Asked if he wormed them? He said he did every two months.

Just wondering how you guys feel on this?

Me I always like just the chance looking them over real good every day

big rockpile

[homebirtha]

With our milkers, they get grain on the stand and I feel they need this, as they're giving a lot of milk everyday and just browse and hay wouldn't give them enough calories.

The rest of the goats, fainters/brush goats and dry does, just get a handful to get them to come into the barn at times. The bucks (in a different pasture) don't get any grain. I agree with you that giving them a little something makes it easier to work with them. But then again, if I had 100 goats and they weren't in milk, I don't know that I would grain them either. That would add up, even if it was justs a handful for each goat.

As for worming every two months, no, we don't do it that way. We only worm when they need it, by Famacha scores and fecal tests. Worming on a set schedule is a good way to get dewormer resistance in your herd.

[Jim S.]

My goats get no grain or seed whatsoever in the summertime, unless I just get magnanimous in some sentimental moment (I have been known to to do that, but not often).

They get supplemented by bulk-bought feed (whatever is cheapest for the protein and TDN I need; usually cottonseed wins) and hay, usually from November through March.

My goats are trained to the bucket by their winter feed schedule. I can put rocks in it now, and they will come. In warmer months, I usually get to look them over real well every evening, when I feed my livestock guard dog. The goats and she are inseparable, so when she comes up from the back, so do they.

Provided one has adequate browse and pasture, the way I look at it is:
browse/grass = free; grain = money spent.

Through winter, my goats generally gain weight while limit-fed cottonseed (all they can eat at a trough in 10 minutes, no more). They generally lose weight through spring, summer and fall, and then gain again next winter. Cottonseed is an unreal nice feed for putting on the pounds. I know some have reservations to it, but if you look at your processed food labels, the oil (and even the ground seed itself) is in everything, anyway. Cottonseed would be an ideal kid creep-feed, if I believed in creep-feeding kids (which I don't). I just leave my kids on mama longer than others do.

I know of two decent sized dairies doing grass/browse only, and basically feeding like I do. Those goats do get a bit of grain on the stand to keep them occupied, but primarily they are on grass and browse.

I can go on and on extolling the beneifts of right-sizing a herd to the land and letting the sun provide solar energy to them for free through grass. It also cuts down on greenhouse gases, if you are into that, cuz it cuts out the emissions required to harvest, process, bag, deliver, and pick up bagged feedstuffs and processed feeds. Buying bulk feeds also cuts down on CO2 needed for processing and transportation. I buy cottonseed right at the gin in 55-gallon barrels with lids.

I agree with homebirtha on worming...plus, wormer costs money!

Cost vs. benefit, cost vs. benefit...I am always trying to cut the former and maximize the latter.