# Can you grow or make goat feed at home ???



## waterguy81 (May 17, 2011)

What can you grow at home for dairy goat feed ? or at least to help with the cost of buying so much feed ? 

 What is the best grass for them and treats ?

 Thanks


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## freemotion (May 17, 2011)

Root veggies like mangels (fodder beets), rutabaga, turnip, carrots.  Pea vines and leafy greens.  Winter squash and pumpkins.  Sunflowers.

I feed slightly sprouted whole grains, which are high in protein and low in mineral-blockers.  Whole grains are cheaper.  I start any newly acquired animal on whatever feed they are used to and switch them over very gradually.  But all my animals are on whole grains.  I coarsely grind them for new chicks, but by two weeks old even they can handle the smaller grains whole.

Best grass?  A variety of grasses and weeds, lots of leafy weeds, for the pasture.  Brushy stuff is preferred, but they tend to eliminate that rather quickly from a fenced in area.


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## Leta (May 17, 2011)

I'm a little in love with you, freemotion.


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## Georgiamainers (May 17, 2011)

Freemotion, what kind of grains are you feeding??  What size quantities do you ask for??  We have a local farm supply/coop that we buy from.  Thanks,


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## freemotion (May 17, 2011)

Leta!  

My preference is barley because it sprouts so nicely and the protein goes up a lot at the just-sprouted stage.  It is impossible to find in my area so I've been feeding oats and corn (sprouted oats to the goats, and the chickens get them in the morning.  Corn for the hens in the afternoon.  Just because.)

Whole corn is the only grain that is readily available in my neck of the woods, but a new farmer planted an experimental acre of barley this year and I am hoping to get some of it.  If it works out, he'll plant more.  He and his wife came for a visit and liked the way I did things here, and the barley was based on our conversations....   I hope I've found a new source!

In the past I've gotten my barley when visiting my folks in Maine but they moved here.   I could fit 750 lbs in my car.....not all in the trunk or the front tires barely touch the ground! How much you get depends on how many critters you are feeding.  I could use a hundred pounds a week, more if I wasn't gleaning food for the pigs in the fall.


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## Georgiamainers (May 18, 2011)

Hey I'm in Maine!  Tell me where the barley is!!!  lol  We're outside of Bangor in dairy country (near Dover-Foxcroft)  I'll ask around.  My step-dad is a dairy farmer down the road.  

 We've read about sprouting and want to do that for the goats and chickens!!  We like to sprout for ourselves.  Their milk supply stays up right??


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## freemotion (May 18, 2011)

Well, I lived in The Valley so it would be a bit of a drive for you!  4-5 hours!  But I'm sure you can find it around Bangor.  Barley is a common crop up there, along with oats.  You can often buy it right from the farmer, load up your own barrels at harvest time.


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