IMPORTANT RULES FOR FEEDING GOATS AND THE HYGIENIC WAY TO FEED THEM THE RIGHT WAY.
Goats are impatient animals and they rush food anytime anyday just like chicken.
But you have to learn how to strategize your feeding culture and get a timetable if possible on when, how and where to feed your breeds.
A breeder should concern himself about the bodily condition of every goat in the herd so that no goat becomes too thin nor too fat. Both of which, are not desirable.
Below are some feeding techniques to apply to your Goats so as to have a healthy and remote feeding techniques.
1. Goat feed must always be stored in a safe place. Make sure that stored feed is protected from vermin, damp and any contamination. Use the FIFO (first-in, first-out) system when taking feed out of storage to feed the goats.
In as much as they are animals they should be treated with care and their feeds is one of the most important part of a goat's hygiene.
Even if you don't bath the animals atleast their feed should be safe and protected, it shouldn't be exposed to the air.
2. Some breeders present all their Goats feed in one container which will make all the goats rush and even start fighting themselves over their feed, this is extremely wrong because it can amount to some of the animals eating to their satisfaction and others less, and that is why you should provide their feeds in several ways and troughs wide enough to contain atleast 5 animals.
Provided food must be hygienic and it should be presented in a hygienic way so that every goat can share it. There should be adequate space for all the goats to eat at the same time, ensure your troughs are enough for this and also that the troughs are clean.
3. The most important part of diet is good hay and roughage. Its all about balance!
A Good hay will stimulate all the ruminant animals, like the cows/goats to ruminate.
While the nutrition from hay is very vital for keeping the animal healthy and strong as well as to protect their digestive health.
When you provide your goats with poor quality hay it could lead to digestive trouble, respiratory problems and toxic contamination.
Roughage on the other hand promotes adequate grazing behaviour with the goats and prevents metabolic diseases that are high and filled positive effect on milk yield and quality.
As you may know, roughage is a feed ingredient that has a high concentration of slowly degradable fiber.
And a minimum level of roughage is necessary to keep the goats functioning as it should. One of the vital importance of a Goat's key niche in the ecosystem is the ability to detect the complex structural fibers in plants, and metabolize them which can convert to meat and milk that can be edible by humans, or other animals in the food chain.
Also read IMPORTANT KEYS FOR DAIRY GOAT FARMING BUSINESS
4. Make sure that a good percentage of the diet is coming from good quality forage because Goats consume only from the best parts of wide range of grasses, legumes, and browse plants. Browse plants may include Trees, shrubs, brambles and vines with woody stems.
Legumes generally produces higher quality forage than grasses. because legumes is known to have less fiber and higher intake than grasses.
One of the most important part of growing legumes with grasses is to improve on the forage quality.
Below are some of the list of quality forage for your Goats.
Bahiagrass: Bahiagrass tolerates drought well and grows in any kind of soil.
Millet: Millet is an annual grass, and is a productive choic and alternative for producing winter hay for goats.
Fescue: Fescue grass is one of highly tolerant of drought, insects and disease.
Clover: The Clover Plant fixes nitrogen that feeds other grasses and reduces the availability for artificial fertilizers. Since clover helps maintain soil moisture and suppresses certain other weeds, clover lawns require little water and herbicide.
Bromegrass: Bromus madritensis is a species of brome grass known by the common name compact brome. It is also useful for your goats because of a specific epithet madritensis which refers to Madrid, Spain.
5. Adequate green feed, vitamins, concentrates, minerals and fresh water are key to a balanced diet which in turn is key to the success of goat breeding.
Also read Grasscutter farming business for beginners
6. Any change of feed habit must be occurred gradually. Do not be stingy on quality feed as 'good nutrition is half your breeding
7. Make sure kids consume colostrum without delay after being born. Feed you kids a good quality creep feed from early on to aid their development.
The conventional creep ration has always been a grain mix with a crude protein content of 14–16% (Dry matter basis). Researchers have reported average weaning weight increases of 7 – 35 kg. per creep fed calf.
The Creep feeding initiates and promotes gut and digestive enzyme development, which helps the kids to digest nutrients from food sources instead of milk.
Some other research has it that the number of animals that ingest feed are increased by 10% when the creep feeding is implemented for 13 days, compared to 2-5 days. Hence we recommend to start your creep feeding at 15 days of age, regardless of the duration of lactation.
8. Availability of pure clean drinking water is a must for goats always.
The availability of water is extremely important for especially for latest weaned kids. The Water supply must be presented clean and in a healthy manner as goats will refuse to drink dirty or contaminated water. Automatic water floats must be protected to make sure goats do not damage the source.
9. To ensure feed for all goats, instill a routine (with farm workers) so that no goat abstains from taking feed, or gets fed inconsistently hence you have to be time conscious and make sure the routine is properly followed, you seek and ask from other breeders on their daily routine to imitate and enable you create your own feeding strategy.
10. A farmer must keep contaminated or soiled feed & water away from goats and ensure it is disposed off properly.
Because Goats and their kids can sometimes be dramatic especially during heat seasons, the males because so playful and restless and can begin to eat and drink any substance around wether it is clean or dirty.
That is why there is a need to ensure their environment is clean from anything that will regarded as a threat to their health.
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