what do you feed your goats? feed & supplements?

[cathleenc]

I know we've talked about this many times.... but still, it's always interesting and informative to read what others are doing.

Could you please share with us what you feed and what you supplement? Tell us all the details please - and if you have a rationale for what you feed, please share that too!

Thanks
Cathy

[cathleenc]

currently we feed our 2 pregnant saanen/toggenburg goats:

free choice alfalfa hay

2x a day mix: alfalfa pellets, 16% calf starter mix, beet pulp, black oil sunflower seeds

supplements:
loose goat mineral mix
baking soda

[fcnubian]

All of my goats, Nubians and Pygmys get free choice quality grass hay. Milking does, does that are pregnant, and kids get grain and alfalfa pellets. My grain that I mix myself has oats, corn, and provider 38 in it. I am also going to be top dressing the grain with BOSS. All of my goats have free choice goat mineral.

[HazyDay]

I am feeding (my animals, I also own half our Boer herd. Won't talk about them )
3 Preggo Nubian does (March kidders.)
1 Preggo dry yearling (Late March )
1 April doeling

All are fed once aday (4pm) grain with my following mix:

SunShine Plus (mineral and yest)
16% Dairy ration w/t added cow minerals
Beet Pulp

I mix the dairy and beet 50/50 and the sunshine plus what the bag says for goats (1 teaspoon each.)

They also have free choice goat lick and blue salt licks. Baking soda is put out after each feeding when I bring in next days hay, (less waste this way.)
Free choice hay (all types, clovers,leaves,fine grass,long thick grass.) or Silage (same as hay.)

We also feed them vegs peelings and squash each AM.

This is our dry/winter period. In the summer they have pasture 24/7 (won't eat after sun goes down, but will leave just after AM milking and come down for 4pm milking. Then leave for another 3 hours. at 7pm they are cewing cud, then I turn lights off around 10 pm.) They also have exercise yard in Spring and summer which has some grass in that. Pasture is hilly with lots of grass. I don't use fencing on the leased land with is surrounded with trees. They never enter woods.

Summer and Fall they get all the green tops from vegatables!


That is my feeding plan. It works for me and may not in other places

[hoofinitnorth]

I'm feeding Nigerian Dwarf goats. 1 dry doe that is bred, 2 lactating does, 1 mature buck in rut, and 2 growing bucklings in rut. They are turned out on a dry lot daily but are not currently browsing/grazing.

My goats get:

free choice fresh water

alfalfa hay (pretty much free-choice as I keep it in front of them 24/7 but I weigh what goes in and what comes out of the stall as waste for the chickens). I have excellent quality hay so the needs for added supplementation in the grain department are lower than those that feed lower quality hays. I have a general idea of the analysis on the hay but I'm awaiting precise results on this batch.

grass hay when it's cold or I have to confine them for an extended period (longer than 12 hours), I also bed them in hay on top of shavings where they sleep and don't defecate

free choice custom mix (I mix it here) of Purina Goat mineral, ground kelp meal, Clovite, brewer's yeast, and ADM Moorman's Gro-Strong (I'm experimenting with loose minerals trying to find a good one that works so I'm in transition right now)

Each goat gets 1/2# minimum once daily of a custom mix (I mix it here) of oats, barley, flax seed, cracked corn, Clovite, brewer's yeast, rice bran, Millennium Gold vitamin/mineral mix. If the lactating does wish to consume more than 1/2# in a day, I will let them as long as I'm still milking (usually I'm done milking before they are done eating). This is much like feeding a commercial feed like Purina Goat Chow except that I am able to select and control the ingredients and ensure the quality of the feed and identity of the sources. I'm narrowing the field a bit in the mix and recently cut out BOSS but may add it back in later. It will take me several months (maybe a couple of years) of minor adjustments to decide which feeds give me the best results and which feeds are too costly for their benefit to be worth including in the mix. I've been talking to locals that feed different ways and the results they've seen over the years, as well as chatting with folks online, discussing things with vets, and reading many books. I'm also consulting the labels of many commercially mixed rations as a comparison. I'd like to find an organic base to import upon which to base my total ration but the going is slow on that. At least one other breeder locally is interested in this (it was her idea) and I think if we found a good mix we'd import a great deal of it and mix it with our feeds for ourselves and make the base (and maybe the mix too) available to others. There is one gal up here that worked very hard to formulate a commercially mixed grain ration for her pygmies. It has some key leads for me but does contain some ingredients I dislike, such as fishmeal and mysterious "protein pellets". Anyway, their grain is such a small part of their diet that I'm not too worried about experimenting a little here and there.

Notice I have the Clovite & Brewer's Yeast in both their measured grain rations and their free-choice mineral rations. I find it makes them consume more of their minerals on a more regular basis and the extra Clovite & Brewer's Yeast poses no danger that I can find. Brewer's Yeast isn't supposed to do a whole lot for goats except possibly help a goat that may be in danger of polio/thiaminase issues, but I have it on-hand for the other livestock and everyone loves it so much they lick it right out of my hands (even my cats!).

I am experimenting with adding a small amount of alfalfa pellets to their ration daily. The lactating does are eating only about 1/2# each daily and they are not interested in any more than that now. I do not like the lack of analysis and the incomplete ingredient list on the pellets, especially for the price and the fact that the girls aren't very interested in them. At least it seems to reassure me that they are satisfied with their hay.

My goats also get a copper bolus - does just had one 4-gram bolus this week after 5 months had passed since their last 2-gram bolus. Bucks will get a bolus after the first of the year.

[Feral Nature]

(A) pregnant mature does less than 100 days bred get:

-alfalfa pellets
-beet pulp
-coastal bermuda hay...(good quality that they will EAT!)
-good loose minerals (I use Cargill Right Now Cattle Minerals)


(B) young bred doelings less than 100 days bred:

-alfalfa pellets with limited amounts of whole oats, corn chops, dairy pellets, and beet pulp mixed in.
-coastal bermuda hay
-good loose minerals

After 100 days bred, older does will get the added oats, corn and dairy pellets like the growing bred doelings have been getting the whole pregnancy.

(C) Bucks and any wethers get:

-alfalfa pellets
-beet pulp
-coastal bermuda hay
-good loose minerals
-NEVER grain

all goats get as much browse as possible

[Minelson]

Heather, how much Clovite & Brewer's Yeast do you mix in the minerals? Do you know why that makes them eat more? Because of the taste? I use Purina Goat minerals and I don't feel that Gretta is eating enough of it. She wants salt though...I found her licking the heck out of an empty bucket that had had salt for melting ice in it.

I feed free choice alfalfa and free choice grass hay. She likes them both. She gets a cup of grain a day...half in the morning, half at night. I also give her a handful of BOSS with Mollys imune support, a blob of corn syrup and vit E mixed in. Free choice purina goat minerals and baking soda and fresh, clean water in a heated water bowl that I clean every day.

[BethW]

Originally Posted by hoofinitnorth

...I also bed them in hay on top of shavings where they sleep and don't defecate...

Does this actually happen? I can tell where my goats bedded down for the night by the little mountains of berries in the morning.

I'm feeding ND wethers, all under a year old. They get free choice grass hay, Purina minerals, baking soda, and sparkling clean water.

They also get Purina goat chow, alfalfa pellets, and BOSS mixed at a 6:2:1 ratio. A quarter cup per day, just enough for a treat.

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

LOL! Load of manure??? My girls also poop in a nice little pile exactly where they have slept for the night.

Alfalfa pellets for everyone, around 3 pounds each. Minerals for everyone in feeders that stay clean and dry, I use BlueBonnet's Tech Master Complete. Grass hay in all pens, they eat little of it, and lots of room to move and browse.

In addition to the above....

I feed Pilgrim's Meat Goat pellets to bucks getting weight on them after rut, and to all doe kids until they are 100 days pregnant then they are moved onto milkstand grain.

Adult does start on milkstand grain at 100 days pregnant, moving from 1/4 cup each per day to the 2 pounds each get when freshening...as they move to the milkstand some get more, some get less depending upon condition and amounts of milk. Most are still being milked and just drying off at 100 days pregnant so they move from their 2 or 3 pounds of grain to 1/4 cup and not being milked at this time.

Milkstand grain is Oats.

I do use fats in the diet, oils, BOSS, etc., and protien when needed. Vicki

[hoofinitnorth]

Minelson - I mix up my grain and mineral rations 5# at a time and the ratio of brewer's yeast and Clovite in there is still an experiment. The Clovite has instructions on the bag for how much to use for this and that but after talking to locals that use it in winter or times of stress, they all just used about a handful top-dressed over hay or grain. I prefer not to top-dress hay in case they object or waste the top-dressing (top-dressing hay seems to fall right through the hay to the bottom of the bin and get ignored with my livestock, especially the horses). So I started with 1/4# each Clovite and Brewer's Yeast to the 5# mix (this is just about a large handful/double handful scoop depending on your hand size but I weigh everything). I have watched them from there and haven't changed that part of the ration at all. It's basically a nice little coating on the minerals and in the grain it's just enough to be seen in the mix. It isn't a lot but for some reason they all really like it. It must have a good smell or something and a good taste to go along with it. Since I started adding the yeast, they LICK their feeder clean, even the mineral feeder (but it takes a few days to empty one of those)!!

BethW - I have Dogloos in my stalls (the advantage of having small goats!) and this is where the extra grass hay for bedding goes. They all sleep in their Dogloos and never defecate or urinate there. They will get up and move out of bed to do so. For the large Dogloos, 3 adults ND does can snuggle together in just one! For the small ones, they are ideal for two small NDs or a large ND with babies. Now for some reason when the weather warms up the girls (and only my lactating does do this) prefer to sleep outside the Dogloo on their hay tub!!!! They also poop there. Grrrrr. I can't figure out why they would want to sleep and poop where they eat but they do. Maybe it's an attempt to gain dominance - she who controls the food...

[dezeeuwgoats]

Alfalfa pellets - what they can clean up in a couple of hours, twice a day. Usually always a few pellets left.
Sweetlix Caprine Magnamilk mineral, sometimes I add copper sulfate, just a few tablespoons per mineral feeder.
Rolled barley

They do have a bermuda pasture, and my husband owns a landscape maintenance company, so they get tree and shrub clippings, leaves, etc a couple of times a week.

I am experimenting with kelp, and de this year. The DE is not in place of dewormer - it is more to help with the flies. I also am trying BOSS with the barley, but just as a treat - a small handfull in the grain. Experimenting with that too, if my girls don't like it, I won't buy it again. I thought it would raise the 13% protein of the rolled barley just a bit.

Oh, and my girls are slobs too - they poop right where they lay!

niki

[HazyDay]

My buck and wether for about 2 weeks would only go to the bathroom in one pile in their pen! They stopped doing it now that they stand at the feeder all day and eat