# Organic Approach On Feeding Goats



## stano40 (Jan 6, 2010)

I am planning for the Spring season to begin setting up my yard and surrounding to benefit not only my chickens, ducks, geese, but now my goats.

I would like a more organic approach to the well being of my animals.  

I have 2 wethers, one is an alpine and the other is a nigerian.  My 2 females I have are a nigerian X pygmy and the other may be a mini-saanen, not sure.

However, their feed is varied since the wethers only like the kid pellets and some sweet feed.  The females prefer the sweet feed and now the dairy pellets for goats.  The hay I use is 2nd cut horse hay.  I am looking into getting more alfalfa and timothy hay mixture.

My alpine likes the fresh veggies more than the other 3 so far.  He has been with me the longest and the other 3 have only been with me for a month or so.  My females may also be pregnant because I did have a buck here for awhile until I found him a better home.

On another site I read a lengthy list of what a goat can and cannot eat.

My plan is set up not only a garden for the goats and the family but also to plant a pasture mix seed.  I also had in mind of growing either a small amount of wheat or barley or a mixture of both for foraging.

I have rhubarb in my present garden but some lists say the leaves are good and others say no.  I am going to assume that it's not and get rid of the rhubarb.  I also have grape vines running all over the place.  I also have 2 apple trees started which I know I'll have to protect otherwise the goats will eat it down to the roots.

I was told goats should be kept more on hay and very little pellets.

How much fresh veggies can they handle.  I have one doe whose droppings have been somewhat clumpy and she only eats the dairy pellets and sweet feed.  I'd like to get them a little more on other foods if that will help her out.

All of them love pine trees.

I really want to turn my acre property to the goat and other animals benefit.  

bob/Maine


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## freemotion (Jan 7, 2010)

Hi Bob!  I lived in Northern Maine for many years, and am in MA now, so our climates are similar.

I let my girls get most of their own food from the pasture all spring, summer, and fall.  I supplemented the doeling with a bundle of leafy branches when she was closed up in a stall every night.

I give them pumpkins and squash that I glean from the local farms and store in my cellar.  I sort the big ones every couple of days and run them through the slicing blade in my food processor.  I start them on any new food with a handful twice a day, then gradually increase it, watching the poo.  I back off if anyone gets clumpy.  I get them up to about a quart each twice a day, about double that for the lactating doe.

I also plant lots of root veggies because they store well.  This past year was so wet that my entire root crop failed, so I was more aggressive on getting pumpkins and squash.  I fed the big pumpkins first, since they spoil more quickly.  Now I am feeding the tiny orange pumpkins, since they are getting a little wrinkly and get a spot here and there, last will be some interesting yellow tiny pumpkins that are keeping really well and look like spaghetti squash inside.

Normally I have lots of rutabagas and other things.  I plant carrots, mangels (fodder beets), beets, and rutabagas.  Also kale, which can stay in the garden even under the snow and can give them something green into the early part of the winter.

I sprout whole grains, mostly barley, but also oats when I can't get the barley.  At the just-sprouted stage, the protein level skyrockets and the digestibility does, too.  I can get them to almost green, but then they get moldy.  I have a different set-up now, so will trying for green again this winter.  Even so, the grain is better for them soaked.

I feed soaked beet pulp daily, too, so they will have something that I can increase on days that I don't have time to mess around with all the veggies.

I ferment some different things using whey as an innoculant so they will have plenty of live probiotics.  Haven't seen clumpy poo since starting this a year ago.

I bought one bag of the commercial pellets that my buck was used to when I bought him, and gradually switched him over to my feeding methods.  He stopped getting any commercial feed about 10 days ago.  About a week ago, his energy level gradually increased.  I hadn't told my husband about the change, and he started commenting on the buck's behavior recently....how full of extra life he's been lately... "I thought he was going to climb that tree!"  Hmmmm.....

I have mineral feeders with loose minerals, loose salt, block salt, and baking soda.  Alfalfa and grass hay mix.   Balsam xmas trees gleaned from a local farm for them to chew on.

My pygmies get no grain, and just a little beet pulp and a handful of veggies and only because I bred one of them recently.  Otherwise, no supplemental feed for the Princesses Chunk.


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## freemotion (Jan 9, 2010)

Seriously, I can't be the only one who doesn't feed pellets!  Chime in, folks, it is safe to come out of hiding!


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## stano40 (Jan 9, 2010)

Thanks for that info freemotion.  This is giving me a direction to go in and achieve a good garden for this spring/summer.

It's taken me a few times to read and re-read your post.  I wanted to try and make sure I understood what was said.  My plans are including the rearrangement of the garden area to make room for root crops.  I've never tried beets, turnips,or rutabagas before but I'm going to give them a try this year.  I was also going to try a few rows of corn.  I believe I've read somewhere that goats like corn stalks and the silk.

My garden only composes of grape vines that took over 75% of the garden are.  These will be removed and only 2 vines saved to be planted in a new location.  2 Raspberry bush's will be moved to a new location to make room for toot crops.  The few remaining rhubarb plants will be given away since no one here except me will eat it.

I finally got a shipment of good alfalfa/timothy hay in today along with some bedding hay.  I used the bedding hay to fill in some spots needed for their comfort and set up the good alfalfa hay for the goats.  Would you believe they nibbled slightly at the expensive alfalfa hay and chose the bedding hay for their feed.  Sometimes you can't figure them out.

Another question is do you provide a salt lick?  I give them crushed mineral block and baking soda.  Do you vaccinate your goats?  My wife wants to give them a cd/t shot seeing we have no idea as to what vaccinations they mkay have had in the past.

I can't get pumpkin's around here anymore but have tried carrots for them with mixed results.  I shred the carrots for the chickens to aid as a natural de-wormer and the little alpine goat loves the carrots along with some cabbage.  Yesterday he and one of my females had a half of apple which they loved.  The other 2 turned up their nose's.

What about zucchini along with squash?

Would also love to hear your input on sweet feeds and giving molasses in water from time to time.

bob


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## freemotion (Jan 9, 2010)

Goats LOVE grape leaves and raspberry leaves (only fresh or dried, as wilting raspberry and strawberry leaves are poisonous while wilting.)

Keep re-introducing foods.  They will turn their noses up one day and gobble it down the next.  Well-fed goats are fussy little creatures!  My lactating doe will eat almost anything, even something that another goat's lips touched.  My fat pygmies would never dream of eating something that someone else's mouth touched. 

The younger goats are much more suspicious of any new foods, even ones that should be yummy like carrots and apples.  I just put a piece or two in with their regular food and hope for the best.  Anything they don't eat, Mya will vacuum up, I just offer her the leavings when I pick up the feed pans.  Anything she doesn't want, the hens get.  No waste here!

I provide a salt block along with loose salt, loose minerals for goats, and baking soda.  The only reason I offer two types of salt is that I had some blocks left after I lost my horse, and the goats loved it.  But when the weather is really hot, they can't get enough, so I put some loose salt in a mineral feeder.  They generally choose the block over loose, then will eat all the loose salt up in day or two if it gets really hot out.

As far as zuchinni goes....I offer any veg that is available in excess.  I haven't grown zukes for the goats simply because they do not keep, and when they are available, so is pasture.  So I don't do all the work of offering veggies when they can get their little tushies out there and harvest their own breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  They are far less likely to eat a new item when their bellies are full of pasture and browse.  I shred my excess zukes and freeze them, and if there is enough, I use it in my homemade catfood.

I am not worried about being certified organic or anything, I am trying to raise my critters in the best way I can so I have the healthiest, toxin-free food I can get my hands on, from a cruelty-free source.  So I am not a stickler on all things organic.  There is a lot of garbage allowed under that title that I wouldn't do, anyways.

I give my goats cd&t vaccines myself.  I have dewormed with Ivomec injected SubQ in the past, but now I have a microscope and have been running fecal exams.  I bought herbs from Molly's Herbals but haven't given them yet, as the fecals have been coming back great.  I last wormed early spring when I brought a new baby onto the property.  My plan is to ultimately gather my own herbs for deworming, but I would use a chemical dewormer now and then if I had to.  Modern goats have hardiness bred out of them, so I am approaching this with open eyes and a willingness to do what is best for each individual.  I also plan to find new homes for any goat who does not do well ultimately with the way I want to raise my critters.  But so far, so good!  Everyone is thriving, even my rescues.

I don't use any manufactured feeds, so I don't use sweet feed.  When they have recalls for feed and pet foods, I have not had to worry.  I do have a big jug of molasses, so I guess I am ready to learn about pregnancy and its issues.  Maybe my practice of feeding beet pulp has been enough.....but I don't know enough about this to guide anyone.  Still learning myself!


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## ohiofarmgirl (Jan 9, 2010)

hey stano!

i would love to see pix of your mini-sanann! what a great idea!

well, you're in good hands with Free - she is the expert!

me - our feeding method is - get out there and free range b/c its FREE!
;-)

last year i never feed my mini-manchas any bagged food until it got too cold for them to be outside...they just stood inside and screamed.  this year i planned to breed our mini so i gave her some bagged food... and she TOTALLY chunked out. to quote the breeder:

WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!?!?

so - if they dont need it, dont feed it. (she's slimming down btw) and now i'm the wiser.. i wont get sucked in again about what you "should" do when i know that it wont work. everyone does things differently and you'll figure out what works for you.

my sassy sanaan milker refuses to graze but if i go and get it she'll eat it (esp anything from the garden - esp the weeds!). i give her diary pellets while shes on the milk stand. my la mancha loves to graze and we have brambly pastures that is really lush... so she was very happy. i supplemented with alfalfa hay for the dairy ladies... but between the garden weeds and the pasture they dont need much. 

during the winter i give alfalfa hay and dairy pellets with a small scoop of sweet feed and sometimes a dusting of cracked corn. we are totally covered in snow and the ladies havent even gone outside in a day or two. 

next year my plan is to grow as much feed as possible for all the critters including the goaties.

my sanaan breeder has the mill mix a custom sweet fed for his herd at 16% which includes molasses. 

and i'm sure you know that different climates/area of the country have different minerals and such... so you might want to contact a couple reputable breeders in your area and ask what they feed.  or instance Ohio is low in selenium and we have to give shots. 

good luck and post pix!

ps rhubarb is poisonous to other things so i'm not sure i'd try it with the goaties. 
pss get good fencing!


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## stano40 (Jan 9, 2010)

Here are some photo's and I'll let you decide.  I tried to do some comparison's by descriptions and photo's of the goats that I bought to see if that is the breed I have purchased.

I'll try to best explain who is in our herd family.  Our first baby was an Alpine wether, what a great boy he's turning out to be.

We knew he needed a companion and decided to get him one irregardless of how much attention we give him.  So we found 2 pygmy wether's for sale rather inexpensively and bought them.  Boy did we learn about what a buck smells like.  We trusted the seller and we learned.

My 3 year old grandson named them "Lil Foot" & "Chompers.  Chompers is the black one and the buck .... Whew, Alias Mr. Stinky.  Lil Foot is a wether and we noticed his ears were clipped.  The owner said he had suffered frostbite on his ears, now he looks like a mini-La Mancha.












They were bought as pygmy's, but when I had their photo posted on another site I was told that the white one looked more like a Nigerian.

These next 2 are the girls we bought when we found another ad describing them only as miniatures.  We went out to check them out and the lady only knew them as miniatures.  She gave us a nice deal on them.  My wife is pretty sure that the black and white one may be a nigerian X pygmy.  The all white one I think may be a mini saanen.  That's just my guess on descriptions I found on the internet.






My grandson named them also, Ducky & Cera.  Bet you can't guess what he watches











Chompers the black pygmy was constantly after the girls and after the girls were no longer posing for him and he started smelling a little better we re-homed him to another lady who needed a companion for her pygmy wether, who was crying all the time for a friend.












The only photo I do not have that is current is for my Alpine wether "Archie",  I only have his baby picture at 8 weeks old.

bob


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## freemotion (Jan 9, 2010)

Cute herd!  Chompers looks like a slim version of one of my Princesses Chunk, Willow (wrong name....should be Oak!) who looks pregnant with quads, but she's not!


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## stano40 (Jan 10, 2010)

Had to show Archie, my Alpine wether.  He's my first and I have to give him hugs and kiss's everytime I'm with him.

Archie's baby picture at 8 weeks old





Archie today ... 











He's grown so much and does he love to strip the bark off of the pine tree's.  I don't think I'll any left by Spring.


bob


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## ksalvagno (Jan 10, 2010)

Looks like you have nice little goat herd there.


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## stano40 (Jan 10, 2010)

Thank You, my 2 girls may be pregnant and the due date would be around the end of May.

That's why all the questions on bringing them more into an organic feed schedule and setting up my yard for a good forage.

Isn't it amazing that we do all this for our animals and don't even think that our family could use it also.    

bob


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## freemotion (Jan 10, 2010)

I have goats so that my family can have organic milk, yogurt, kefir, and cheese!  Oh, and ice cream, pudding, hot chocolate..... and the list goes on and on!


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## FarmerDenise (Apr 18, 2010)

I am reviving this thread, since I want to raise my little doelings as naturally as possible. 
I think as long as I provide a good mixture of assorted food stuff's they would get all the nutrients they need. But then I worry that I might be missing something. 
My little ones are still on the bottle. They are foraging nicely though and every day they try something new and more of it. 
I can see them watching the dog and the chickens and then going and trying what those other animals ate. Our dog eats a lot of the greens in the field 
I make sure any leftover  dogfood is put away, before the goats get out.
I started mixing assorted grains to feed my chickens and am feeding the same grain mix to the goats. My chickens don't care for corn unless it is home grown. So there is very little corn in the grain mix. I only feed grains to the goats as a treat, when I pen them up. I want them to have a good reason to go into lockdown 
The grasses and weeds in our field have all gone to seed and so the goats have access to plenty of seed material, if they want it. Within a month or so, all the plants should be fairly dried out and the seeds will scatter.
We plan on cutting down about half of the standing weeds and save them for fodder this summer.


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## chandasue (Apr 18, 2010)

freemotion said:
			
		

> Seriously, I can't be the only one who doesn't feed pellets!  Chime in, folks, it is safe to come out of hiding!


Old post but I don't do pellets either, just really good alfalfa hay, loose minerals and an organic dairy goat grain mix that really is _grain_ from MN Buckwheat Growers Association. The girls devour the stuff along with occasional chopped up veggies/apples from the kitchen. Shipping within MN is reasonable from Buckwheat Growers Assoc, out of state gets spendy. Other organic mills around the country should be able to do a custom mix if they don't already have a blend for goats.


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## Bryannjamie (Nov 13, 2010)

Has anyone tried growing oats for goats?  And I thought they were big on woody plants, how do you keep them growing when the goats are around?


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## stano40 (Nov 13, 2010)

I haven't tried that yet even though I feed them whole oats and other grains once a day in addition to good hay and minerals.  From time to time they also get fresh veggies.

I've been thinking of trying a patch of oats, barley, buckwheat or even millet.

I was looking on Johnny's Seeds (Johnny's Seeds is located in Maine) they have a good selection of seeds for my climate and all of these grain seeds.  They also have a pasture mix for sheep and goats.

I know I would have to partition off a section of my property in order to grow whatever I plant there so the goats won't trample on it or eat it before it's ready to harvest.  I guess that's the trick to getting it started.

bob


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## freemotion (Nov 13, 2010)

I mulched two of my veggie garden's paths with straw from the goat's stall this spring and got a few oats growing lushly in there.  I left them to mature.  I am now feeding them to my favorite doeling who needs to grow a bit more, just a handful at a time.  The oats are green still and the grass part is big and wide and fibrous and she LOVES them!

My goal is to get my pasture cross-fenced into several paddocks eventually (eek, fencing prices!  My goats laughed at the electric paddock I put up.)  Then at least one will be planted with a mixture of oats and peas to be used as hay or cut and fed by the armload as fresh fodder on a day-to-day basis.  I have a pig pasture that will hopefully be planted with this mixture in the spring as early as the soil can be worked, and I'm hoping it will have time to grow into something useful before next year's pigs are big enough to plow it all up.  This way I can start my learning curve before I get the goat pasture cross-fenced.


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## stano40 (Nov 14, 2010)

The peas you use are those field peas?  I was thinking about using that also as part of a fodder mix.

bob


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## dianneS (Nov 14, 2010)

I don't feed pellets.  Just lots of pasture and free range foraging and free-choice grass hay all winter.  I have wethers too so I dont' feed grain due to urinary calculi of course.

I give black oil sunflower seeds as treats and keep plenty of free choice mineral on hand, both loose minerals and block.

That's it, pretty simple!  My goats will go nuts for multiflora rose bushes and other brush so they do a good job of keeping our weeds down.


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## freemotion (Nov 14, 2010)

Yes, I'm going to use field peas, at least that is the plan, but since my goal is hay and not ripe peas, it really won't matter.  I'm looking for something that I can plant early and scythe some of it before the pigs are let out in that pasture.  Later, if I find it was worthwhile, I'll plant in one or more of the paddocks and keep the goats off it until it is harvested, then rotate them through that paddock for grazing.


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## savingdogs (Nov 14, 2010)

Ours eat mostly hay and forage. Grain and pellets are more of a snack and tool for moving them around the pastures! We do offer the mineral and baking soda of course. I planted Buckwheat as a ground cover crop and that was popular, they loved eating that. Now that our females are pregnant we are giving them an increasing amount of grain. I also feed them BOSS as a snack at least every couple of days. They will eat raisins really well too and apple slices, but mine are pretty finicky other than that. I'd love to try all the things Freemotion is feeding, but I haven't learned how yet! But ours look pretty good.


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## goodgirlmolly (Dec 4, 2010)

freemotion said:
			
		

> Hi Bob!  I lived in Northern Maine for many years, and am in MA now, so our climates are similar.
> 
> I let my girls get most of their own food from the pasture all spring, summer, and fall.  I supplemented the doeling with a bundle of leafy branches when she was closed up in a stall every night.
> 
> ...


I have deep deep respect for you & the way you feed your goats
Is it true also that feeding raw pumpkin also helps to keep parasites away?


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