feeding horse grain to goats???????

[GLENMAR]

Hey guys here's a question:
I have about 7 bags of Nutrina Legacy Beet Pulp horse feed.
I am not feeding it to the horses because they have lots of grass right now.
Can I feed this to the goats??
You can check out Nurtina's web site to see the ingredients.
There is copper, selinium, and Vit E in there.

thanks

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I want to know too. Goat grain is almost impossible to find here, but there sure is lots of horse food!

 

[chubbydog811]

Check the feed tag compared to the goat grain - horse grain is made for horses (sorry to be obvious) not goats...From what I've seen, the copper is way too high for goats to be their main diet. If you are only feeding a very small amount - say for a supplement/treat - it shouldn't be too much of a problem...Just remember, horse needs and goat needs are very different. Of course people still feed it to goats without issue, just be careful with the amount you are feeding.

 

[daisyjack]

Fias Co Farms feeds their animals 12%-16 % horse grain. here is the site page and its under grain http://fiascofarm.com/goats/feeding.htm

 

[20kidsonhill]

Cooper in the purina feed is 25 ppm for horses and 42 ppm for goats. My goat feed has 52 ppm. so the copper is for sure not too high.

The biggest thing I see , is the protein and fiber. Most people are feeding their goats 14 to 17% protein feed, with about 10 to 17% fiber.

A horse does not have as high a protein requirement and has a much much higher fiber requirement in their feed. Many of the feeds have almost 30% fiber in them.

As far as the Legacy beet pulp for horses: I don't see anything that is really bad in it for goats. Does it have a do not feed to ruminants warning on it? You need to know where the protein comes from in a non-ruminant based feed. I would like to see an ingredients label for it and I don't see that on the website.

Crude Protein 12.50%
Lysine 0.65%
Methionine 0.3%
Crude Fat 10.0%
Crude Fiber max. 10.0%
Dietary Starch max. 18.0%
Sugar max. 12.0%
Calcium min. 0.75% - max. 0.95%
Phosphorus 0.5%
Copper 50 ppm
Zinc 200 ppm
Selenium 0.3 ppm
Vitamin A 3,000 IU/lb
Vitamin D3 350 IU/lb
Vitamin E 100 IU/lb
Biotin 0.60 mg/lb

 

[chubbydog811]

Cooper in the purina feed is 25 ppm for horses and 42 ppm for goats. My goat feed has 52 ppm. so the copper is for sure not too high.

The biggest thing I see , is the protein and fiber. Most people are feeding their goats 14 to 17% protein feed, with about 10 to 17% fiber.

A horse does not have as high a protein requirement and has a much much higher fiber requirement in their feed. Many of the feeds have almost 30% fiber in them.

As far as the Legacy beet pulp for horses: I don't see anything that is really bad in it for goats. Does it have a do not feed to ruminants warning on it? You need to know where the protein comes from in a non-ruminant based feed. I would like to see an ingredients label for it and I don't see that on the website.

Crude Protein 12.50%
Lysine 0.65%
Methionine 0.3%
Crude Fat 10.0%
Crude Fiber max. 10.0%
Dietary Starch max. 18.0%
Sugar max. 12.0%
Calcium min. 0.75% - max. 0.95%
Phosphorus 0.5%
Copper 50 ppm
Zinc 200 ppm
Selenium 0.3 ppm
Vitamin A 3,000 IU/lb
Vitamin D3 350 IU/lb
Vitamin E 100 IU/lb
Biotin 0.60 mg/lb

Good point...I don't think it was copper that I was meaning, like you said - the fiber/protein....Or maybe I meant the copper was too low, going by what you mentioned? I don't remember, that was about 4 years ago...
I talked it over with my feed store owner when I first got goats and was looking into the horse feed (idea from Fiasco). She talked to the feed rep who said it wasn't the best thing to feed to them. Something(s) was too high for goats, and I was better off feeding a goat/dairy specific grain, and copper was too low. I assume he wasn't telling me this to make the company more money, because the horse feed I was looking at cost more than the goat feed.

Again, it works for a lot of people, this is just what the guy at the grain company had to say. I'm not saying not to feed it, just saying to keep an eye for any changes that shouldn't be happening, or feed it in a smaller amount as a treat/supplement.