Author Topic: concentrates (Read 2962 times)

langdon · « **on:** October 05, 2010, 08:30:49 pm »

need some advice,help ere please.
ive been thinking of how much of concentrates our goats need daily, have looked at the info on
the feed bag and its says exactly this:
A complementary feedstuff for feeding with forage to goats up to 70% of dietary dry matter intake.
feed lactating goats up to 2.5kg and dry goats typically 0.5kg.
feed kids ad-lib along with ad-lib roughage.

sorry for all of this but i need help to understand it!!! im trying to understand what 0.5kg looks like e.g. handfull, cup full etc
and is this 0.5kg for the two girls at each feeding time?
so far i have been giving hay at-lib all day and two handfulls of goat concentrates in a bucket twice a day.
do they need 0.5kg each or was two handfulls of feed in a bucket enough?
as said sorry for all of this and any help or comments appreciated

thanks langdon

p.s. when it comes to milking how much more feed will the girls need

bazzais · « **Reply #1 on:** October 05, 2010, 09:38:50 pm »

I'd also be interested if there is an exact measurement. If it can be set at 'an amount' - the labels are very vague your right, what I've been doing is feeding in the evening as a treat and just making sure they have always got some forage in the day.

As far as I am concerned, as long as my little goaties have enough time to chew the buttons off my shirt, the wheel trim off the trailer, my hair, any spanners that are lying around plus just about anything they else can find thats not edible - I am feeding them enough to not bother eating stuff thats nourishment!! (and no they are not so hungry they are eating everything, I just thinks its their way of saying - wtf is this!)

In general I am sure that our goats are the best fed in the world, as long as they look and behave normally they will be fine.

I would be interested in the 'science' though and some weights if anyone knows them.

Ta

Baz

plumseverywhere · « **Reply #2 on:** October 06, 2010, 07:57:58 am »

I would really appreciate some help with this too please. I was feeding my nanny less than 2.5kg but still seems I was overfeeding her enough to have become acidic, scour and die

the labelling is so vague and now I am really scared about the whole feeding issue!
Thanks for raising this subject Langdon, I was going to ask a load of questions today myself. having had a sleepless night worrying about things.

Anke · « **Reply #3 on:** October 06, 2010, 02:59:20 pm »

please remember what it says on the feeding bag is put there by the company trying to sell you (MORE) feed....
I keep a digital set of scales in my goatshed for feeding in the last 8 weeks before kidding, that is the time when you have to worry about underfeeding them.

Every scoop is different, so I would just measure a few general measures on the scales and then you know (it also depends on the food/density etc). The measures on the bag are probably for a total of daily intake, spread over two or three meals.

Right now a non-lactating goat only needs good hay and a handful (and I mean a handful) of an all-round goat mix type concentrate - anything with too much protein will make them scour and/or fat. I feed my recently dried up BT type goat a bout 1kg of concentrates (in three meals) plus sugarbeet shreds if they are in all day. Hay am and pm, lunchtime only straw/nettles. But she is very thin and could do with a bit more on her ribs! Any branches a bonus if it is dry, same for carrots apples etc etc. The GG's for example only get half that between the two of them, so only about 250g of concentrate per day!

Kids are now scaled back and have about 250g each spread over 3 meals.

So just keep checking her back, if you feel the ribs they are bit thin, but only need a wee bit to top them up. Goats are made to eat hay, so any concentrate is a bonus for them. And they are meant to be fairly thin animals, not so muscular as meat producing livestock should be.

plumseverywhere · « **Reply #4 on:** October 06, 2010, 03:05:27 pm »

That's really helpful and reassuring Anke - thanks

my bag of goat mix says up to 750g per head but I've not been giving anything like that to mine! my little toggy boy is a porker so it won't hurt him not to have too much I feel reassured that I can carry on as I have been based on what you've just said and also that I did not over feed concentrate to the nanny.

Mays · « **Reply #5 on:** October 06, 2010, 06:59:27 pm »

hi

I have a set of very cheap kitchen scales in my feed room, infact I think they were about £3 from asda. I always weigh new feeds to ensure I know the qauntities. As I have fed horses for 30 years, I tend to feed from my eye rather than the bag, however on saying that I still like to know what is recomened from the manufacturer as they will have formulated the product to supply 100% of daily requirement at the advised feeding rate, therefore, if I am feeding at 50% the recomended rate I can top up the diet with supplements when I need condition but not weight gain.

langdon · « **Reply #6 on:** October 06, 2010, 08:17:50 pm »

Exellent thank you very much

one handfull seems easy to follow
langdon

ballingall · « **Reply #7 on:** October 07, 2010, 10:47:32 pm »

We tend to feed by eye as well, but I would say we feed more than Anke has said here.

I know goats are not as a general rule fat animals, but that doesn't mean they should be thin. You should not be able to feel their ribs sharply through their coat, and their "tailbone" should have a reasonable amount of flesh on it (I don't mean you shouldn't be able to feel the bone- you should, but you should be able to feel flesh around it). So many people think that goats should look thin, when that is not necessarily the case. Just because an Alpaca or a horse is not a traditionally a "meat" animal- should they be thin too?

Beth

Anke · « **Reply #8 on:** October 08, 2010, 10:33:03 am »

GG's need a lot less concentrate, as soon as I give more they start to have loose droppings. But they can put back the hay.... (and refuse to eat the wheat straw!). But they do get sugarbeet at lunchtime too. They also don't take very well to Alfa A for some reason.

It is quite important to check where you are at at the moment - after the summer goatlings and kids are probably in quite good condition, whereas some milkers can be quite thin, and it is difficult to get weight on them now.

It seems to me that the feeding goats issue is really quite complicated in comparison to sheep and pigs, still learning a lot, and I also have found they are so much more individual in their requirements!