The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: Chris H on December 21, 2013, 10:15:39 am
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My two bagots are not keen on leaving there large shed in the mornings, they hate the mud that leads to the sheep field. We do have gales and high winds right now so I understand there keeness to stay indoors. My question is if they are in how much shall I feed? at the moment they are getting a couple of handfulls each twich a day of flaked maize and sheep crunch. A large armfull of hay and maybe either a part cabbage or prunings midday, is this enough? they both seem plump and bright. Are they ok to stay in on this diet they seem reluctant to eat anything new, have tried fruit and carrots to no avail. These are my first goats and I worry that i might get it wrong :gloomy:
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Firstly, well done on choosing fantastic livestock, we have togg goats and a Bagot billy who is just fab!!
Do they have a hay rack?
It might be an idea, then fill it to the top and judge how long it lasts. If they are hungry, they will eat it.
They really don't like wind and rain, so don't worry about it, just give them a "path" to field that keeps their feet dry.
How old are they?
Youngsters (maybe like children?!) go through phases of what they will try to eat and what they don't.
Chop "sticks" of carrot (round bits might get stuck) and add to the hard feed.
most veg seems to go down better here when chopped up. And bananas, and the skins are the absolute favourite!
Any chance of posting up a photo of your Bagots? What line are they?
:D
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Thanks 'Blue, have looked at hay racks but have read horror stories about them getting horns stuck! they have two strong tables that they sleep and eat on. They are a year and a half old and quite lovely. Everything is so wet and muddy here it would be hard to find a path. Will try a bit of banana skin to see what they do woth it :thumbsup:
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Feed hay ad lib.....................
Feed wise, flaked maize & sheep crunch do provide an adequate intake of minerals/trace elements. Better to feed a calf grower pellet with added veg.
Goats are very similar to cattle with regard to their metabolic rate and require a high degree of copper which the calf/cattle pellets give. THERE IS NONE IN SHEEP FOOD as they become toxic at the drop of a hat. Goats don't store copper like sheep.
Cattle food is much cheaper overall because of the quantities produced.
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Thanks Wytsent, only feeing the sheep crunch mix as they are normally fed in the field with the sheep. If they look like they will be in for the next few months will get the calf mix, they did have a mineral lick that they took no notice of?
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keep trying the carrots, I slice mine and they love them but they wouldn't try them at all til they were hungry enough.
I just love the sound they make with their crunching.
mine love lettuce and get quite a lot of kitchen scraps now we don't have any pigs. they will try tomatoes, apples, bananas, cucumber melon etc will also eat bread.
persevere and if they are hungry they will eat.
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and they are very "individual" ..., one of ours loves pineapple, the other hates it!
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the molassed vitamin buckets are popular. i havent met a goat that doesnt like them.
have a good feel of the hips and spine to see what their condition is, and monitor it over the winter.
i agree hay should at least 80% of their diet. we get small bales of haylage for ours and they really enjoy it. it only lasts a week once its opened tho but it feeds 6 goats for 1 week so suits us fine. we have a cheap supply of carrots and that is reducing the amount of hay they are taking.
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Ad-lib hay + calf rearer nuts +some rolled barley and oats with soaked sugar-beet mineral drench once a month, we have one that sells her soul for watermelon.....
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we have just moved from calf rearer to beef stock
cubes :roflanim: nuts as they are a few pounds cheaper and still small in size for little mouths to manage. time will tell what effect they will have. we also feed unsoaked sugarbeet (50:50) with the nuts.
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we use hayracks with no issues about stuck horns as they are higher up so they have to pull the hay through the bottom, don't use haynets because of the horn issue though.
unsoaked sugar beet shygirl???........we've always soaked ours ???
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mine wont eat the soaked stuff - it just goes mouldy.
im sure its ok them being ruminants?
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We made a hayrack much like this one - works fine and no danger of feet getting caught!
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and they've not eaten it?!
It look really nice though!