Before starting to breed goats, the farmer asks about their nutrition. It is very important to know what these animals eat, how they can be fed and what not. The productivity of goats depends on nutrition, because it is for the sake of dairy products that these animals are usually raised.
What kind of food to give?
All acceptable feeds intended for feeding goats are divided into three groups. Feeding animals is allowed juicy, dry and concentrated feed. Each species has a unique effect on the digestive system of goats.
Dry food
It is not necessary to feed the animals with roughage only in winter. Their presence in the diet improves goat metabolism. Due to this, it is permissible to use dry feed in warm seasons.
Dry foods include such products:
- Hay and straw. For drying, the use of grass from forests and meadows is recommended. One animal accounts for 2-3 kg.
- Brooms. It is best to give animals brooms from maple, birch, aspen or poplar. A day, a goat can eat 3-5 pieces.
Dry food begins to be harvested in mid-summer, usually storing freshly cut grass for hay in bunches or sheaves. If the farmer is comfortable, it is allowed to crush it before serving - it is believed that this way the feed is consumed much more economically. Brooms are also collected from small bunches with rods up to 60 cm long.
Juicy food
One name makes it clear that such nutrition is based on the use of living plants of different species. What juicy feed goats feed:
- The grass. This is the most affordable and cheapest power component. It is enough to send the goats for a walk in the forest, field or lawn. Goats feed grass on their own in any places where it grows.
- Fruit. One of the favorite animal treats. They like peaches, apples, pears, apricots. But before eating, the farmer needs to clear the fruits by removing the seeds.
- Vegetable tops. It is allowed to use any type of tops for feeding, including potato and cabbage leaves, carrot and beet waste. It is advisable to mix the product with crushed chalk - 1 g of chalk per 1 kg of tops. This will reduce the acid content in the feed.
- Vegetables. A waste-free product that animals especially like - they eat it along with root and tops. It is allowed to feed animals with carrots, potatoes (only boiled), cabbage, Jerusalem artichoke, but only previously chopped. It is recommended not to give more than 4 kg of vegetables per day.
- Silo. This is a popular type of feed, characterized by nutritional properties. A high-calorie product contains many vitamins. Up to 4 kg of one goat are produced per day.
It is allowed to feed animals with succulent food both in summer and in winter.
Concentrated feed
Concentrated feed must be present in the diet of goats, because they contain many useful substances. But it is required to give such food correctly in order to avoid indigestion and digestive problems. For example, cereals, such as wheat and oats, are produced exclusively in crushed form. Corn is fed in certain quantities, otherwise the animal may face obesity.
Compound feed, cake, bran are referred to concentrated feeds - they are poured with boiling water 12 hours before feeding. There is no definite amount of water for compound feed and bran, and 1 liter of water per 1 kg of cake and meal.
The farmer must combine these types of feed in order to create a full-fledged diet, which provides for obtaining all the necessary nutrients.
How to make a diet?
Norms for feeding must be calculated on the basis of age, gender, general health, weight of the animal. But there are general rules:
- a large goat should eat more than a small one;
- an adult animal eats less than a growing goat, but with the same weight;
- Swan goats consume more feed than a goat;
- dairy animals are fed in large volumes than dry;
- a goat that gives a lot of milk is required to give more food than malolactic.
Goats like variety in feed. So they are more likely saturated, faster and better gain weight, respectively, and give more dairy products. Animals are fed only fresh food.
It is unacceptable for goats to feed on moldy or rotten hay and poor-quality root crops. This can lead to the development of various diseases, deterioration in the quality of milk and a decrease in its volume.
An approximate diet is presented for any type of goat in a warm period of time, taking into account all the norms. For one animal, this amount of feed is:
Name | amount |
Steppe grass on a walk | 1.2 kg |
Meadow grass | 6-8 kg |
Alfalfa Hay | 1-1.2 kg |
Haylage | 2.5 kg |
Green oats | 4 kg |
Oats | 4 kg |
Meadow grass hay | 1 kg |
The diet in the winter season is slightly different from what is given to animals in the warm season:
Name | amount |
Alfalfa Hay | 1 kg |
Clover Hay | 2 kg |
Meadow grass hay | 0.5 kg |
Crushed beets | 2 kg |
Mix of ground carrots and oats | 2.5 kg |
Ground oats | 0.4 kg |
Ground root vegetables and beets | 0.5 kg |
Forage Cabbage | 3 kg |
On average, one goat eats about 360-550 kg of dry food, 400-600 kg of juicy food, 30-40 kg of concentrated feed per year. The minimum value is reserved for young animals and kids, the maximum - for adults.
It is required to pay attention to the animal's appetite. If it is not fed up with the volume that the farmer gives it, the portions should be increased. At the same time, avoid overeating, since obesity can adversely affect the volume of milk production. Overweight is also undesirable during the period of gestation.
How to feed pregnant goats?
During pregnancy, the nutrition of goats is not particularly different from what they are usually fed. It is enough to follow a few simple rules to help the animal give birth to a healthy kid:
- In the second half of pregnancy, the need for nutrients increases several times. Therefore, it is recommended to increase the amount of feed with nutrients, taking into account this feature. But do not overfeed a pregnant goat in order to avoid a difficult birth and the threat of miscarriage.
- Pregnant goats are fed breakfast with chopped root crops (500 g) and grain (200 g). At lunchtime they give one and a half or two kilos of hay, and for dinner they feed a mixture of oilcake and grain (100 g of each ingredient), hay from hard meadow herbs.
- In this case, the animal must be taken to pastures, where they can eat juicy herbs in unlimited quantities.
- In winter, succulent feeds are replaced with granular compound feed, which is excluded from the diet two weeks before the expected date of birth. During this period, the goat is fed with a lighter and more liquid diet with easily digestible components. For example, it is allowed to feed with a liquid and porridge-like swill from crushed bran and root crops or steamed grain with a porridge consistency.
Goat feeding after birth
In the process of childbirth in animals there is a strong weakening of the digestive system. It takes enough time for a full recovery. Within a week after the birth of the kid, it is necessary to feed the goats exclusively with light, fast-digesting foods. Root crops, legumes from hay, bran cuts will become more suitable in this period. It is better to give food in crushed form, which will provide the goats with the most comfortable nutrition.
7-8 days after lambing, goats begin to rehabilitate. This period is good in that standard feeding is allowed. The basis of nutrition during feeding is fresh hay and root crops. On the day of each product, the goat should eat up to four kilograms. It is these components that provide active lactation in nursing females.
How to feed animals in winter?
In winter, hay is the main food - roughage that goats need. It is allowed to give straw, but it is not as nutritious as hay. Goats are quite unpretentious animals, but it is recommended to feed them with high-quality hay, it is desirable that it be leafy. 2.5-3 kg of hay per goat per day, 1.8-2.2 kg per goat, 0.8-1 kg per kid.
If there is not much hay left in the stock, it is permissible to partially replace it with brooms, but be sure to give at least 1 kg of hay. Brooms give up to 5 pieces per day. Many farmers prefer to harvest leaves for animals, they are used in the winter for both bedding and feed. An excellent vitamin food for goats is the leaves and young shoots of spruce and pine.
In winter, animals are also fed any vegetables, in boiled, dried or raw form. Before you feed goats cheeses with vegetables, they are washed and cut to make it easier to eat. In addition to vegetables, it is permissible to give fruits to animals.
It is equally important to include vitamins and salt in the diet. Salt is put in the form of a lick or given at the rate of 6-8 g for a dairy goat and 10 g for a coyang. Bone meal and chalk are also added to the menu.
With proper nutrition in the body of goats, all the necessary components should be enough, but many goats breeders recommend adding vitamins to food as preventive goals. It will be especially useful for lingering and highly dairy goats. Vitamins are dripped into feed or on a piece of bread.
How to increase productivity?
If the goat eats poorly, do not expect a good milk yield from her. Balanced nutritious feeding will help increase milk productivity. In summer, pasture green forages provide good milk yields - from them animals receive most of the necessary nutrients.
In winter, such food cannot be found, but it will be possible to compensate for its shortage with hay and pre-prepared brooms from tree branches. But it is important to remember that goats need a varied diet.
Compound feed, turnip fodder, grain and vitamin-mineral supplements have a beneficial effect on milk productivity. In addition, for better productivity, it is necessary to provide animals with constant access to clean, preferably warm water.
What feed the kids?
Many novice farmers may be unaware of how to feed young kids. Health and further development depend on their nutrition. There are only two ways of feeding young animals: without the uterus and under the uterus. Each of these methods provides its own positive aspects.
Under the uterus
This method of growing goats is used only if the goat gives small milk yield. After birth, the kids are left with their mother until they are 3-4 months old. At this time, the kids eat on their own. But when he turns three weeks old, chalk and salt are included in the diet - five grams each. At the age of three months, the volume of chalk and salt doubles.
If the kids do not have enough mother’s milk, they look thin and weak, then already in 1 month they begin to give them concentrates - about 20-30 g per day. Gradually, this norm should increase, by 3 months young kids in a day should eat about 300 g of concentrated feed. At the age of 3.5 months, the animals are gradually weaned from the goat mother and transferred to normal adult nutrition.
Without a uterus
Today, it is popular to feed goats artificially. This method is only suitable for highly productive dairy goats. Newborn kids are weaned immediately after birth, placed in a separate pen and fed with warm milk using a bottle with a pacifier. In the first 7 days they should eat exclusively colostrum. After this period, the babies are stopped bottle feeding and transferred to milk poured into drinking bowls. A little soft hay is added to the feeders.
Up to one month of age, one kid receives at least 200 ml per feed. Young goats are fed at least five times a day. Then gradually they begin to breed milk with water, add flaxseed flour and bran. The number of feedings is reduced to 4 times a day. In addition to milk mixtures, it is permissible to feed the kids the oatmeal porridge boiled in water with the addition of sugar. It will be useful during this period to include crushed carrots and rutabaga, bran and crushed cake in the diet. Free access should be clean, warm water.
Video about feeding kids is below:
A month after the birth, the babies begin to be released into the pasture. At 7 months, the animals are transferred to their normal stall conditions.
How to prepare hay for the winter?
When harvesting fodder hay, the farmer must take into account the fact that the percentage of moisture in plants decreases, and instead of 90%, 15% of the feed becomes. Its nutritional properties are also lost. That is why it is necessary to seriously approach the process of drying, transportation and storage of the product.
Freshly cut grass is dried in several ways:
- Natural. Leave for some time in the fresh air in the sun, cleaned when the grass is completely dry.
- Artificial. An oven, microwave, or electric dryer is used for this method.
- Active ventilation. Plants mow and leave in swaths until their moisture content drops to 40-45%. To speed up the drying of grass, it is flattened while mowing. Then they are raked in rolls and transported to a place for drying. It is allowed to do this under awnings, in sheds or other rooms where there are powerful fans.
- Natural with perfection. Willingness for storage is determined by a small, twisted bundle of hay. If it rustles, pops, and moisture does not appear on broken stems, its humidity is high. If the stems do not break and moisture appears in the place of twisting, the humidity level exceeds 23% and additional drying is required. To do this, hay is taken out in the sun or fans are installed.
Farmers are usually based on weather conditions, taking into account temperature and humidity, precipitation.
Hay is always well dried if the humidity level is less than 25%, otherwise the product can not only lose its beneficial properties, but also begin to rot, rot. Such humidity leads to the fact that fungi and mold begin to spread actively. It is equally important not to overdry hay, since during the collection and transportation the most nutritious parts of plants, that is, flowers and leaves, can be damaged.
It is optimal to collect hay from legumes (alfalfa, clover, peas, sainfoin) during the period of active budding. This type of food is necessary for animals in the winter, because it contains protein. Dairy goats are especially in need of such feeding. It is advisable to collect hay from cereals (oats, fescue, wheatgrass) after the release of ears.
The grass needs to be mowed at dawn until 6 a.m., because at this time the plants are as filled with carotene as possible. Mowing grass is carried out within a week.
What can not be fed?
Feeding goats with poor-quality products can lead to a decrease in milk productivity, can also cause the development of diseases, often this leads to deaths.
It is strictly forbidden to feed animals with such products:
- potatoes greened from exposure to the sun;
- the grain in which the insects wound;
- rotten or spoiled fruits, vegetables, hay;
- stale or missing silo.
Feeding goats should be varied, balanced, nutritious. Further milk production and animal health depend on proper feeding in normal portions. If the farmer follows the basic rules, raising an animal will be a simple task for him.
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Ukraine. City: Kryvyi Rih
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