What do goats eat?

[ArtisticFarmer]

Hi!
What should I have for my goats diet? I know they eat alfalfa hay, or graze if they have access to it, but what other things do they need? Grain, vitamens, etc.
Thanks!

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Feeding practices will vary from one farm to another and you will find what works for you.

For the bulk of their diet in general, goats need access to browse (woody, stem type plants---they don't graze so much as pick through a pasture for these kinds of plants and other weeds) and they should also have a good hay. I remember hearing from a few people early on that goats could eat junk hay but they will waster more than they eat, picking it through to get what they want so spring for good quality.

Goats do need minerals. We use a SOFT mineral block and also loose minerals. Don't give them a hard block, minerals designed for other species, a salt block, or a sulfur block.

From there, you will get some differing opinions. Here, we give our does and growing kids a daily ration of pelleted goat feed but out bucks do not get feed.

 

[cjhubbs]

At the moment our goats are fed 1st or 2nd cut legume hay, twice a day. We also feed them Caprine Challenger grain once a day, 1 1/2 cups for our non-milking goat and 3 cups for our preggo goat . They also have a billy goat mineral block as well as free choice mana pro minerals.

 

[sprocket]

I remember hearing from a few people early on that goats could eat junk hay but they will waster more than they eat, picking it through to get what they want so spring for good quality.

We'd run out of our good second cut this winter and I had to put them on first cut. They'll pick out all the fine bits and leave the coarse stems - you'll end up with almost straw like stuff. I figured they only ate about half of what we put out. So agreed - if you have better quality feed available (in terms of fineness) they'll take to it a lot better, and you'll probably get better consumption rates out of it as well vs poorer quality feed.

 

[ArtisticFarmer]

Thank you! We have about an acre of Alfalfa my Grandfather makes into hay, I am sure he wouldn't mind if we used it. (He has said multiple times that if we wanted we could, because it is actually ours. He makes about 5-7 square bales and a time. How much hay would I give them?

 

[elevan]

Check out the Goat Feeding discussion link in my signature below to find out just how diverse our membership is when it comes to feeding practices.

 

[Symphony]

Don't ya know that Goats will eat anything. Pop cans, Books, Fence posts, Clothes, Spare Tires, etc.

 

[ArtisticFarmer]

Don't ya know that Goats will eat anything. Pop cans, Books, Fence posts, Clothes, Spare Tires, etc.

 

[ArtisticFarmer]

Does anyone use DuMor brand goat feed?

 

[elevan]

Does anyone use DuMor brand goat feed?

I have in the past. Nothing really wrong with it...I just decided to go all pasture / grassfed.