Lets talk about goats!

[moomoodiddy]

Awesome
I have begun winterizing all of my animals and just made a goat house out of one of those plastic calf houses, just put a floor on it and place to hang feed on the inside. Now I am working on my chicken coops

 

[res]

Well, good news. I think I am able to feed a supplement in with the DuMor. Im thinking of either high octane champion drive or calf manna. Calf manna is cheaper but champion drive is a specialized muscle growing supplement with a lot higher protein.

We used Champion Drive High Octane this year.

Our fair "season" is in the fall, late August - late September. Market kids have to be at 50lbs by weigh-in, so most 4-Hers aim to kid in Jan/Feb for maximum growth. We had a major set back, and didn't get 2 of our Momma's bred until late, and kidded on April 3rd and April 16th. The April 16th kidding was triplets, which I was sure would not make weight.... Just too late in the season to get started, and too many mouths for Momma to feed. We kept them all on the doe, and supplemented with goats milk bottles 2x daily and then added in High Octane at weaning, along with free choice Kent Show Kid Developer. My son actually won the Rate of Gain Award with one of the triplets - and it was a doeling, too! Made me HUGE believer in the product! She was 28lbs at weigh in on June 3rd, and then 81lbs at final weigh in on September 13th. 53lbs/102 days = 0.52lbs gained per day.

You feed a small amount of High Octane daily, and it is very palatable, so it would be easy to pull your one goat out, have it gobble up the feed, and throw it back in the pen with the others. We have several at home that we have to separate in that manner to either increase or limit their intake...

 

[waddles99]

We used Champion Drive High Octane this year.

Our fair "season" is in the fall, late August - late September. Market kids have to be at 50lbs by weigh-in, so most 4-Hers aim to kid in Jan/Feb for maximum growth. We had a major set back, and didn't get 2 of our Momma's bred until late, and kidded on April 3rd and April 16th. The April 16th kidding was triplets, which I was sure would not make weight.... Just too late in the season to get started, and too many mouths for Momma to feed. We kept them all on the doe, and supplemented with goats milk bottles 2x daily and then added in High Octane at weaning, along with free choice Kent Show Kid Developer. My son actually won the Rate of Gain Award with one of the triplets - and it was a doeling, too! Made me HUGE believer in the product! She was 28lbs at weigh in on June 3rd, and then 81lbs at final weigh in on September 13th. 53lbs/102 days = 0.52lbs gained per day.

You feed a small amount of High Octane daily, and it is very palatable, so it would be easy to pull your one goat out, have it gobble up the feed, and throw it back in the pen with the others. We have several at home that we have to separate in that manner to either increase or limit their intake...

I am in a tricky situation this year. I have a spring doe kid born in April. I want to show her next year but obviously in breeding classes there are no weight regulations only age regulations. So I am not feeding a market kid, keep in mind, but a doeling(will be shown as a doe next summer). So I am not exactly wanting to pack on the meat and muscling of a market kid but rather have some muscling, extenuate her figure, structure and really just show her off to her full potential. She is 95 lbs and was born in April so is averaging around .40 lbs a day based on basic math. I want to be sure she is keeping that weight on and gaining too!!

Edit: I dont keep her at my house so there is no way to take her out individually. I will have to mix it in to the bag and just have them feed the premixed ration twice a day to all the goats.

 

[cassie]

I am in a tricky situation this year. I have a spring doe kid born in April. I want to show her next year but obviously in breeding classes there are no weight regulations only age regulations. So I am not feeding a market kid, keep in mind, but a doeling(will be shown as a doe next summer). So I am not exactly wanting to pack on the meat and muscling of a market kid but rather have some muscling, extenuate her figure, structure and really just show her off to her full potential. She is 95 lbs and was born in April so is averaging around .40 lbs a day based on basic math. I want to be sure she is keeping that weight on and gaining too!!

Edit: I dont keep her at my house so there is no way to take her out individually. I will have to mix it in to the bag and just have them feed the premixed ration twice a day to all the goats.

Just feed her all the hay she will eat and maybe a small amount of grain. Are you breeding her this year? Pregnant goats obviously need more feed than non pregnant goats.

 

[ShrekDawg]

If you can't separate her, I'd just do the calf manna and/or goat minerals. All the goats should be getting minerals anyway and the calf manna won't hurt the others and in fact may help everybody

 

[waddles99]

Just feed her all the hay she will eat and maybe a small amount of grain. Are you breeding her this year? Pregnant goats obviously need more feed than non pregnant goats.

Next fall, possibly. She already gets free choice hay. I was thinking of cutting back on hay because it might be bad to show her when she is eating all that hay?

 

[cassie]

Next fall, possibly. She already gets free choice hay. I was thinking of cutting back on hay because it might be bad to show her when she is eating all that hay?

Goats should have access to all the hay they want. Grain is another story. If you think alfalfa is too rich you can feed a good grass hay if you can find it. I never fed grass hay to my goats because good grass hay was simply not available. Therefore all my goats got alfalfa. What breed of goat is your doeling?

 

[waddles99]

Goats should have access to all the hay they want. Grain is another story. If you think alfalfa is too rich you can feed a good grass hay if you can find it. I never fed grass hay to my goats because good grass hay was simply not available. Therefore all my goats got alfalfa. What breed of goat is your doeling?

Boer. You know I cant keep any other breed

. We feed an orchard grass hay. Its medium quality, pretty good. I like it. She has access to hay 24/7 currently. I guess we should keep it that way. I was told feeding too much hay can be bad if you're showing them because they can get a hay belly. Is this true?

As for grain. I think 1 lb twice a day should be good. I am going to try and premix calf manna in the feed bag at a good ratio so the goats can get it every time the farm owner feeds them.

 

[henny1129]

​We used Champion Drive High Octane this year.

Our fair "season" is in the fall, late August - late September. Market kids have to be at 50lbs by weigh-in, so most 4-Hers aim to kid in Jan/Feb for maximum growth.   We had a major set back, and didn't get 2 of our Momma's bred until late, and kidded on April 3rd and April 16th. The April 16th kidding was triplets, which I was sure would not make weight.... Just too late in the season to get started, and too many mouths for Momma to feed. We kept them all on the doe, and supplemented with goats milk bottles 2x daily and then added in High Octane at weaning, along with free choice Kent Show Kid Developer. My son actually won the Rate of Gain Award with one of the triplets - and it was a doeling, too! Made me HUGE believer in the product! She was 28lbs at weigh in on June 3rd, and then 81lbs at final weigh in on September 13th. 53lbs/102 days = 0.52lbs gained per day.

You feed a small amount of High Octane daily, and it is very palatable, so it would be easy to pull your one goat out, have it gobble up the feed, and throw it back in the pen with the others. We have several at home that we have to separate in that manner to either increase or limit their intake...

Holy moly! Congrats to you and your son! That is a ton of weight to gain per day, especially for Boers! (I assume the goat was a Boer......)

 

[res]

Boer. You know I cant keep any other breed

. We feed an orchard grass hay. Its medium quality, pretty good. I like it. She has access to hay 24/7 currently. I guess we should keep it that way. I was told feeding too much hay can be bad if you're showing them because they can get a hay belly. Is this true?

As for grain. I think 1 lb twice a day should be good. I am going to try and premix calf manna in the feed bag at a good ratio so the goats can get it every time the farm owner feeds them.

Yes, she can develop a hay belly.... But you just have to do the best you can with the situation you have. How many other goats are in her pen (I can't find the post where you had discussed it previously)? It is going to get expensive to feed Calf Manna to all of them at a rate to benefit just one... I wish you were able to separate her out into a pen with just her and another goat, so you had better control of feeding her.

Another contributor to the "hay belly" look can be worms.... And with a bunch of goats sharing 1 pen it raises the chances of parasite load... Lots of factors to consider such as size of pen, footing, feeding stations/areas, lot rotation, fecals, worming protocol, etc.... Do you have a parasite control program in place?

We have a few >2yr old breeding does that we can literally pull straight off the pasture, shine them up, and be competitive with them. But our junior - senior - yearling does we try to "get fit" alongside our market kids. They get walked (or run for short distances if they are feeling spicy) multiple times a day. The junior does bulk up, but the seniors & yearlings just seem to get "toned" and less soft. We just compete within the state of Maryland, so we are not uber-competitive, but for being home-raised Boers that keep getting further and further out from their Ennobled pedigrees, we do okay. Kids born spring 2017 will be 3 generations out from full Ennobled parentage. Most of our competition is first generation from Ennobled (several local families have $xx,xxx Ennobled bucks as herd sires).