CHAT Feeding goats

[meandk0610]

With the drought this year, hay is less easy to come by, even on the East Coast, so I’m looking at other ways to handle feed. I’m trying to get some of the pasture blocked off soon so that I can broadcast seed some winter deer plot crops that goats should also eat — things like winter oats, turnips, clover, chicory, etc.

I’m also looking at concentrates. I have Nigerian dwarf goats and am not milking. Two does have kids on them, but the kids are plenty old enough to do without milk if the moms dried off (I don’t separate them since we don’t currently milk). Which brings me to my question.

Has anyone used a commodity beef feed for their goats? It’s about 70% of the cost of the cheapest goat feed and about 50% the cost of a usable horse feed (I know some people use horse feed because of the higher copper in the feed). I didn’t have any income for part of last year and had to rack up debt for several months. I’ve been working on paying that down as I can (hard to do while still prepping), but one of my contracts may not get renewed so I’m try8ng to start holding back funds.

Our goats have been our pets and, yes, we did just get another dog (Moo, the big boy mix who does have back dew claws, including one that has two nails but did not get a complete separation in the toe(s)) in large part because of security concerns — we’ve had multiple people stopping by just in the past month either asking about our animals or literally walking our fence line and then coming back on a different day to try to pet our then-current dog to see if she was friendly. So I’d rather not sell any of our goats if I can possibly help it (plus, in all honesty, they are the stopgap if something like in One Second After happens).

Oh, yeah! We do have a new property where we can go cut stuff to bring back in trash bags but it’s about 65 miles each way so that probably will only happen a couple times a month at most until the house is ready for us to start painting and get the animal shelter put up.

Anyone have experience with commodity feed and goats? The ingredient label lists roughage products first, then grain products. I will be mixing it with hay stretcher and possibly some alfalfa pellets if the price doesn’t go up any more.

 

[Faroe]

If you have a label for goat feed, compare the two. I mix feeds between animals frequently, as long as diets are compatible. Due to the expense, we have been re-thinking the utility of goats, and looking for suitable homes. At this point, I think we will end up keeping them anyway, just because ....ugh. People are flakey! I don't want that for my girls.

 

[meandk0610]

If you have a label for goat feed, compare the two. I mix feeds between animals frequently, as long as diets are compatible. Due to the expense, we have been re-thinking the utility of goats, and looking for suitable homes. At this point, I think we will end up keeping them anyway, just because ....ugh. People are flakey! I don't want that for my girls.

Definitely! I’ve been terrified some of my babies might end up either being slaughtered halal or tied to a post in the ground with little regard for their well-being (or worse).

There doesn‘t seem to be anything dangerous in it, though the calcium might be a bit high compared to phosphorus so maybe I’ll have to add ammonium chloride either to the feed or make sure it’s in the minerals. Maybe I’ll put out high-copper minerals (and check for ammonium chloride) and baking soda and try feeding it to them slowly, upping the amount a little at a time, and see if anyone starts to look better or worse.

 

[Marie]

If you can get cornstalks bales mine seem to do wonderful on them with a boost of some alfalfa or hay along with some pellets or grain. Cornstalk bales seem to be 1/3 of the price here as our main forage. They stay very healthy on the 85% stalk diet

 

[ioujc]

I had 198 Angora goats about 25 years ago. I started out with 99, and had 99 kids (actually more, but lost a few), so I must have done something right.

I had a vet who was a specialist in goats. He came down about every three months to check on how the herd was doing>>>>It was NOT free!

He told me that CORN is the food that is best for goats; that their digestive system and the entire system is based on grazing (actually browsing) and corn. I know that now the trend is to not feed grains as much, however my herd did FANTASTIC!

I have started feeding corn again, because the goats were losing the pink to their gums and I have wormed them religiously. The goat that was blinded by a pellet gun, had to be put in the Quonset hut and fed grain completely during her recovery>>>>since putting her inside her gums have turned very pink!! She has filled out and is almost chubby.

Unfortunately, the other goats are able to discern there is "something wrong with her" and butt her a great deal. I have tried putting her back in with the others twice for three days at a time>>>>no go and I am not willing to have them butt her to death because she can't fight back, so she lives in the barn (Quonset hut) for now. I put her out to graze everyday and bring her in at dusk. I only leave her out when I am home, because she is basically defenseless, She no longer acts like, or believes she is a goat, because she got spoiled during her recovery. She follows me by sound like one of my dogs>>>>enjoying going out to weed the garden with me or just relaxing on the porch>>>quite a sweet girl, but obviously no longer really a "goat."

 

[West]

Our 11 does (mostly pygmy) only get about 2 ounces of all feed each and every day.

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Plus mineral blocks and some salt licks. They also get table scraps that goats will eat and any chips, bread, etc. that has gone stale, though they do have to share and sometimes fight the chickens for it.

They graze about 6 acres of excellent Oklahoma prairie land. It also has two small ponds, one with tules that I've never seen them eat. But have caught them nibble on some of the pond grasses on the edges.

In the dead of winter, they only consume about 10 small two string bales usually. If we have a drought year triple that plus. Usually one big 5 to 6 foot bale of prairie hay is only half eaten by spring. Drought year we may need up to 5 big bales. Only happens one of the 15 years I've lived here.

This year we bred them and ended up with 16 healthy kids. Didn't lose one. Usually there's a stillborn or so weak they die with in 48 hours. Or one gets smothered to death in the goat barn.

 

[Tessa]

In the south people used cotton seed hulls mixed with a little cotton seed meal. That is what I used for my goats and cows.
Later when the hay got scarce in this area we grew fodder for all the live stock. It is cheap and easy to do.
Using a bag of feed wheat it takes 9 days to grow out a nice tray of fodder.