# They don't seem to like the coastal...



## Moody (Oct 30, 2014)

I have easy access to coastal. I got 8 bales and they have barely gone through 3-4 flakes in over a month. 4 goats. I got alfalfa hay because nubian wasn't eating well. So occasionally I let the girls have the alfalfa. They love it. I read not to give the boys alfalfa? Anyway that was $18 or so a bale and I am stingy with it. 

The Nubians previous owner said she gave Sudan. She said they don't like coastal but I already had it and I would have to drive quite a ways for Sudan square bales (easier to handle at this point). My feeder is a 2x4 mesh surrounded contraption that doesn't allow too much waste. 

I feed them all a non med dairy pellet from big v feeds. Dwarf kid gets just a tiny handful cause his tummy is tight by the end of the day. He's going to explode. The girls get 3/4 of a 16oz cup and the buck gets 1/2-3/4 of a 16 oz cup. Every goat gets this 2 times a day. THe nubian might get just a tad more since she is on the thin side. The lamancha and buck are still growing. I also toss on a handful of boss at the evening feeding. 

Right now I am spending all the day long cutting branches and trimmings around the property, hurling it over the fence to them and picking them up again after they have been devoured. 

Will they eat the coastal better when winter comes and I have no more trees with leaves to trim? I got the alfalfa at a ranch store and can't afford that as a main source. I don't want the boys to be on alfalfa anyway.


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## OneFineAcre (Oct 30, 2014)

I don't know the answer because all of mine eat coastal fine.  Maybe they aren't eatimg so much because of the fresh browse you are feeding ?
Or maybe they are having a hard time with 2x4 mesh 
I buy round bales so I don't worry too much about waste on coastal


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## Moody (Oct 30, 2014)

So, if they get hungry enough they will eat it. One day I mixed just a bit of the alfalfa in the feeder and a lot of it disappeared. I need to take a pic of it and those goats to see how you all think they look. 

I am wondering if I am feeding too much grain....


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## Southern by choice (Oct 31, 2014)

Possibly.
There are some goats that just won't eat hay they don't like. They may nibble when hungry enough but that isn't good for them long term.

Have you tried orchard grass hay?
Sometimes there are mixed hays too.
Mine like orchard, Alfalfa/orchard, and Timothy. 

With all the fresh cuttings they will eat less hay. Fresh cuttings are what most goats would prefer so that is great you are cutting for them!


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## Moody (Oct 31, 2014)

I would love to fence the 2 acres of woods behind the house so the boys could stay there. As it is I walk them through there a few times a week. 

I haven't ever seen orchard grass hay. I believe most areas have to bring in the alfalfa here (texas). I thought I would be able to get peanut hay but I haven't seen any locally for sale. I have no contacts, only craigslist. 

So they could starve themselves over the winter....right now I still have lots of oak, some elm, some black walnut or whatever that is and beau d'arc trees still in leaves.


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## Southern by choice (Oct 31, 2014)

I don't think they would starve themselves. Until you can find a good source look at local feed stores and see what is available.
I would also contact the breeders you got your goats from, they may be able to help.


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## Pearce Pastures (Oct 31, 2014)

If it was me, I'd offer only coastal and water for a few weeks.   They will eat it but they have options right now (feed and fresh trimmings).  I finally got my goats to eat alfalfa pellets this way and they love them now.


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## Moody (Oct 31, 2014)

I realize I'm offering optimal food choice with all the trimmings. Last night some of the coastal was gone. They do look a bit skinnier in the mornings after being locked in a stall with only coastal and water. 

Here is a pic of the feeder. Accessible from inside the stall and outside the stall all day.


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## Southern by choice (Oct 31, 2014)

Finding hay that works for the goats is a fine line.
I have dairy goats and I want milk... if they will not eat certain kinds of hay I lose production.  I have always had my goats on local grown hay from my neighbor. We had a drought this year in our little pocket and he needs all the hay he  did get for his cattle...left us in a bit of a bind. Our goats have done great on our local hay. It has been a lot of trying different hays from different places and I have seen milk production go up and down depending on what they would and wouldn't eat. Problem is if they start losing too much production than they cannot always recuperate and get that milk back up.
If they weren't in milk than I would make them "suck it up".


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## OneFineAcre (Oct 31, 2014)

I drove my pickup and pulled my trailer to work with me today.  On my lunch break I'm picking up 2 round bales of peanut hay from the field.


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## Southern by choice (Oct 31, 2014)

OneFineAcre said:


> I drove my pickup and pulled my trailer to work with me today.  On my lunch break I'm picking up 2 round bales of peanut hay from the field.


 

  would love to try some!


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## Mike CHS (Oct 31, 2014)

When I was a youngun we had field peas that was made into hay and the cows hit it like Cow Candy.  About the only detail I remember is that those bails were HEAVY after 4 or 5 hundred of them.


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## jodief100 (Oct 31, 2014)

I am not a nice as Southern, I would make them suck it up.   Goats do not like to eat unfamiliar foods.  They eat what their mommas taught them to eat.  When introduced to something new, it takes a lot of tasting before they finally eat it.  Give them a few days with the coastal, they will eat it eventually.  Right now they don't touch it because they have better choices.  When they have no choice, they will eat it.


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## Southern by choice (Oct 31, 2014)

I'm not that nice ... selfishly motivated though. Meat goats have to suck it up. My dairy girls, I WANT MY MILK! 

Funny too because my goats favorite is not alfalfa like most dairy goats.  They love timothy and orchard. We get the alfalfa orchard mix so they will eat it. BRATS!

Kiko's are never picky ... they eat anything and never seem to be affected. We got some really awful hay in ... and I mean awful... Kiko's fine. My dairy bucks wouldn't touch it.


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## OneFineAcre (Oct 31, 2014)

I should put this under the "you might be country" thread. 

We still just give the coastal free choice, and give the peanut hay as a treat.  I try to stretch it out through the winter.  A little bit like we use the alfalfa.  I bought 30 bales of alfalfa this summer, and have about a half bale left.

It so funny though, when you put it out the first thing they do is search all through it looking for the peanuts.  There is probably 50lbs of peanuts in every bale of hay.

We didn't have a square bale of coastal to take to the fair, so Maurine stopped at an Ace Hardware an bought a bale of Timothy/Orchard grass.  Man, they sure like that.  It smelled so sweet I wanted to try some.  Of course, it was $10.


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## Moody (Oct 31, 2014)

Looks good! I never thought goats would be picky.... I always heard they eat anything.


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## jodief100 (Nov 1, 2014)

Moody said:


> Looks good! I never thought goats would be picky.... I always heard they eat anything.



I hear that a lot.  I have come to the conclusion the "goats eat anything"  came from people who saw goats eat what their cows and horses wouldn't- weeds, trees, brush.  They decided that goats must eat "anything"  not realizing it wasn't that they eat anything but have different nutritional needs than cows and horses.  

It drives me nuts because I see a lot of goats in bad shape due to people getting them and thinking they will eat "anything"  they aren't providing proper nutrition for them.  By the time they call me it is usually too late.  

Climbing down from my soap box now......


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## Baymule (Nov 1, 2014)

@Moody where in Texas are you? I am in southeast Texas, moving to the Tyler area. Do you have yaupon growing in your area? My horses think it is candy and I have had cows fatten up on it when there wasn't grass in the woods. And it is a great fire starter too, the green leaves flare like gasoline. You can also pick the leaves, let them dry and make a tea. Yaupon has caffeine in it and makes a good tea. I bet your goats would like yaupon too. Can you tell that I am a big fan of this shrub that most people dismiss as a trash plant? LOL


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## norseofcourse (Nov 1, 2014)

Baymule said:


> @Moody where in Texas are you? I am in southeast Texas, moving to the Tyler area. Do you have yaupon growing in your area? My horses think it is candy and I have had cows fatten up on it when there wasn't grass in the woods. And it is a great fire starter too, the green leaves flare like gasoline. You can also pick the leaves, let them dry and make a tea. Yaupon has caffeine in it and makes a good tea. I bet your goats would like yaupon too. Can you tell that I am a big fan of this shrub that most people dismiss as a trash plant? LOL


Goats on caffeine??


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## Southern by choice (Nov 1, 2014)

norseofcourse said:


> Goats on caffeine??



My goats love coffee and root beer and tea. 
I have learned to never take a mug of anything in with me... they suck it up. BRATS!


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## goatgurl (Nov 1, 2014)

my goats (dairy) don't like coastal either.  my neighbor bales our hay meadows and it's just mixed grass hay and they eat it like it was good but since all he does are round bales i have to buy square bales to feed in the barn during bad weather and they are real picky about it.  I've learned to buy one bale  first and bring it home to see if they will eat it.  if they do i buy more, if they don't i keep looking.  yes southern they are brats.  nothing i take to the barn is safe from them


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## SheepGirl (Nov 1, 2014)

Just an FYI to go back to the OP... alfalfa is actually good for males, esp if you are feeding grain because it ups the calcium in the ration. Having a 2:1 calciumhosphorus ratio helps to prevent UC in intact male small ruminants. Basically that means, for the total ration (everything the goat eats--hay, grain, grass, browse, etc), there needs to be at least 2x the amount of calcium as phosphorus. Alfalfa is high in calcium which helps the calcium to phosphorus ratio.


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## Moody (Nov 3, 2014)

Unless you really control what and how much they eat (and I have no idea how much phosphorus is in the oak, elm and brush they eat) that would be a hard ratio to figure, right? 

My two males (one a wether and one a buck) are still both 6 months old and under so should I continue to give grain until they are grown, then cut back to just hay until right before rut?

This is where they live now




 

I will move the boys to a 16x32 in the wooded area here very soon 


 

And this in maybe a year would be ideal for the boys. I'm afraid the girls, being that I want them for milk, could damage their udder in such a briar filled zone.


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## Moody (Nov 3, 2014)

Is this yaupon? I had to look it up to see what it looks like. I don't think I have seen it but I am not good at plant identification. I saw some pale berries on it before. The branches have big thorns.


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## Mike CHS (Nov 3, 2014)

I didn't think Yaupon have thorns but I have been wrong before.


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