# What is your daily recipe?



## chickenrunnin (Jul 14, 2009)

Hello everyone, I transferred over there from the chicken group. So those of you I know hello, and those of you I dont, nice to meet you. My Name is Kelly and we are getting some boer goats in 2 weekends (Little boy and girl). I have alway had pigmy goats and they ate what the horses did and did well. However, these new members of the family are going to help support us. I am curious as to what you guys/gals are feeding your goats. Is your daily recipe specific to what you do with your goats. 

Thanks for letting me pick your brains, I really appreciate it.
Kelly


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## currycomb (Jul 14, 2009)

well,good luck with the helping to support you, it is more like you will be supporting them. goats are not the super sturdy little creatures that can thrive on junk feed. they need good clean feed, hay, browse, minerals, and water. then keeping up with the worms and coccidia, not to mention the bloat, viruses, CL, CAE, it is a wonder goats are not an extinct animal. but i love them and will continue to support our nubians (just not so many of them now that daughter is out of 4-H. did good again this year, 3went back to be judged for grand champion, and the judge said our blue doe should be on the cover of a magazine, thus grandchampion dairy doe!!!!!)


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## chickenrunnin (Jul 14, 2009)

I live in the country and have had animals my whole life. I know what I am getting into . All of our pets somehow benefit our household other than a warm loving body. I am aware of how to feed them, I was just curious what methods work for other people.

Congratulations on yours. You sound like you love them very much.


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## username taken (Jul 14, 2009)

> our pets somehow benefit our household other than a warm loving body.


Thats the spirit!

My daily routine and recipe is:

7am - feed the bottle babies (6 lambs and 7 kids) - replacer
8am - feed out hay (wheaten) - I just fill their tubs up - and 250g calf pellets per goat (20% protein). Also the bottle babies get as much of these pellets as they want, so I top their bowl up. sheep get a special mix I make which is 43% lucerne chaff, 43% oaten chaff, 7% lupins, 7% barley
3pm baby feeding time again
8pm - time to top up the hay and give out another 250g pellets per goat
10pm baby feeding time again

top up water when necessary. all my yards have 3 mineral blocks - a 'Goat block', a copper block (because the goat block doesnt contain copper ) and a calcium block. The boys also have a 'stone block' (ammonium chloride). 

Simple, and effective.


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## helmstead (Jul 14, 2009)

So your plan is to raise meat goats?  

I think it will be similar to raising dairy goats...just more finishing feed like a calf for your market goats.

We feed medicated meat goat pellets twice daily - we start with 3.5 lbs of pellets for every 100 lbs of goat.  Some need more, some need less, so we had to make pens for harder keepers and easier keepers (but that's just us).  Our preggers does that are within a month of kidding move to the nursery, where they receive yet more pellets and alfalfa pellets which they remain on through lactation.  We use a high quality goat mineral, loose, available free choice.  We also use good quality grass hay, free choice but in several feedings to avoid waste.  Our kids are creep fed, also.  Some goats also get BOSS and/or Calf Manna supplementally.

There are several meat goat finishing formulas, I suspect these are for bringing market animals to weight and show animals to condition, altho I am absolutely unfamilar with raising meat animals...I couldn't bear it LOL so I would never make any money!!

What little research I've done on meat goats - it looks exactly like beef cattle.  You start with quality stock and then you can expect to have better yield...also similar to dairy goats bred for milk!


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## MissJames (Aug 3, 2009)

username taken said:
			
		

> > our pets somehow benefit our household other than a warm loving body.
> 
> 
> Thats the spirit!
> ...


Is everyone seperated or do you put out all the blocks and the sheep and goats know what they need?


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## cmjust0 (Aug 3, 2009)

helmstead said:
			
		

> We feed medicated meat goat pellets twice daily - we start with 3.5 lbs of pellets for every 100 lbs of goat.


Our primary herd consists of eight does and a wether..  Five are purebred Nubians, one is an 81% boer, and three are boer/nubian crosses..  I figure it to be somewhere on the order of at least 1100lbs of goat..

If we fed 3.5lbs of feed to 100lbs of goat once a day, we'd be burning 40lbs of feed a day.  Does that sound right?  I don't think I could force ours eat that much grain in a day...

Seriously, a 50lb sack will last us close to a week and all but a few of our goats are, IMHO, overly fat..  

I'm not trying to be snarky or anything here...it's just that I read it, did the math, and went HOLY COW!  I guess what I'm asking is...was that a typo, or do you really feed 3.5lbs of grain per 100lb of goat?


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## helmstead (Aug 3, 2009)

It's no typo.  Of course you adjust for body condition.  I have some easier keepers that do not need that amount, and some hard keepers that need more.  Okay, technically it's 3.33 lbs per 100, but I like to round it up.

My 140 lb Nubian is supposed to get 5 lbs a day based on this formula, but she actually gets more than this to maintain condition, esp through lactation.  My 50-60 lb Nigis get about 2 lbs a day each, plus alfalfa pellets.  We go through 4 or 5 bags of pellets alone weekly.  I buy them in bulk, so I don't really keep track of how much we use - which is probably a good thing or I'd have a massive herd reduction.


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## freemotion (Aug 3, 2009)

For a different way of looking at things.....

I have four goats, two fat pygmies who get no grain at all, a young future-dairy mixed-breed doeling who gets a small handful of whole grain (barley) and a bigger handful of alfalfa pellets twice a day....maybe 1/3 c grain and 1/2-3/4 c alfalfa pellets each feeding.  I have an Alpine-cross lactating doe who gets a double-handful (2 cups?) of grain, a single handful of beetpulp, soaked, and a small coffee can of alfalfa pellets (3.5 cups?) twice a day on the milking stand, along with any veggie scraps from preparing our meals.

They have free access to pasture and get good grass hay at night, in bad weather, and during winter, and the baby and lactating or pregnant doe gets alfalfa hay, too.  

Right now, the doeling goes into a separate stall at night and gets her own hayrack stuffed full, and when I have time, I hang a bundle of freshly cut leafy branches from my woods, only things I know they can eat.  She is in GREAT condition and is growing like a weed.

The lactating doe was a starving rescue late last December, pregnant.  She is now in wonderful condition on this regimen.  Sometimes I have to up her alfalfa pellets for a while, like when she is at peak lactation or at the end of her pregnancy.

I do slightly sprout the whole grains to increase the nutrient levels.  The big feed companies don't think you are smart enough to balance your animal's feed, but it is just not true.

I also have feeders full time with goat minerals, loose salt, baking soda, and a block of mineral salt.  

But I don't have purebred animals, so they may be tougher.


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## helmstead (Aug 3, 2009)

Beet pulp is a wonderful thing...we also use that as a fleshing feed for our breeders...and I can't tell you how much I love it for my horses.

I might clarify that the recommendation I make is for _medicated_ feed.  Each medicated bag should have a recommendation for quantity to feed as the medication used varies by manuf.  If you feed less than recommended of medicated feed, the medication is not at a high enough level to do its job.  But since I only advocate feeding medicated feed, I always spout out those numbers.

Each situation is different.  For us, we have no pasture/browse for our goats - it's all dry lot.  We must make up the difference with hay and feed.  When we move to our other property eventually, we will likely have to add extra decoxx topdress because their 'need for feed' will decrease with established pastures.  This is why I also often say 'adjust for condition' or 'general rule of thumb'.


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## username taken (Aug 4, 2009)

MissJames said:
			
		

> username taken said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Separated sometimes, together sometimes. At the moment I have pastures groups:

- kidding does
- dry does
- babies (poddies, just weaned etc)
- sheep - both damara and normal

So at the moment its pretty easy as everyone is separate. When I have the goats and sheep together, the copper block is elevated on a platform that the goats have to climb on to reach, so the sheep cant get to that one. The others are fine for both sheep and goats. With the different grain/pellets, the sheep tend to stay very separate from the goats, so I put the goat feed out first, and have troughs over the other side of the paddock for the sheep, they separate themselves off to eat their feed. The damaras will also separate from the traditional breed sheep, so I can give them slightly different amounts too.


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## ohiofarmgirl (Aug 4, 2009)

> When I have the goats and sheep together, the copper block is elevated on a platform that the goats have to climb on to reach, so the sheep cant get to that one.


wow! i love this idea! thanks for including it.... we have limited pasture so i couldnt figure out how to incorporate sheep... but i see that this could work. thanks!

chickenrunnin - welcome over here! great info and the chicken folks are starting to migrate this way.

we have dairy gals so we feed them bagged food when they are being milked, and good quality hay. however, when we had our non-milking gals it was "get out there and free range because its FREE" and they did a great job of knocking down all the bramble. 

my neighbors have their meat goats on pasture and feed just one scoop of bagged twice a day for their 4 that are outside. they do a great job this way. their fair wethers get more to bulk up... but out on pasture, if you have it, is a great way to go. 

do you live in a cold climate?? we found that we had to give them a little corn in the cold weather to keep them warmer.

good luck!


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## Aped (Aug 4, 2009)

I'm new to this but right now my 3 month old kids get 1/4 cup of grain per day per kid. Half in the AM and half in the PM. The grain is a mizture of Purina Show Goat, Oats and BOSS. They always have some type of hay available and I let them out to forage when I get home. Then they also have loose minerals + AC, baking soda and water available.


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## chickenrunnin (Aug 4, 2009)

Mine are getting alfalfa pellets free feed, their pasture is grass, the babies are getting 1/4 cup of goat feed in the am and pm. Our pregnant doe get free feed alfalfa pellets and 1.5 pounds am and pm of the goat feed. I throw a large flake of grass hay in about everyother day becuase they are very wasteful. But they look forward to it and eat when i throw it in. They have a mineral block and water available at all times.


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## cmjust0 (Aug 4, 2009)

helmstead said:
			
		

> It's no typo.  Of course you adjust for body condition.  I have some easier keepers that do not need that amount, and some hard keepers that need more.  Okay, technically it's 3.33 lbs per 100, but I like to round it up.
> ...
> Each situation is different.  For us, we have no pasture/browse for our goats - *it's all dry lot*.  We must make up the difference with hay and feed.


Aha!  There's the difference.  Ours are on a few acres, albeit mostly fescue with broadleaf weeds and a few osage orange trees..  I plan to expand their area considerably within the next year or two....my expansion area needs to be fallowed a while.  Got some scrub goats out there now.



			
				helmstead said:
			
		

> I buy them in bulk, so I don't really keep track of how much we use - which is probably a good thing or I'd have a massive herd reduction.


I can imagine!  I get aggravated enough having to go pick up our regular 6 or so bags of feed for the foundation herd every month..  What's sad about that is our feed only runs $7.50/bag, which I know is dirt cheap...  It's more like $12-$13 for DuMor or Kent at TSC..  

Surprisingly, though, the feed we buy is actually quite good to be so cheap..  It's 16%, medicated, 2:1 Ca to P ratio, and has ammonium chloride added..  It's a true goat feed (copper and all), and they clean it up more readily than the DuMor from TSC...

I've had bags of DuMor take my breath when first opened...  Too much brewers grain is the only thing I can think of.  Smells like a daggone distillery.  Our goats have, at times, and as best I can tell, totally failed to recognize certain bags of it as _food_..  I'd throw some in a pan and it may as well have been gravel or sand...zero interest.

Anyway...glad to have found our "cheapo" feed, but wish I didn't even have to buy that!


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## FlightsofFancy (Aug 5, 2009)

I know of show producers that feed much more than this ratio to keep their goats in high production and in top condition. 
If you are milking or breeding these goats it's not really burning. You get out what you put in.  I wish more people would follow this rule for their dairy goats as I see too many starved while being allowed to eat only scrub and weeds. Take care of the animals that take care of you...ya know?


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## cmjust0 (Aug 6, 2009)

FlightsofFancy said:
			
		

> I know of show producers that feed much more than this ratio to keep their goats in high production and in top condition.
> If you are milking or breeding these goats it's not really burning. You get out what you put in.  I wish more people would follow this rule for their dairy goats as I see too many starved while being allowed to eat only scrub and weeds. Take care of the animals that take care of you...ya know?


While I don't necessarily think that the above was directed at me in any kind of malicious way, I will say that we didn't feed that much even when our does were raising kids..  The one we were milking everyday only got maybe two scoops of 16% mare & foal sweet feed twice a day...just enough to keep her content on the stanchion...and she didn't lose any condition.  None of our goats lost condition, actually, and the Boer raised three until they were big enough to lift her way up off the ground when they nursed.

Point being, I'm not sure I'd be so quick to discount the value of scrub and weeds..  That is, afterall, what the goat was built to consume..  Not to mention, humans have been raising domesticated goats since the neolithic era..  If you consider that whole timeline as if it were one day, we've only been using bagged feed for the last 15 minutes or so.

:/

I've got a few head right now that I literally haven't laid hands on in probably...I dunno, almost a year.  I don't feed them hay, nor bagged feed...I don't water them...I don't worm them...I don't vaccinate them...I don't trim their hooves...nothing.  I literally do _nothing_ for these goats.

They actually look better than a lot of goats I've seen that are...shall we say..."intensively managed."

Personally...I think the closer you can get to natural in terms of raising goats, the better off you'll be.  I mean...just look at how healthy and prolific the average whitetail deer is.  Whitetails aren't so very much different from goats, either.

But, again, all that's just MHO.


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## ksalvagno (Aug 6, 2009)

There are so many variables that there is no way one size fits all. You just have to figure out what works for you and your goats and go with it. I think it is great to read about what other people do because then you have options when something stops working for you.


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## kstaven (Aug 6, 2009)

Not all breeds of goats are created equally. So where one breed will thrive another will not. We have seen this variation within the same breed. So in reality the one size fits all for feeding doesn't really work.


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