The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Goats => Topic started by: Goats!!! on October 23, 2016, 06:19:27 pm
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What are people's thoughts on wether or not to feed sugar beet to weathers? I understand goats like warm sugar beet and as winter is round the corner I was thinking of getting some, I have three weathers and a nanny all this years kids.
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I feed sugar beet shreds (briefly soaked in boiling water) - usually still warm and not sloppy and for the wethers with a dusting of oats only (no other concentrates once they are older than 12 months). Only smallish quantities though, as I found wethers do tend to run to fat quite easily...
However I live in an area of really soft water - if your water is quite hard you maybe need to either add some specific additive to your feed (available for cattle - I think it is Ammonium chloride) or use cider vinegar in his drinking water. cider vinegar is good for quite a few reasons, ad you can get in relatively small containers in the feed merchants (in the horsey section).
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All my goats have sugar beet. I buy the pellets (they take up less storage space) and soak for a few hours. I add their concentrates to just before giving it to them.
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No problem un-soaked either.
It's a constituent of most pellet feeds, it's the leaves that can be a problem for males not the beet.