The Complete Guide to Small Scale Farming by Melissa Nelson

Author:Melissa Nelson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: small, farm, poultry, ducks, geese, rabbits, goats, sheep, dairy, beef, cattle, housing, feed, breed, health, maintain, raise, income
Publisher: Atlantic Publishing Group Inc.
Published: 2012-09-21T00:00:00+00:00

Feeding

A little grain, a little hay, and a little grass: That is all a goat really needs, right? Well, they do need those things — but also a few others in order to provide you with healthy goats that gain weight efficiently and produce milk. They also need a few supplemental items to maintain their health.

The basic idea behind feeding goats is to feed growing goats enough energy in the form of grain to allow them to grow and to feed the mature goat enough energy to maintain their body weight. In addition, a pregnant or lactating doe will need to be given a little extra energy to feed her developing fetus or to produce enough milk to feed her young. Dairy goats in full milk production will also need extra grain. Grain and hay should be fed in hayracks and troughs. If you are feeding dairy goats, ideally each goat will have a spot to feed separately to make sure each doe gets her needed grain. All feeders should be designed so that the goats are unable to jump into the hay or grain. There are many styles of hay and grain feeders available. A popular model has a keyhole design, which allows the goat to stick its head in it and feed but is unable to pull out measurable amounts of hay or grain.

Forage

A major part of a goat’s diet is forage; this is pasture or hay. It is more cost-effective and better for the goat’s overall health to feed it on primarily forage. Hay should be high-quality grass or legume hay that is free of molds and weeds. Goats are picky hay eaters and will consume only the most palatable portions of hay.

Good hay will have plenty of leafy material and minimal stems. It should smell sweet and not earthy or moldy. Moldy or musty-smelling hay may indicate the hay was put up wet — a sure path to a spoiled batch of hay. It should also have a slight green tinge to the majority of the hay bale. However, simply eyeballing your hay supply will not guarantee the hay is top quality. The relative feed value (RFV) is a test performed on hay samples, which can tell you how much of the hay ruminants can use: the higher the value, the higher the quality of hay. Generally, hay with legumes like alfalfa or clover will have a higher percentage of protein than hay made from grasses. This type of hay will have a higher RFV but will also cost more than lesser RFV value hay. Mature goats can generally be fed a lesser RFV value hay than milking or pregnant does.

Pasturing goats during the pasture season is generally the most cost-effective way to feed goats. Aside from pregnant or lactating goats, or meat goats being fed up for slaughter, goats on good, growing pastures will not need supplemental grain. Pastures should be planted with a premium pasture mix or a good blend of grasses and legumes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.