Organic Approach On Feeding Goats

[stano40]

Thank You, my 2 girls may be pregnant and the due date would be around the end of May.

That's why all the questions on bringing them more into an organic feed schedule and setting up my yard for a good forage.

Isn't it amazing that we do all this for our animals and don't even think that our family could use it also.

bob

 

[freemotion]

I have goats so that my family can have organic milk, yogurt, kefir, and cheese! Oh, and ice cream, pudding, hot chocolate..... and the list goes on and on!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I am reviving this thread, since I want to raise my little doelings as naturally as possible.
I think as long as I provide a good mixture of assorted food stuff's they would get all the nutrients they need. But then I worry that I might be missing something.
My little ones are still on the bottle. They are foraging nicely though and every day they try something new and more of it.
I can see them watching the dog and the chickens and then going and trying what those other animals ate. Our dog eats a lot of the greens in the field
I make sure any leftover dogfood is put away, before the goats get out.
I started mixing assorted grains to feed my chickens and am feeding the same grain mix to the goats. My chickens don't care for corn unless it is home grown. So there is very little corn in the grain mix. I only feed grains to the goats as a treat, when I pen them up. I want them to have a good reason to go into lockdown
The grasses and weeds in our field have all gone to seed and so the goats have access to plenty of seed material, if they want it. Within a month or so, all the plants should be fairly dried out and the seeds will scatter.
We plan on cutting down about half of the standing weeds and save them for fodder this summer.

 

[chandasue]

Seriously, I can't be the only one who doesn't feed pellets! Chime in, folks, it is safe to come out of hiding!

Old post but I don't do pellets either, just really good alfalfa hay, loose minerals and an organic dairy goat grain mix that really is grain from MN Buckwheat Growers Association. The girls devour the stuff along with occasional chopped up veggies/apples from the kitchen. Shipping within MN is reasonable from Buckwheat Growers Assoc, out of state gets spendy. Other organic mills around the country should be able to do a custom mix if they don't already have a blend for goats.

 

[Bryannjamie]

Has anyone tried growing oats for goats? And I thought they were big on woody plants, how do you keep them growing when the goats are around?

 

[stano40]

I haven't tried that yet even though I feed them whole oats and other grains once a day in addition to good hay and minerals. From time to time they also get fresh veggies.

I've been thinking of trying a patch of oats, barley, buckwheat or even millet.

I was looking on Johnny's Seeds (Johnny's Seeds is located in Maine) they have a good selection of seeds for my climate and all of these grain seeds. They also have a pasture mix for sheep and goats.

I know I would have to partition off a section of my property in order to grow whatever I plant there so the goats won't trample on it or eat it before it's ready to harvest. I guess that's the trick to getting it started.

bob

 

[freemotion]

I mulched two of my veggie garden's paths with straw from the goat's stall this spring and got a few oats growing lushly in there. I left them to mature. I am now feeding them to my favorite doeling who needs to grow a bit more, just a handful at a time. The oats are green still and the grass part is big and wide and fibrous and she LOVES them!

My goal is to get my pasture cross-fenced into several paddocks eventually (eek, fencing prices! My goats laughed at the electric paddock I put up.) Then at least one will be planted with a mixture of oats and peas to be used as hay or cut and fed by the armload as fresh fodder on a day-to-day basis. I have a pig pasture that will hopefully be planted with this mixture in the spring as early as the soil can be worked, and I'm hoping it will have time to grow into something useful before next year's pigs are big enough to plow it all up. This way I can start my learning curve before I get the goat pasture cross-fenced.

 

[stano40]

The peas you use are those field peas? I was thinking about using that also as part of a fodder mix.

bob

 

[dianneS]

I don't feed pellets. Just lots of pasture and free range foraging and free-choice grass hay all winter. I have wethers too so I dont' feed grain due to urinary calculi of course.

I give black oil sunflower seeds as treats and keep plenty of free choice mineral on hand, both loose minerals and block.

That's it, pretty simple! My goats will go nuts for multiflora rose bushes and other brush so they do a good job of keeping our weeds down.

 

[freemotion]

Yes, I'm going to use field peas, at least that is the plan, but since my goal is hay and not ripe peas, it really won't matter. I'm looking for something that I can plant early and scythe some of it before the pigs are let out in that pasture. Later, if I find it was worthwhile, I'll plant in one or more of the paddocks and keep the goats off it until it is harvested, then rotate them through that paddock for grazing.