Do you limit goat and sheep feed to your animals?

[kuntrygirl]

I was wondering do any of you goat and sheep owners limit the amount of feed that you feed your goat and sheep daily or do you have unlimited feed left out for them? For those that have enough area for your goat and sheep to graze, do you still give them feed or not? For those of you that do not have enough area for them to graze 8 hours or day or less, how much feed do you feed your goat and sheep? How many do you feed and what kind of feed do you feed them?

 

[username taken]

A simple approach is this:

- if you have enough pasture, just let them eat pasture, and provide minerals (block or loose form)

- if you dont have enough pasture, give them as much grass or cereal hay as they want

- along with that, provide 1 - 2 cups grain per goat/sheep per day, depending on breed, size, age, and whether they are pregnant or lactating. minerals as in the first scenario.

I've got about 40 odd sheep and goats at the moment.

Right now, the sheep have got adequate pasture and so they are not getting any supplementary feed, just a handful of hay every few days to keep them coming when I call them.

The goats have got a small amount of pasture but not enough to keep them going, so they are getting as much wheaten hay as they want, plus each doe gets 500g of a 20% protein pellet - this is quite a lot of feed because they are about to kid down in 2 wks.

 

[Haviris]

Yes and No, I never limit forage, grass/pasture in the summer and hay in the winter. But I would never leave free choice feed out.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
What is cereal hay? Sorry but I don't know what that is.

 

[username taken]

cereal hay is either wheaten or oaten hay

 

[fowltemptress]

Sorry, I'm picturing how fat the sheep and goats . . . the goats especially . . . would be if we suddenly allowed them unlimited access to feed. They really don't have an off switch, the silly pigs.

Unlimited forage and hay, definitely, but the feed needs to be rationed out.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
Is that why my sheep are so fat because I leave the 50lb bag of feed out for them to eat as much as they want? I thought they had an off and on switch. Silly me. LOL. just joking. Mine graze all day and get some feed in the evening.

 

[CaGoatLady]

Mine get a few flakes of hay during the day and I only use the feed, about 3 cups for 8 goats and 2 sheep, once a day to lure them back in for the night. My goats are FAT.

 

[Barbara9642]

Oh my, unlimited feed gives me visions of VERY bloated goats. Um, no, the little suckers will eat that sweet stuff forever, and will graze nothing. We do grazing only in spring, summer, fall- with a supplement of all you can eat hay. Only because my neighbor grows it, and brings me what the horses can't eat and her cows don't need. We get 6-12 big rolls couple times a year, put them all over the fields and woods and they can have what they want. In the winter I supplement with feed- but every spring go through withdrawel- I stop bringing it out when the fields come in - the goats spend 2-3 days standing at the gate screaming they are starving to death, finally give in and go graze.

 

[Thomas423]

I've been a bad goat mommy. We fill their feed bowls daily. I didn't know that I was supposed to limit their feed to 1 cup daily. Just found this out 2 days ago. They don't eat the whole bowl in a day and they are not overly fat, but they are well rounded.
So how do I break them of unlimited feeding? If their bowls are empty, they let us know.... very loudly. I'm afraid that they will wake the neighborhood if I start to limit their food.