Feeding is always a controversial topic . As with all thingsgoat , there are many strong feelings and no one right solution , so I ’m go to give it to you from our farm ’s head of view . We wean our herd off of commercial butt run and bewilder them on a usance milled mix , and below I ’ll tell you how you could go about the same way if inspire . Or you do n’t have to — it ’s up to you .
Our Choice To Forego GMOs
For us , choosing to wean our goats off of commercial feed started withGMOs , specifically Zea mays and soy . I have no fears about their condom , but I do have customers who do . Mymain worry is that we grow too many of these crops that have no alimentary note value to human . I would rather keep going more harvest diversity and more planting of whole grains that can be eaten by more species . I also guess it is very shortsighted to engineer plants to be tolerant to sure herbicide , as eventually all neighboring plant ( i.e. weed ) will evolve that resistance , as well .
We long feed our stooge a local feed brand that was oat - based and contained no corn or soy , and our goats did well on it . Then , taciturnly , the company reformulated the feed . Over a couplet seasons , we had problem with palatability and straight-out refusal of goats to eat it . That led to major Milk River production declines and other health issues . When we found out about the normal change — that it was made into mostly edible corn and soy — we immediately sic out to find a substitute and found none . So we went to our local co - op .
DIY Pelleted Feed
It is 100 - percentage possible to buy in the altogether grains to mix into a feed blend , but we favor to allow for pelleted food . shot allow you to equally mix in supplements and keep picky stooge from only consume their favourite grains in a mix . unluckily , most feed manufactory have very large minimum lots to order usage feeds , so that wo n’t be an pick for most hobby farmers . What you’re able to do , though , is buy each of the things we put in our custom feed and deal mix the ingredient large bins . With any feed , you should still allow your goats free access to a high - quality loose mineral .
Grains
The three grain we expend in our provender are oat , barley and milo . All of these are available at most provender mills . you’re able to try out with other grain but you need to keep in brain that each will have unlike feed values and you will need to reach sure protein and amylum note value in your feed . In dairy goats you ’re looking for a protein time value of 14 to 16 percentage . It ’s really hard to attain without soybean plant , but it is possible . If you do n’t have an ag co - op near you , take your extension agent for help . This site explain the provender values of some popular cereal .
Supplements
We have kelp , barm , copper , ammonium ion chloride and other supplements milled into our blend . Any of these can be bought individually and top - enclothe if you are mixing whole grain . Here ’s what a few of them do :
Those are the main thing we look for in a feed for our goats . We are rosy to have a local co - op that worked with us to make usage pellets . Even so , we enlisted other local farms to unite in our order — this might be a mode to make pellets work for you . In the end , do n’t be afraid to try out with your formula . Your goats will let you know if they wish it .
