[sokel]

Does anyone mix their own feeds up for Boer Goats or other goats
The Breeder we went to at the weekend mixes her own feed.
she uses Whole oats, flaked Maize, crushed Peas, corn, alfalfa and lamb creep.
Have to admit her goats looked good on it and she had Boers and Toggs
Its got me wondering about if it would work for us and where we would buy it loose

[wytsend]

Frankly it is not worth it.........................we all liable for inspection from I think Trading Standards regarding the source of our feeds.  I had one 2 years ago and by luck I still had the label from the bags.   Although I use compound feeds............if any were contaminated with banned substances, there would have been many issues.   They took away samples and made up similar samples for me to keep without touching for 2 months.
If nothing heard in that time I could use the bagged/sealed samples.
You have to be able to prove the source of all your feeds these days..................it is no longer sufficient to say your bought it from the corn merchant...............this is more relevant when you buy straights as you are thinking about.
Imust admit when these people turned up.......I thought it was a joke.............but quickly realised it was deadly serious.

[Anke]

Well mine get a selection of straights and some dairy nuts, they do their own mixing  . They get oats, shreds and either dairy nuts or goat mix, depending on the goat, some of mine hate diary nuts. Also have usually some readigrass, plus some fruit and veg.
Not sure if it is cheaper, than feeding a complete ration (like dairy nuts), but it allows me to adapt of they go off one of their foods, as they sometimes do.

[sokel]

Thats what I meant by mixing my own 
Surely if the straights are bought from an animal feed merchants and put into the buckets to feed we are doing nothing wrong ?
Its no different to what we do now really as we put whole oats, dairy nuts, mix , sugar beet and alfalfa into the buckets and feed it to them
All I am trying to find out is what quantaties of the feed to give to give a balanced diet

[Anke]

I just do a scoop of this and a scoop of that... and feed roughly according to milk yield. Now that they are starting to get branches again, the readigrass will be reduced. I have found that Alfa A makes them quickly loose, so don't feed it anymore. Most of mine are on the slim side, I get told that at shows. But prefer it that way.
If you want to get quite scientific about it, Mackenzie has a chapter on it in "Goat Husbandry".
 

[sokel]

Thanks Anke , I will continue the way I am doing now, and just add a few peas and Maize
 I have found some of ours are keep going loose and had not twiged it was the alfalfa  Think I will stick to the readigrass in future.
Wish our leaves where growing, 90% of the trees are still bare
Some of ours are looking a little on the thin side but at this time of year after kidding they can do especialy after triplets but once they do get the branches they soon gain again.
Next year all of the dairys are having a year off , been a bit hectic this year as most of the dairys where dry so had to be kidded  they will milk through

[Anke]

We have just started to scythe long grass again. The go mad for it. Needs to be started in small portions, but after a few days I just fill the hay rack up with grass (and accompanying weeds) instead of hay and it is finished within 10 minutes.... Milk yield is up as well in the freshly kidded nannies, not so in the runners-through, but don't know if this has got something to do with the grass or not. They still get hay in between, but last year we had no hay left by mid-May, and they were absolutely fine on grass and branches, plus their usual concentrates. Just quite a bit of work... scything every other day.
Scything is done with the strimmer with a metal blade instead of the stringy thingy. Works well.

[Lesley Silvester]

I started mine on Just Grass at the end of last year, as well as coarse mix, sugar beet and dairy nuts. Pom's yield is up this year compared to last. Is this the grass?

[wytsend]

In my opinion.  Just Grass being softer than Readi Grass, it is preferred by most animals and therefore they eat it readily.  It is 16% protein which makes it particularly useful.