Growing your own goat feed?

[mousebandit]

Hey everyone! We are newly returned to goats (been on the road for a couple of years, now back home for good).

We are shooting for as much self-sufficiency on our little place (6 acres) as possible. We just got our first Nubian, and will be getting #2 and maybe #3 in the next few days. We are primarily wanting milk, and secondarily meat, maybe sell some kids.

We're doing or garden planning right now for this year, and want to grow as much of the goat feed as possible. We're hoping to clear a pasture for some alfalfa hay (the price per bale around here is unbelievable!) to cover us next winter. I've been reading about all the different things you can feed goats (beets, turnips, kohlrabi, carrots, corn stalks, BOSS and the entire sunflower plant, etc.) but am a little overwhelmed at figuring out the right mix, so I'll have a decent estimate of what and how much to plant.

Is anyone out there growing their own goat feed for milking goats? I would love to hear what you're planting, how much you're feeding of what (particularly through the winter), how much yield to expect from the different crops, etc.

THANKS!

Mouse Bandit

[TxMex]

Good post! I'm looking forward to reading the answers you get.

The feed I bought the other day seems to be mostly oats with some alfalfa pellets and a little other stuff.

[GoldenWood Farm]

I don't have any input on your question (I to am curious) but I have to say when I first read this I saw "Growing your own goat feet" . Now I was thinking before reading that about how I need to trim hooves....that is my excuse .

Justine

[Cheribelle]

My "garden" is usually a big weed patch, no matter how good my intentions are when planting. This year, I think I am going to cover it in pumpkins. Hopefully the pumpkin vines will smother out the weeds. And pumpkin seeds are said to be a natural wormer. They do love to eat them, and so do all my birds.

[jwal10]

Raise hay and use the garden extras as treats, too many vegy's can cause the runs. I have 1 acre, 3 pygora goats, 2 rabbit does and 4 hens. I raise hay on 1/2, grass and clover 50/50 mix, mowed with a small cycle mower, raked with a wooden peg rake and hauled to the barn and packed in a feed stall. I cut 3-4 cuttings when it gets 8" tall if weather permits so it is very fine hay. I feed oat screenings and garden produce as available. No feed bill. I trade meat and eggs when we have extras for the screenings....James

[Manchamom]

Any extra garden greens can be spread out to dry. Carrot, beet, turnip, radish, etc tops. Corn stalks, pea plants, bean plants. They don't cause as much upset when dried and will keep for winter.
Mine love squash of any kind esp summer squash. I let it get big and then pick it and cure the rind for ten days, turning it daily. Once it is stored on shelves in a cool area, it keeps for a long time.
Unblemished carrots, turnips, other root vegetables can be stored in rubber maid containers of sand. Put an inch of sand, a layer of carrots not touching each other, another layer of sand and so on. Keep the containers cool but not where they will freeze. Apples and pears can be individually wrapped in newspaper in a cardboard box and stored in the same area, they should be picked slightly green for storage. Some types are better than others. Can't think of anymore right this second. Gotta get some sleep

[sammyd]

hay hay hay.
sunflowers can easily be stored by hanging from rafters in sheds keep the heads and seeds, leaves can be fed when green but the stalk is nearly worthless at any time other than a boredom reliever
squash of any type can be stored in the house or any drier non freezing area
mangels need a little more moisture and need cooler temps to store
you can make silage out of sweet corn that has gone by, or just chop and feed green.
We have made lots of garbage bag silage with both corn and hay. Good feed but labor intensive.

we make all our own hay but we cover a bit of ground to get it.
We have neighbors that allow us to make hay on 7 or 8 acres and we have 3 here that were hay this year.
We have enough to get 17 goats through the winter, feed to calves if we need to, and have some leftovers towards next year.
We had 3 acres of corn this year which is more than enough for our goats with some to sell as well.

[Whisperwindkat]

We grow mangel beets, pumpkins, and sunflowers specifically for the livestock in the winter. We store the mangels in a big pile on pallets in the feed room. The pumpkins are stored in the house and the sunflowers are dried at the end of summer by hanging upside down on the porch with the porch fans going then place in large barrels in the feed room. We always grow extra in the garden which get fed to the critters. When the corn is harvested we chop the stalks and feed them while still green. We tried garbage bag silage and had a mess. We supplement their feed all year long with stuff that we grow so that their systems are used to it, but for us so far it is just a supplement. It does keep our feed bill down though. Blessings, Kat

[beewench]

A friend of mine suggested Sudan Grass...I have no experience with it but am gonna give it a go on one of my hillsides and let the girls graze it...

-=Sarah
www.beewench.blogspot.com

[motdaugrnds]

I can tell you what we do and maybe it will help give you some ideas.

Our homestead is small, i.e. 6 acres; however, we grow orchard grass (endophyte free) on 4 of those acres that has lespedeza shrubs growing in and around one pasture. (Goats love this shrub and it is healthy for them.) Each fall we throw different types of peas over the pastures and they take root during the winter and come up each spring/summer. The goats enjoy these.

We use our DR Field & Brush Mower to cut the grasses 1-2 times a year, depending on the weather/rain conditions; then let the sun dry it a day or 2 (again depending on the weather conditions); then use large leaf rakes to gather it, placing it on "mesh" sheeting. We then let our buck pull the sheeting to the barn where we load in into the loft. When we feed it, we use empty grain sacks packed full of this grass and place it into the goat feeders.

Any pea vines the goats missed are hung in the loft to dry for later use.

We have not been able to make use of our acre-size garden area for past few years; but are doing so now. Any and all unused portions of those plants will be either chopped to feed green or dried to use later for our goat herd.