goatboy1973
True BYH Addict
We fill our hay feeders to the max also. The absolute most important item for goats in extreme cold as well as any environment is a good clean source of drinking water. Extreme cold presents a unique situation and some livestock producers neglect this simple and very important part of the daily intake of a ruminant. Make sure your water source is accessible, free from ice, and clean, otherwise you will see a decrease in food consumption and an increase in urinary calculi in male goats either wethered or intact. We use tank de-icers and use an axe for breaking ice around the pond. We always go around the perimeter of our pond anyhow and break the ice to insure that the goats will not attempt to get out on the ice and fall through and drown. As far as the nutrition goes, I have a special mix for winter that I use for extreme cold and it is as follows: sweet feed, crushed/powdered corn, alfalfa pellets, beet pulp, 1/2 quart jar of molasses. I mix this mixture in an electric concrete mixer for home use, but you could also mix this feed in a 55 gal barrel with a drill fitted with a paddle bit made for mixing paint or by hand but by hand will not get as thorough a mix though. The sweet feed, alfalfa pellets, and corn are all equal parts and this is meant for short term use as the high sugar content and high calcium content is not good for long term use in goats. If you feed this mix to male goats make sure that a good mineral mix with AC is available at all times. The hay will help the goats' rumens continue to work at a high rate which produces heat from within by breaking down all that fiber. The sugars and corn from the mix is a great energy source and the beet pulp is an excellent source of energy and vitamin C which helps maintain tissues and healthy immune systems. The alfalfa pellets are a great source of protein which has to go along with the high energy source you are feeding to help balance the diet. Remember, the best feeds in the world are worthless without a good clean source of drinking water.
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We had less than 72 hours of that craziness. The lowest we got was windchill of -6 but we are in NC... that is COLD.Brrrr
Glad you all survived it... doing the countdown til spring. 
-6 was bad enough. I couldn't handle those temps.![:\](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/side.png "side :\")
Yep, we are not dealing with what you are but we have terrible flooding... my main coop building flooded. All that brand new bedding we just put down... soaked... all has to be shoveled out. $$$ 20+ bags worth... the other buildings are ok thankfully. Loafing shed also flooded... land is gone just water everywhere. Oh and we got a dusting of snow last night a few hours after a downpour. 
We are going through round bales like crazy... there is no straw here due to the rains for the past year so hay has to go everywhere. Ok I'm done too! 
