What to feed a goat to increase milk yield?

To get a lot of tasty milk from a dairy goat and maintain the health of your pet for many years, you need to offer her the right menu.

The diet of a dairy goat should include hay and grass, succulent feed, grain crops, and various additives. Feed that is not balanced in its main components will lead to a decrease in productivity and deterioration in the health of the goat.

Let’s take a closer look at what to feed a goat to produce more milk.

General rules for preparing a diet

Feeding is the main point when keeping goats. Without a balanced diet and a carefully selected diet, it is impossible to obtain large yields of high-quality milk.

The animal should be fed in a varied, complete manner, in certain quantities and equally throughout all seasons, slightly changing some components. The transitions should be as smooth as possible.

When feeding, the following general rules apply:

• a small individual is given less food than a large one;
• a growing organism requires more than an adult of the same weight;
• For a pregnant goat, the norms are increased compared to a barren goat;
• Dairy cattle that produce a higher daily quota are entitled to more feed.

All feeds are divided into 4 categories:

• juicy;
• rough;
• concentrates;
• supplements in the form of vitamins and minerals.

Each category is important to the overall diet, but some types of feed are increased in volume in winter, others in summer.

Roughage

The definition of “rough feed” includes hay and straw, branches of deciduous and coniferous trees. Such feed contains fiber and vitamins necessary for a ruminant animal. Hay should be present in the goat’s diet even in the summer, in small quantities.

In winter, the norm of roughage for one dairy goat is 3-5 kg, depending on the size of the animal. Brooms can replace up to 30% of hay, straw (oat, barley) up to 20%.

Important! When calculating how much hay will need to be prepared for one goat for the winter, the number of days of the stall period is multiplied by the animal’s daily grain consumption, and 30% is added for losses during storage.

Goats are unpretentious animals, they willingly eat such hay, which a cow will not even look at. Animals like forest hay, with many twigs, dried flowers. Naturally, the hay should not be rotten, with mold. Good hay is green, aromatic, not dusty.

In addition to forest hay, the following herbs are prepared for goats:

• legumes (alfalfa, sainfoin, vetch) mixed with cereals (oats);
• Sudanese;
• bonfire, couch grass.

The most nutritious hay is considered to be legume hay; when giving it, the norm of grain feed for a goat can be reduced by 25-30%.

It’s important! Hay is usually mown in the early flowering phase. At this time, the grass contains the maximum amount of vitamins and nutrients.

Branches of trees and bushes are prepared for the goats, tied into brooms and dried under a canopy. Young shoots of apple and pear trees, hazel, oak, Russian maple, rowan, and linden are especially useful for animals.

In winter, from December to February, you can cut pine and spruce branches for goats, they contain vitamin C in high concentrations.

Brooms

When walking in the summer on pasture, goats independently and with pleasure eat branches of small trees and bushes. Poplar, linden, and willow will do. They are also prepared for autumn and winter.

The length of the branch is about 60 cm, the thickness is 1 cm, the thickness of the bunch is 12 cm. The blanks are dried directly in the field in the fresh air. An animal can eat up to 5 bunches per day.

Juicy forages

To maintain high milk yield, the animal must be given vegetables that have a lactogenic effect. It has been noted that the exclusion of succulent feed from the diet of a dairy animal leads to a loss of milk yield of up to 40%. Fresh vegetables and fruits contain vitamins that are especially necessary for goats during the stall period.

For the winter, the following is prepared for the dairy goat population:

• fodder and sugar beets;
• potatoes;
• table and fodder carrots;
• pumpkin.

In summer, goats are fed fallen apples and pears, overgrown cucumbers and zucchini, cracked tomatoes and bell peppers.

Important! Vegetables must be cut into strips or chopped with a chopper so that large pieces cannot get stuck in the animal’s throat. Dirty root vegetables are washed, and the rotten part is cut off.

The daily norm of vegetables depends on the size and milk yield of the goat, but it should not exceed 2 kg per day. Fresh potatoes are given no more than 500 g. Excessive feeding of succulent feed can lead to diarrhea.

Grass

Natural, healthy and cheap feed for goats in summer is grass. It is ideal to let the goat out to pasture freely all day, where it can eat the grass that it likes best.

Having the opportunity to choose, the animal picks not only the juicy and nutritious grass of wheatgrass, cereals, quinoa, but also eats branches of tansy, wormwood, shepherd’s purse and other useful plants.

If the goats are kept in a pen, they are given mown grass daily, up to 10 kg per individual. The grass is mown in meadows with rich grass, in forest clearings.

Important! Grass that is damp from dew or rain is dried before being fed to the goats.

Plant

It is applicable to any vegetables, including potatoes. It must be chopped (not too finely), and to reduce the acidity level, add 1 gram of chalk to each kilogram of tops.

Silage

It is excellent as a replacement for grass feed in winter. Properly prepared silage has a high nutritional value and caloric content, contains all the substances necessary for full feeding, and is stored for up to two years and is the best feed in winter.

Vegetables

The most favorite product for goats, they eat it completely: root crop + tops. All vegetables are suitable – Jerusalem artichoke, cucumbers, turnips, carrots, rutabaga, beets, zucchini, all types of cabbage, etc. Only onions and raw potatoes are not given. But it is worth observing the volumes – no more than 4 kg per day.

Fruit

Animals love them no less (and some even more) than vegetables. Apples and pears should be given cut, peaches and apricots should have their pits removed beforehand.

Concentrates (grain feed)

Grain has maximum nutritional value, without concentrates it is impossible to obtain high milk yields and weight gains. But such feed should be given to ruminants with caution, excess grain in feeding can lead to digestive disorders.

Goats are given oat, barley, corn and wheat grains, the latter being added to the grain mixture at a rate of no more than 15%. To preserve the animal’s teeth and improve digestion, the grain is given crushed or flattened.

Bran (wheat, barley, oat) is also used in feeding. It is rich in B vitamins and is nutritious, although it has little energy.

Important! Many goat breeders give their charges swill or porridge, this is wrong.

Liquid and boiled food is not suitable for a ruminant animal, it is less digestible and leads to disruption of the stomach microflora. Goats are given grain only in dry form, so that the animal chews the food for a long time, actively moistening it with saliva.

The grain feed rate for a dairy goat depends on the milk yield and is 250-300 g + 200 g for each liter of milk produced. Thus, a goat with a milk yield of 3 liters per day should be given 850-900 g of grain mixture per day. The daily feed rate is divided into 2-3 feedings.

Bran

This is a product left over from grain processing and is its ground shell. It contains some vitamins and minerals, but is used to improve digestion.

supplements

The dairy goat menu includes additional products that are not complete feed, but only supplement the diet.

It:

• sunflower and soybean cake and meal;
• fodder yeast;
• feed chalk, sulfur;
• table salt;
• premix.

The cake is rich in fats and amino acids necessary for the animal’s body. It is ground and added to the grain mixture in dry form.

Pay attention to the quality of the product, it should have a pleasant smell of seeds, be black with a greenish tint. It is prohibited to feed a product with signs of spoilage (rancid smell, mold).

Fodder yeast is nutritious, enriches the feed with protein and B vitamins. It is important not to overdo it with feeding, so as not to cause the goat’s stomach to stop working.

Mineral feed and salt are building products for the goat’s skeleton and helpers in digesting food. The animal loses calcium with the milk it produces, several grams daily. If you give it the opportunity to replenish this reserve, the goat will start losing teeth and hair, and it will “sit on its feet.”

Note. Often, while grazing, goats find rotten stumps, firebrands, and greedily eat the dust, coal, or even gnaw the earth.

This is a signal that the animal lacks minerals. Goats are given salt licks enriched with minerals and are given free access to them.

Premix is ​​a complex of vitamins and microelements developed for a specific type of animal. Premix for dairy goats (Zinka, Zdravur Kozochka) in dry form is added to the grain mixture in the recommended dose.

Compound feed (recipes)

Goat breeders can buy ready-made complete feed for dairy goats for their favorites. It is produced under the OK 80 label. It contains 14% crude protein and 10 MJ of exchange energy. Some goat breeders give their goats feed for dairy cows.

Important! The shelf life of factory-made compound feed is no more than 3 months from the date of manufacture. It should be stored in a cool, dark and dry place.

You can make compound feed for goats at home if you stock up on all the necessary ingredients.

For dairy goats (with a daily milk yield of 4 l), the following mixture composition is recommended:

• barley 30%;
• corn 20%;
• oats 22%;
• wheat bran 11%;
• dry fodder yeast 1%;
• sunflower cake 12%;
• table salt 1%;
• premix for dairy goats 1%;
• feed chalk 2%.

Hay is given separately. The factory feed contains grass granules, so hay is given in small quantities.

If it is not possible to collect all the ingredients, the goats are given a mixture of oats, barley and bran in a ratio of 1:1:0,3, supplementing the feed with a premix. Particular attention is paid to grazing goats on a variety of grasses, where the animal can find the food it needs.

What should you not give to a goat?

Poisonous plants, which are not suitable for animal consumption, are often found in pasture grass.

Lupine contains more harmful substances: alkaloids cause convulsions in goats, and reproductive organs suffer. The plant contains toxic substances that damage the liver.

The fern is also considered poisonous. However, it cannot be given either dried or fresh. After its use, problems with coordination of movement appear. The growth of the organism slows down, or it does not develop at all.

Veratrum contains alkaloids that affect the nervous system. When consumed in large quantities, even death occurs.

There is a health hazard for goats when they eat these ingredients:

Feed contaminated with mold and rot

This infection often affects grains of agricultural plants. Ergot most often affects rye, wheat, barley, oats.

The fungus is found in grain mass in an oblong form of dark color: such grain must be carefully cleaned with special equipment. Farmers recommend mowing cereal grasses along the borders of fields.

Insect-infested feed

This phenomenon occurs due to improper hygiene during storage of feed.

The following actively parasitize plants:

• aphid;
• white butterflies;
• caterpillars.

Spiders and butterflies live in barns. For example, the barn weevil secretes a dangerous substance that negatively affects the digestive system of animals. Barley infected with this insect causes severe diarrhea in goats.

The mites make ground wheat bran bitter and smell bad. Severely contaminated feed causes miscarriages and is sometimes fatal to adult birds.

Green potatoes

Sprouted and green tubers contain the glucoalkaloid solanine, therefore goats are strictly prohibited from eating raw potatoes with green skin.

Even the water in which the vegetable was boiled is not recommended for consumption. It is allowed to enter food in small quantities, but together with other nutritious feeds.

Advice from experts

Experienced livestock breeders advise giving animals feed from all categories every day. It should not be that today the goat eats hay, tomorrow mixed feed, and on the third day chews brooms – such “variety” will not lead to anything good.

When preparing a diet, it is important to take into account the following feeding nuances:

1. Cereals of wheat varieties and products derived from them have low protein levels (it is important for increasing milk yields), but at the same time have a high energy level. Excess in the diet worsens the quality of milk, reduces the chewing function of the animal.
2. Grain after distillation, brewer’s yeast and all by-products of brewing are important as sources of carbohydrates and easily digestible protein.
3. Roots – are important for getting fast carbohydrates (help to increase weight), but they are not protein foods.
4. Beet pulp, feed molasses and other sugar production products improve the taste of feed.
5. Towards high energy nutrition include oily crops with a high lipid content.
6. Beans are used for feeding with great caution – their seeds contain components harmful to goats. But if they are processed correctly, legumes turn into essential protein and energy components of the diet.
7. All animal proteins – this is essential phosphorus and calcium. But if processed incorrectly, there is a risk of bacterial infections.
8. If in the diet present a large amount of legumes, there is no need to additionally enrich the diet with calcium.
9. If there is a lot of roughage, phosphorus must be added.

The mother’s nutrition after lambing is checked especially carefully. All efforts are directed to increasing the quantity and quality of milk, since newborn kids consume about 6 liters of milk per day.

Overeating and excessive weight gain of the animal should not be allowed. The more fat the goat has, the less milk it will give. Obesity also interferes with pregnancy.

Approximate “menu” of daily diet

The diet of a “milk” goat in the summer and winter periods is slightly different. In the fall and spring, it is recommended to make smooth transitions from one menu to another.

How to water a goat?

Proper nutrition is extremely important for high milk yields, but you must not forget to water the animal. The watering regime is 3 times a day, the general daily norms are up to 12 liters per individual.

It is important to ensure that the water is always clean and at room temperature (in the stall). Excessively cold or dark water will lead to multiple colds.

Goat feeding routine and rules

In summer, when the goat is walking on the pasture on its own, it is quite difficult to establish specific feeding rules.

But to increase the amount of milk yield, it is worth following some principles:

• feeding occurs 3-4 times a day;
• the intervals between feedings are set equal;
• first meal 6-7 am in the morning, last 18-19 pm in the evening;
• a diet of roughage is served in the morning, and everything that is easily digested and assimilated is served in the evening;
• don’t forget about drinking water;
• Dairy goats require larger amounts of feed than dry goats.

The volume of daily rations depends on the amount of milk the goat produces and the weight of the animal itself.

The quality and taste of milk depend on the amount of proteins and vegetable fats in the feed. For this purpose, root crops, grains, silage, compound feed, sprouted grain, and salt are necessarily added to the feed.

Features of winter feeding

It is much easier to control what a goat eats in winter, but feeding can also be a hassle. There is no succulent meadow feed, it is replaced in the summer with hay prepared from meadow grasses. Winter standards are 2-2,2 kg per individual.

Another type of grass variety for feeding in winter is the wreaths prepared in the summer. A goat is given no more than 5 wreaths per day, and hay is not introduced. Additionally, juicy types of feed are added to the diet – root crops and fruits. They are pre-washed and chopped.

Sel, legumes, grain, chalk are used as additives. Industrial production offers livestock breeders the preparations “Tetravit”, “Trivit”. They are produced in the form of drops that are mixed into food or dripped onto bread.

How to feed a goat during pregnancy and after lambing?

The animal’s body undergoes a gradual restructuring during pregnancy. And the nutritional composition differs in the first half and before lambing.

In the last few months, the rumen is compressed, and the goat is unable to consume the volumes of hay required for her condition. At the same time, the diet should be as nutritious as possible.

To balance the overall nutrition and to ensure that the fetus receives all the substances necessary for growth, the volumes of concentrated supplements are increased.

First half of pregnancy

The maintenance of dairy goats and meat and wool goats differs significantly. If animals are bred for milk, then milking of the goat does not stop during insemination.

Pregnant cattle are fed three times during the first half of pregnancy:

• in the morning – hay;
• during the day – self-grazing in the meadow with free access to water;
• in the evening – hay, straw.

If the animal is underweight, additional feeding is used.

In winter, the diet of a pregnant goat differs from that in summer. The livestock breeder is advised to adhere to the following parameters:

• grass hay, cereal straw – 400 g;
• legume hay – 400 g;
• barley, oats in grain – 200 g;
• corn silage – 2 kg;
• barley straw – 300 g;
• sunflower meal – 200 g;
• vitamin/mineral complex.

All parameters are advisory in nature. Feeding is regulated depending on the animal’s fatness, quantity and quality of milk.

Pre-Lambing Feeding

Several months before lambing, the goat’s diet is gradually changed.

ПThe reasons are:

1. The fetus increases sharply in size and requires more balanced nutrition.
2. Preventing a sharp increase in the goat’s own weight gain.
3. Prevention of complications after childbirth due to obesity.
4. Preparing the animal’s body for lactation.
5. Due to the increase in the volume of the fetus, it is impossible for animals to consume food in large portions and to digest certain types of food (straw, etc.).

Completely exclude straw and acidic silage from the diet, and reduce the consumption of concentrates. It is important to ensure that the feed is of high quality. Reduce water intake in combination with root vegetables in the diet. This can lead to edema.

Diet for 2 months before lambing:

• hay – up to 2 kg;
• root vegetables – up to 500 g;
• compound feed – up to 300 g;
• brooms – up to 300 g.

If the animal is moderately overweight, 7 days before birth, the protein content and energy value of the food are reduced. The amount of concentrates is reduced.

The day before lambing, the queen may completely refuse food; this is a normal reaction of the body.

Goat nutrition after lambing

Immediately after birth, the animal is offered water or liquid food consisting of oatmeal and bran mash. 50 g of sugar is used as an additive to compensate for energy losses.

The next day, grain concentrates, excluding rye and wheat, and a small amount of compound feed are included in the diet.

The transition to the usual diet occurs gradually, over the course of 7 days. The animal’s health and recovery are constantly monitored, so a strict diet is not established.

The basis of the diet is hay, but the volume of silage, succulent feed, and concentrates varies smoothly depending on the speed of the body’s recovery.

Diet for increasing milk yield after lambing

Milking of goats after birth is mandatory for all dairy breeds. Nutrition in winter includes hay, succulent feed, silage. In summer, green meadow feed is very important.

The total daily volumes are increased slightly for the first 3-4 months.

The daily menu for the milking period is as follows:

• hay – up to 2 kg;
• root vegetables – up to 1,5 kg;
• oat and barley mash, peas, compound feed – up to 1,5 kg;
• barley straw – from 400 to 600 g;
• corn silage – up to 1,5 kg;
• brooms – 400 g.

All root vegetables are chopped, potatoes are boiled. Mixtures with compound feed or bran are made from vegetables.

Additional supply of useful substances

The consequences of vitamin deficiency in goats occur in the spring, when the animal’s body uses up most of its internal reserves.

For example, lack of vitamin A leads to:

• decrease in milk production;
• birth of weak kids;
• lacrimation.

Vitamins of groups D and E are of great importance. For medicinal purposes, fish oil is given – 45 ml per adult animal.

Signs of vitamin and mineral deficiency are especially evident in kids. Rickets is a common disease of young animals fed with vitamin- and mineral-poor feed. Sick animals move little, suffer from diarrhea, and lag behind in growth.

Important mineral feed supplements for kids:

• a piece of chalk;
• salt;
• bone flour.

Examples of other vitamin supplements and how to feed a goat are best clarified with a veterinarian. You can consider ready-made purchased premixes.

For example, choose from these types:

• vitamin supplements;
• including both vitamins and minerals;
• mineralized;
• vitamins, therapeutic action.

Premixes ideally combine important components that must be present in goat nutrition.

Conclusion

Properly organized feeding of the dairy herd is the key to the economic prosperity of the farm. Know that money invested in high-quality products for dairy goats will return in the form of milk, tasty and healthy.