The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: fiestyredhead331 on December 07, 2012, 08:18:46 pm
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Am looking for some advice, have used sugar beet with Horses before, I know Goats will eat beet quite happly would we be better useing a Shred or pellet as base for a mash for them cheers
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I use shreds, soaked briefly in boiling water (as long as it takes me to walk to the goat shed) and they love it. Especially if it is still warm in winter, but they aren't fussed about it - love it hot or cold. I have never used any other sugar beet product, mainly because when I started with shreds they were cheapest and don't need hours of soaking...
I also feed it to my female sheep in winter, mixed with a few oats. Can also be fed dry if ample drinking water is available.
The jury is out if it is dangerous for boys (as in urinary calculii), but my goats have a splash of cider vinegar in their drinking water, so that should sort any problem anyway.
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We use shreds too, as the pellets take much longer to soak. Goats aren't like horses you don't need to soak it for hours before they eat it, so as ours like it hit, we just soak it briefly with hot water from the kettle. Put a kettle full in, wait on another one boiling and add a bit more. Then add some cold water so it's not too hot!
Beth
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Fwe have always used shreds but recently started to use pellets
We add boiling water to them about 30 mins before we go out and keep topping them up till they stop soaking the water up
All of the goats except the billy gets it hot
The horses get it and the donkeys get some
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I use pellets for preference as they take up less storage space and work out cheaper. I have two lots of buckets and when I feed the goats, bring the old ones in, give them a wash and put the sugar beet in to soak. It has nearly twelve hours that way. I mix the concentrates into it.
Most of my goats hav, at some time, got into the storage container and eaten a few mouthfuls of dry pellets with not bad effects.
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thanks for all that :thumbsup:
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I use the shreds so that everyone can identify them in the feed shed, I worry that the pellets look too similar to the ewe nuts and pig nuts, and that some half asleep teenager will feed them unsoaked to the wrong animal :)
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Not a problem when you only have goats. ;D
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I use speedi beet mainly as it is so quick to soak for the horses but it is a lot more expensive. When oh retires in March I am going to have to revise a lot of my expensive shortcuts however I will at least have his help about the place as now he works in Mozambique and always seems to be away when I need to get heavy bags of feed in.
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Typical man. Never around when you want one. :-J (Need an emoticon for throwing the cat among the pigeons). Now I think I'll :sofa: :roflanim:
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I always make my sugar beet up a feed ahead (partly because I have to do iy indoors so it does not freeze!)
As soon as my horse gets breakfast the pellets go into the bucket and back into the house with me to soak. Out for evening feed, refill dry pellets, back inside to soak. Sheep get some now and then juast as a change from sheep nuts
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I feed the nuts, soaked overnight for morning, evening just soaked a couple of hours, popped in microwave to warm slightly in this weather.
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Cant belive nobody else just puts boiling water on the nuts and feeds them hot.
We have done it for years with the horses but only just started with the goats.
Some of the goats wouldnt touch it when it had soaked for 24hrs but they all love it freshly soaked and hot
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It's the beet being hot that they really like! I have now started to give my girls warm water - what a difference they drink quite a lot more!
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Yes we have given ours hot water for over 20 yrs. Some of the show people used to laugh at us but now they all do it
We even have a belkin boiler on a timer set up outside the tack room so we have boiling water morning and night
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Never though of giving my girls warm feeds but will try it tomorrow :thumbsup:
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we've ordered shredded sugar beet and with the cold weather we've been getting up here I'm sure they'll be more than happy to have something warm in their tummy in the mornings ;D
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Bought some more SB nuts today (25kg), enquired about the shreds and was told they are the same price but only 20kg, I'll stick to soaking the nuts for longer. I occasionally gave them a few dry, but read they can swell in the throat and cause problems, so now always soak them well.
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We even have a belkin boiler on a timer set up outside the tack room so we have boiling water morning and night
Is that so they can make their own hot drinks?
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That's my next job ! teaching everyone to do their own buckets of feed and water up lol
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We mix 6 scoops of SB pellets , 2 scoop linseed grass pellets ( or soya grass if you can get it ) and 2 scoop of alfalfa pellets and 2 hi fi pellets in a large plastic dustbin , fill to the top with water and soak for 24 hrs. this lasts us about 3 days and does the horses and goats.
this is then mixed with their hard feed , you can then add some hot water to make a warm porridge