How to feed a goat after lambing so that there is a lot of milk: making a diet

What can I feed a goat immediately after lambing? It is recommended that a female giving birth to kids be given warm sweet water to drink. After 3-4 hours, the goat can be fed with legume-grass hay or green grass. As a supplement, animals are allowed to be given juicy vegetables and fruits, as well as corn silage. It is important to remember that the more water in the feed, the more milk will be in the udder.

Why change your diet?

A goat is a pet kept for milk. She begins to milk only after the first lambing. The female gives birth, as a rule, somewhere in the second year of life.After the appearance of the first kid, the animal can be milked for a very long time. However, to prolong lactation, the female will have to be mated once a year.

Due to pregnancy, various changes occur in the animal's body. It is associated with the bearing of the fetus. During this period, the dairy goat is gradually stopped being milked. This is done so that all useful substances do not go into milk, but into the development of the future kid. 1-2 months before giving birth, the female stops milking completely.

Of course, the process of milk production depends not only on the milking process itself, but also on what the goat is fed. Any dairy animal before lambing or calving is recommended to be transferred to a special dry diet.

During pregnancy, the goat should eat plenty of bean-grass hay and straw or fresh grass and green cereals.

As a top dressing, females can be given a small (compared to the lactation period) amount of grain (150 g per day), vegetables (170 g per day), corn silage (180 g per day).The lack of vitamins in winter is replenished with the help of pharmacy vitamin preparations and spruce branches.

After lambing, the diet of animals must be changed again. To increase milk in the menu of lambing goats, it is recommended to introduce more succulent feed (vegetables and silage). Indeed, in such food there is a lot of water, which contributes to the production of more milk. Grain feeding, on the contrary, should be reduced. The diet of animals is changed in order to regulate milk production.

What to give in the first hours?

Immediately after lambing, it is recommended to give the female warm water with sugar. Glucose will restore the strength of the animal and will have a good effect on lactation. A goat that has given birth can be fed only after 3-4 hours. It happens that immediately after lambing the animal loses its appetite. To stimulate it, the female is given sauerkraut brine.

A goat, like any ruminant, first needs to be fed a diet containing fiber to get the rumen working.In winter, females are given bean-cereal hay, and in summer they can be taken out to pasture on green grass. In the first hours, the rate is halved, then gradually the amount of feed is increased. After lambing, it is recommended to introduce vegetables and silage a little bit into the diet of animals.

Grain during this period is better not to give. Goats recover well from cereals. However, this food does not increase lactation. The he alth of kids depends on the nutrition of lactating females, and the amount of milk production in the udder depends on the content of succulent feed in the diet.

Rules for feeding goats after lambing

Usually females are covered in autumn, and kids are born to them in spring. During this period, the main food of animals is hay and straw.

However, closer to summer, the percentage of vitamins and minerals in roughage decreases.

As a supplement, after giving birth, females are advised to give more vegetables (carrots, sugar beets, pumpkins). Sunflower cake will help increase the percentage of fat content. Grain mixtures (corn, barley, oats) can be given after hay, but not more than 200 grams per day.

Water has a positive effect on increasing lactation. The female is watered in between feedings, usually 2 times a day. One animal is given at least 5 liters of water at a time. You can add a little sugar (50 grams) to the liquid.

It is much easier to milk a lambing goat in summer. Physical activity, outdoor walks and, of course, green grass help increase lactation. A lactating female should eat plenty. Usually a goat eats up to 6-8 kg of grass per day.

Peculiarities of feeding in winter

In order to increase milk yield in the winter, females that have brooded are given more water and succulent feed. It is forbidden to change the diet of animals drastically. Hay should remain the main food in winter (up to 2-3 kg per day). As a supplement, females are given juicy and sweet vegetables.

Root vegetables are finely chopped so that they do not get stuck in the goat's esophagus. Vegetables are given to animals only after hay and straw. The recommended rate of root crops per day: from 200 to 700 grams.

In winter, the menu of goats should contain grain mixtures, cake, meal, compound feed. The recommended rate of concentrated feed: from 100 to 200 grams. In order to avoid ketosis, in parallel with cereals, females are given water with sugar, spruce or pine branches, s alt (10 g per day per individual), pharmaceutical vitamins and minerals.

Return to normal mode

In the first weeks, all milk should go to feed newborn animals. To increase lactation, it is recommended to milk the female at least once a day, immediately after feeding the cubs.Not a drop of milk should remain in the udder. Such a procedure will give a signal to the brain and increase lactation.

A goatling can live under its mother and feed on milk for up to 3 months. Gradually it is transferred to vegetable feed. The nutrition of the female must be given special attention even after feeding the kids. After all, the lactation of the animal and the fat content of milk depend on the quality and quantity of feed. In normal mode, the goat should eat plenty.

The main food in summer is grass, in winter - hay. In between feedings, goats are given water. S alt must be present in the diet. As a top dressing, animals are given vegetables, fruits, tops, grain mixtures. It is useful for females to eat oats, barley, corn. In winter and summer, it is recommended to give goats boiled potatoes, compound feed, cake, meal, premixes, tree branches, leaves of garden crops.

What do breeders advise?

Experienced livestock specialists recommend giving a pregnant dairy goat dry food (hay, straw), less water, a small amount of vegetables (carrots, beets) and minimal doses of grain in winter. You can support the body of females with the help of pharmacy vitamins and minerals.

After lambing in the spring-winter period, the main food of the goat should be hay. This is a food that contains fiber. It is hay that improves the functioning of the rumen. As an additive, it is recommended that females that have hatched should be given more juicy vegetables or silage (corn). The more water in the feed, the more milk will be. With problems with digestion and lack of appetite, goats are given nutritional yeast, cabbage pickle, dill, cumin broth. There should be light in the room where the animals are located. In the dark, females eat much worse.

In the summer, a lambing goat can get all the nutrients in the meadow. The main thing is to make sure that the animal does not eat poisonous plants. Goats are very curious and taste everything. It is desirable for females to graze in a meadow where clover, dandelions, nettles, alfalfa, timothy, fescue grow.

It is recommended to milk a goat that has calved, which feeds its young. True, this should be done only after the kids have drunk plenty of milk.Livestock experts advise milking a goat 2-3 times a day. Before milking, the udder of the female must be washed, wiped, and the nipples greased. This procedure will help to properly milk the goat, increase the amount of milk, prolong lactation for a few more months.

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