Author Topic: What is your feeding regime? (Read 3554 times)

Thrift Bee · « **on:** February 21, 2014, 02:27:43 pm »

I'm interested to know what people do, in terms of feeding their goats. I often read to feed hay ad lib, but if we
were to just leave them at it, it would cost us a fortune! Other people feed hay morning and evening which is what we've ended up doing.

Betsy gave birth last March and we are milking her every morning 1.5 litres. She gets about a pound of cattle dairy nuts in the morning and again in the evening.

Buttercup is only 11 months old and freshened the beginning of Jan. She is feeding her two kids and we don't take any milk off her. She gets a pound and a half of cattle dairy nuts in the morning and a pound in the evening.

They get kitchen scraps most days a small saucepans worth.

They also have a red rockies mineral lick.

Is this enough for the new mum Buttercup, she seems to be endlessly hungry these days?

We've given the kids a bit of calf rearer meusli, but inevitably Mum snaffles most of it.

They get through one of the small standard square hay bales a week.

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

sokel · « **Reply #1 on:** February 21, 2014, 02:39:52 pm »

Ours have at lib hay, as the racks empty someone fills them up again.
we have swapped and changed the food around a bit over the last few months but we have settled back onto the following per goat twice a day for the milkers
small scoop of dairy nuts 18%
small scoop of golden calf 18%
small scoop of Whole oats
small scoop of hot sugar beet
small scoop of Alfa A
sprinkle of seaweed
sprinkle of Garlic powder
capravite

They then get the odd bucket of readiGrass a couple of times a week

plumseverywhere · « **Reply #2 on:** February 21, 2014, 06:00:11 pm »

When its raining heavily or the ground is deep in snow, I keep the hay racks permenantly full. When the weather is pleasant then they get hay morning and afternoon as they also have loads of graze/browse to keep them going.

when milking, Vanna gets about 1.5 lbs morning and night, the wethers get a handful just to keep them quiet and the other nanny gets whatever she needs (sliding scale depending on her condition score at the time)

we feed oats, beet, goat mix, mineral powder, they have access to red rockie licks and then they also have farming spares - sacks of spinich, cauliflower, brocolli etc that isn't going to sell.

ScotsGirl · « **Reply #3 on:** February 21, 2014, 06:23:20 pm »

Makes me feel like I am not feeding enough reading this. Mine have hay 3 times a day at moment as inside. Now they have kidded they get about 100g of dairy nuts lunchtime and twice that morning and evening made up of dairy nuts, oats, soaked sugar beet and goat mix. They have done well on this, this year but they came to me in poor condition last year and I couldn't get them back up until the summer.

Lesley Silvester · « **Reply #4 on:** February 23, 2014, 12:52:34 am »

Mine are yarded so have ad lib hay. They also have a bucket of Just grass twice a day between the two of them. The concentrates I use are Allen and Page Dairy goat. I don't weigh it but measure using a baked bean tin - a full one twice a day for Pom and half for Cloud. Pom also has a tin full of dairy nuts twice a day and they both have soaked sugar beet. I add Caprivite, seaweed and garlic to the buckets. I give them vegetables as and when and branches in the summer when there are leaves.

They share their shed so I don't actually know how much each of them is eating but, if I try giving more than this, they leave it so I assume they are having enough.

Thrift Bee · « **Reply #5 on:** February 23, 2014, 09:58:16 pm »

MGofM....I reckon a full bean tin is close to a pound. When you say yours are yarded, do you mean they have no access to browse? I just havnt heard that expression before.

Reading your list over again and i feel i would be better off in your yard than in my own kitchen!! Maybe i dont give enough. Its hard to get the balance right.

Lesley Silvester · « **Reply #6 on:** February 23, 2014, 10:19:18 pm »

Yes, they have a large shed and a yard, no grazing/browsing which is why I feed the Just grass.

I've just been out and weighed a tin of food. The dairy goat mix was 7 1/4 oz for a full tin and the dairy nuts weighed 9 3/4oz so they're not as well fed as you thought. According to Allen and Page's feeding instructions, they should have a lot more but they didn't eat it when I tried more so I cut back down. Looking at Cloud's middle, she is getting rather more than her fair share, although she is in kid. Not due until May though.