# How will my dairy goats do on wheat?



## freemotion (Jul 8, 2011)

I just got word that I am getting over 1.25 ton of organic wheat......FREE!!!!!

I plan on replacing the does' oats with the wheat....anyone have any experience with feeding wheat?  I've fed barley with great results, so I imagine the wheat will be fine, too.


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## Goatherd (Jul 8, 2011)

Even though I feed an "inferior" diet, I do use wheat and my goats like it and I think they do quite well on it.  Hopefully, your goats will like it too.


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## helmstead (Jul 8, 2011)

Way cool!  I can't say I've ever spoken to anyone specifically about wheat, but I know middlings are part of my extruded feed.

I guess you get to be the informer/test herd and let us know how you like it


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## freemotion (Jul 11, 2011)

So far, so good.  The first day it arrived I grabbed a small handful when Plum was on the milk stand and offered it to her.  She is a pig and gobbled it up....took two chews and quickly spit it out! 

I ran it through my sprouting pails and it sprouted in a bit over a day....looked like close to 100% germination for wheat dated 1997!  Properly stored, though, in pails lined with mylar bags and oxygen absorbers.

Everyone else likes it.  Plum refused to eat much until yesterday when I hand fed her until she ate half her ration....tonight she was up to a bit more than 3/4 of her usual ration.    I expected skinny Peach to be the picky one, but she is cleaning it up for a change and I'm hoping this finally gets some much-needed weight on her.

The two older does inhale whatever is put in front of them. 

Time will tell how they do on it but I got an extra quart this morning in the milk bucket.....


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## kstaven (Jul 17, 2011)

You will get a lot more milage out of that wheat if you can continue to sprout it.


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## SDGsoap&dairy (Jul 17, 2011)

Awesome!  Let us know how it goes!


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## Emmetts Dairy (Jul 17, 2011)

Thats great that you were able to get that!!! Free!! Amazing..not much is free anymore!!   Ive never fed wheat but I would be curious to know how they do!


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## freemotion (Jul 17, 2011)

It has been one full week since they've been on sprouted wheat....the first day or so it was soaked but not sprouted, and mixed with oats to transition them.  Now they are on all wheat since I ran out of oats about 5 days ago, and they weren't getting much by then anyways.

The extra quart+ a day had continued.   I feed at the just-emerging stage and feed the same batch of sprouts for 2 feedings or so.  The hens are getting this, too.  I am thinking of possibly switching over to wheat when this batch is gone, since I can get it through the co-op (people food co-op) for $22 per 50 lbs and organic grain at the feed store is much more and the quality is not as good as the wheat sold for grinding into flour.  I have not been able to justify the cost of organic grain until now (grain is much more expensive here than most of you can get it for....in many cases, twice as much!  Likely because of shipping to the east coast) but a couple more gallons of milk per bag of grain will justify it. 

And I can store it in all the wonderful pails I now have.


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