The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: Joseph on November 29, 2011, 10:31:48 am
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Seeing that others here recommend dairy nuts, I have gone over to them. I had difficulty getting a, regular supply of decent goat mix anyway, and my new third doe didn't really like the mix having been fed silage.
Can someone please guide me to how much to give each of my girls. The nuts seem heavy, and so less in volume is more in weight. I need to adjust my scoop action accordingly.
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I started by giving Ellie half and half, flakey mix and dairy nuts by volume (ie a scoop of each ;)) and have just adjusted it by watching her condition.
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I introduced mine slowly to it, a handful, became two, then a scoop - my BT's love them, but the the older GG doesn't like them (she is staying on goat mix :-\). The younger GG's eat them, but I tend not to feed them too much of them, as they can get a bit too rounded shall we say quite quickly.
Qunatities depend on if you milk your goats or if the are dry adults, if they are dry (but in early pregnancy) goatlings or growing kids.
Milkers - large breed? - about 500g per day plus 500g for every half litre she milks, my rations are measured by scoop and I mix dairy nuts, oats, sugar beet shreds (soaked and warm).
dry goats maintenance ration is about 500g concentrate per day, but check that they are fully grown. BT's for example can grow well into their third year...
Kids - mine have got quite a lot at the moment as they are still growing (I only stopped bottle feeding one of mine recently), but I will stop concentrates almost entirely for them come spring.
Dry goats and goatlings in early pregnancy - same as adult dry ones.
I used to weigh their feed with a kitchen scales I had siting in the goat house, but now it is more by eye and condition scoring. The only time I really weigh is during the last 8 weks of pregnancy.
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Thank you for your replies, wow 500g per half a litre sounds like a lot! I have a Bgs booklet which suggests 200g per litre on top of 500.