Have you been wondering what to feed your goat, and your mind wandered off to some grains in your store? Goats are the only ruminant species that can eat and drink any food. They conveniently consume almost all edibles, including that prized rose shrub in season in your garden.
Furthermore, they do appear to be able to find food independently without help. Despite that, it’s best to understand how to feed goats, especially if you want to establish a goat farming business—having the best knowledge results in you being able to properly raise goats and provide them with several kinds of natural, homemade, or designed goat feed.
Due to its many benefits, goat farming is growing in popularity today. Many goat products, including meat, milk, skins, fiber, and mane, are from them. But a successful goat farming operation depends on a reliable feed supply and effective management practices.
Providing nutrient-rich food, vitamins, minerals, and protein is part of proper feed management. So, learning how to feed goats and what to feed them is essential before establishing a goat farming business. This article will analyze if goats need grains and the perfect ways to add these foods to their diet.
Grain Feeding
The question of grain feeding can spark debate among goat farmers. Some farmers feed their goats a lot of grain, while others feed no grain. The choice to include grain in the feeding schedule should consider the animals’ nutritional needs and the cost of doing so.
Grain, commercial feeds, and other supplements are to animals to compensate for the lack of certain nutrients in the forage part of their diet. For instance, forage diets cannot nourish high-production animals like lactating mothers, particularly those nursing young animals with the genetic potential for quick growth.
However, these supplements help aid animals’ genetic potential for growth and milk production. There are four types of this: whole, pelleted, rolled and texturized.
What Kind of Grain Is Ideal for Feeding Goats?
On the ideal grain to feed goats, everyone has their preferences. There are four distinct grain varieties to pick from. You can choose whole grains, rolled, texturized, or pelleted.
Whole Grains
They are the typical, unprocessed varieties of grains and natural seed heads with no additives.
Pelleted Grains
They include milled grains or byproducts transformed into pellets and combined with a binding agent to ensure that the pellets maintain their shape. Most people dislike them because they include milled grains or grain byproducts.
Pellets of grain with medicine are also available. However, it’s best to avoid pelleted grains if you must be sure what you feed your goats.
Rolled Grains
Like whole grains, they are natural and unprocessed grains but rolled flat. You might decide to feed rolled oats as an example. Most farmers consider rolled oats a favorite food of many goats.
Rolled grains and textured grains are almost the same. The only distinction is that they include extra components that provide more nutrients to your goat.
Texturized Grains
They are comparable to rolled grains but with extra grains mixed for nutritional value. A grain that gets texturized is called a sweet feed.
Do Goats Require Grains in Their Diet?
Goats prepare tasty meals from unappealing plant material like weeds, tree leaves, and blackberry brambles. They make their meals in this manner because they need to eat a lot of this roughage to receive the energy required to stay healthy and develop. With goats, grain is a more recent addition to goats’ diets when it comes to feeding.
They require an enormous amount of bulk fiber because of the evolutionary change their digestive tract has had to go through. Grains should make up 0–10% of a goat’s diet. Goats may live on pasture, hay, or a combination. However, they don’t need grains for survival.
It’s important to note that grains can assist in the supply of extra vitamins and minerals, as well as 12–16% more protein. There is a modest increase in milk production of lactating goats when fed grains.
Furthermore, it is highly beneficial to does after giving birth and while they are caring for their young. If you do feed grain, it’s best to do so and avoid going overboard.
Male goats should never feed on grains as it may upset their calcium-to-phosphorus balance. This diet could result in kidney stones and even death. Wheat, barley, and oats are the best options for feeding goats. However, grains are a good source of protein, vitamins, and minerals.
Daily Consumption of Grains for Goats
Kids and adult goats do not consume the same quantity of grain. A kid should consume only half of an adult’s daily grain allowance of 1.5 pounds. You can divide it into two servings or give it to them all at once.
Bucks in a rut or those lactating should be the exceptions to that rule. Furthermore, never allow kids to consume more than half a pound of grain daily.
Removing any unconsumed grains after 30 minutes will help you maintain control. This procedure is necessary if you worry that your goats may consume too much grain in a single day due to the accumulation of feedings.
It is crucial to know how much to feed your goats, what they should eat, and what the right feeding equipment is when it comes time to feed them on the homestead. They can get hay and never encounter any problems, but the grain is different. Never provide goats unrestricted access to consume as much grain as they like.
What Happens if a Goat Eats Too Much Grain?
It doesn’t matter which variety you use. How much you feed your goats is what counts. Give them no more than 1 cup for adults and 1/2 cup for kids. Overfeeding your goats with grain feed could harm their health, leading to infections, weight gain, and even death.
Other effects include inducing acidosis or grain overload/poisoning, slowing of their gut, and dehydration. These reasons are why you should limit the number of grains your goats consume.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Grain-feeding
There are several advantages and disadvantages of feeding your goats with grains. Some of the benefits and drawbacks of grain feeding include the following:
Advantages
- It can help a doe producing a lot of milk maintain her weight.
- It can aid a dairy goat in regaining the weight lost from prolonged milking.
- Helps a pregnant doe gain weight during the gestation period
Disadvantages
- Excess grain-feeding can lead to acidosis and even death in goats
- It can lead to complications during delivery due to kids gaining weight during gestation.
- It’s not as cost-effective as them feeding on grass.
Alternatives to Grain-feeding
Don’t overthink the diet of your goat. Whether it’s pasture, hay, or forage, the goats should flourish on a diet of various green plants. There are many options for feeds and vitamins that you may mix with their hay to provide the same advantages as feeding them grain.
When it comes down to it, they are your goats; thus, you should act in the herd’s best interest. So, if you decide against grain feeding, finding alternatives that still provide you with the concentrated nutrition they need is simple.
Goats can benefit much from the carrots, beets, parsnips, and rutabagas you have prepared to keep for the winter.
Conclusion
Grain-feeding your goat depends on your circumstances and level of comfortability with the entire concept.
You can decide not to feed your goats any grain at all if they have the opportunity to forage and you are also providing hay. However, when it is too cold for them to feed, you can provide small amounts of grain.
