How to feed a goat at home to have more milk

Productivity of goats depends on the characteristics of feeding and living conditions. Animals are not capricious and whimsical in food, but the quality and quantity of milk, the value of fluff vary depending on the diet. It is important to find a good pasture for summer walking, to prepare food for the winter. Consider what and how to feed a goat in order to get high quality milk, provide the animal with a tasty and he althy diet and not harm he alth.

Varieties of feed, their features

Goats use different types of vegetable feed depending on the season and opportunities.The ideal option is pasture keeping, in which the animal feeds on succulent herbs on its own and frees the owner from many worries, but in most regions this is only possible for part of the year.

To have more milk, vitamins and protein are introduced into the diet. These components help to avoid he alth problems, strengthen the immune system. The diet is made up by combining coarse, juicy and concentrated feed.

Juicy

Green food is a source of vitamins, proteins, all goats love to nibble grass and are happy to do it in the pasture most of the day. The category of succulent feed includes:

1. Tops of garden plants. When harvesting vegetables, the tops are separated and given to goats. Animals eat tops of beets, carrots, Jerusalem artichoke. Juicy greens contain a lot of useful substances. To reduce acidity, 1 gram of chalk is added per kilogram of green mass.
2. Grass. When kept in a stall, they mow and give grass, but it is better to drive the animals out to pasture. When feeding with grass, remember that some species are dangerous and poisonous (celandine, fern).
3. Vegetables. Root crops, melons and vegetables culled for their small size are an excellent juicy food for goats. Carrots, fodder and red beets can be given with tops. All goats love to crunch with heads of cabbage and basal leaves of cabbage.
4. Fruit. The carrion of apples and pears goes to feed. For stone fruits, the nucleoli should be removed.

In winter, fresh feed is replaced with silage. It is harvested from grass, tops, stored in trenches or containers made of inert material. A goat eats 2-3 kilograms of succulent feed per day.

Rough and dry

This type of food is the basis of the winter diet. Dry and roughage includes:

• hay - based on alfalfa, clover, the richest in nutrients;
• straw - stems of cereals and legumes after grain threshing;
• brooms - birch, poplar, eucalyptus, aspen, linden, willow, mountain ash.

Cut and dry branches in early June, choosing young shoots up to 1.5 cm thick. The grass is harvested in July, tying it into bunches and sheaves.

Concentrated

In winter, goats cannot do without concentrates, especially necessary for young animals, pregnant and dairy goats. Used for feeding:

• cereals - wheat, barley, oats;
• corn is high in protein;
• bean grains are a source of protein;
• oil plants - vegetable fats and protein;
• combined feed;
• bone and fish meal, milk - dry and skimmed;
• waste food and processing industry - cake, molasses, bran, pulp.

Goats are given cereals in small quantities and in crushed form, large grains, peas are poorly digested, cause an increase in fat mass and a decrease in milk yield. It is especially dangerous to give corn, which causes obesity, uncontrollably. Feed grains are processed in several ways:

• crush, flatten;
• yeast;
• roast;
• sprout - significantly improves the vitamin composition.

Vitamins, trace elements are necessary to improve the quality and quantity of milk in goats and maintain he alth. Goats can be given bread, crackers are even better, dropping liquid vitamins (Tetravit) on them.

Proteins, phosphorus, calcium, vitamins A, E, D goats should receive in the required amount. In the absence of grass and hay, the lack of these substances is compensated by compound feed with additives.

Diet by seasons

When feeding goats, you have to take into account seasonal opportunities, prepare food for the winter in order to provide the animals with a complete diet. Harvesting hay, haylage, silage, brooms reduces the cost of purchased feed in the winter.

Summer

In the summer at home, goats are in the pasture most of the day. Before tying a goat or sending it free range, they inspect the vegetation around so that the animals do not eat poisonous plants. In the summer, when grazing, a goat can eat up to 8 kilograms of grass. By the end of the season, the greenery becomes scarce, dries up so that the goats are fat and full, and the milk production is plentiful, the animals are fed in the morning and in the evening.

Summer Goat Feeding Chart:

QuantityMorningCompound feed, soaked bran0.5 kilosDayGrass in the pastureEveningCompound feed, succulent feed - vegetables, fruits, tops 1 kiloNightHay1 kilo Day Teaspoon

Time	Feed
S alt	Bone meal, chalk	12 grams

Without additional feeding on one grass, the milk yield will be insignificant (less than 2 liters), milk quality will suffer.

A goat in the breeding season is put on enhanced nutrition, given 0.8-1 kilogram of concentrates per day, driven out to a pasture with lush grass. You should prepare food with carotene - carrots, rose hips.

Winter

The main problem for beginner goat breeders is the preparation of a winter diet, the preparation of fodder. The pasture season ends quickly, the stall season lasts 7 months (depending on the region). Per animal required for the entire period:

• roughage - 350-560 kilograms;
• juicy - 400-600 kilograms;
• brooms, leaves - 1-5 per day;
• compound feed - 30-40 kilograms.

The following volumes of hay are given to animals per day for food: goats - 1.8-2 kilograms, goats - about 3 kilograms, goats - 1 kilogram. With a lack of quality hay, straw is used.

Approximate feeding schedule:

1. Morning. They give swill - warm, with steamed compound feed, juicy root crops. Then milking, after which the goat eats hay.
2. Day. Food waste, boiled vegetable peelings, root crops, silage. Carry out milking. Further hay, straw, brooms.
3. Evening. Compound feed with moisture, brooms.

For a good milk yield, it is useful to give juicy raw root crops (carrots, beets), pumpkin, zucchini without seeds. The quality of milk in winter is improved by rowan berries containing vitamins and microelements. Goats are happy to eat steamed dried fruits, chopped corn stalks.During feeding, put warm water, it should be freely available at all times.

Important: milk yields fall with a monotonous diet, using only one type of feed. Even during the pasture period, nutrition should be supplemented with compound feed, bone meal, and vitamins.

Feeding pregnant goats

During pregnancy, the goat eats for two, the amount of feed is increased, special attention is paid to quality. Ground rules:

1. The feeding rate is increased in the second half of pregnancy, in the first - there is no need to increase the diet.
2. In summer, the animal must be taken out to pasture.
3. In winter they give granulated feed. Closer to childbirth, they are transferred to swill - liquid cereals from vegetables, grains, which are easier to digest.

Approximate diet for the day:

• morning - cereals (200 grams), vegetables, root vegetables (0.5 kilograms);
• day - hay, brooms (2 kilograms);
• evening - cake, feed (200 grams), hay.

Carefully monitor the quality of everything that goats eat. Feed with traces of rot, infected with insects is discarded.

What foods should be limited?

Goats can chew anything, the owner must keep the pasture clean and how much feed to put in the feeder. In limited quantities give:

• sweet berries, foods with sugar - cause bloating, fermentation, indigestion;
• corn causes weight gain, limited supply;
• wet herbs, tops, vegetables lead to fermentation processes, they need to be dried before laying in the feeders;
• cereal flour, dough;
• celandine, bird cherry are dangerous in large quantities.

Do not give animals a lot of unusual food for them.

Poisonous and dangerous food

Much of what a goat is ready to eat is dangerous to he alth. The farmer must know what poisonous plants litter the surrounding pastures, and not let the animal go there. Most dangerous:

• lupine;
• hellebore;
• green potatoes (tops are given to a limited extent and only mixed with other types);
• fern.

Some types of cakes (linen, hemp, cruciferous) fall into the number of dangerous if they are given incorrectly. When feeding an animal with leftover food from the table, you need to remove garbage, paper, pieces of plastic from the swill.

Feeds that impair productivity

Some foods and plants impair the quality and quantity of milk. These include:

• wormwood, celandine, tansy - add bitterness;
• sorrel - sourness appears;
• garlic - bitterness and specific smell;
• marigold - reduces milk yield;
• silo - when consumed more than 3 kilograms per day, it reduces the content of protein and fat;
• cabbage - reduces fat content.

Some grasses are dangerous only during certain periods of the growing season, drying reduces their damage, and ensiling increases them. Those who want to get high milk yield and better quality milk from a goat need to think over the diet, make the menu rich and varied. This will preserve the productivity of the animal, ensure the birth of he althy offspring, and protect the pet from diseases.

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