What you need to feed a goat to increase milk yield, methods at home
Traditionally, goats are bred for milk, meat, fluff, wool. Most often, milk and dairy products come first. To obtain it, it is advisable to purchase dairy goats. What if you bought a dairy goat, but it gives less milk than an ordinary, non-pedigree goat? If you know how to feed a domestic goat to increase milk yield, then it is easy to increase it by one and a half, or even two times, regardless of the breed of the animal.
How to feed goats to increase milk yield
Goats are small ruminants. If you make up the right diet to improve milk yield, then keeping a goat will not require large physical and financial costs.
Grass
It is possible to increase milk yield when grazing and (or) when feeding mowed grass to animals. Goats gladly eat grass not only in the pasture, but also get it out of the feeders during stall keeping.
The most milk-producing herbs are:
- nettle;
- pharmaceutical camomile;
- oregano;
- clover;
- alfalfa;
- mother and stepmother.
The total amount of grass in the warm season should be up to 5 kg per day per head. The herb not only increases milk yield, but also improves the taste of the milk.
Juicy feed
Milk yield and fat content of milk are positively influenced by feeding dairy goats with succulent feed. These include:
- pumpkin;
- zucchini;
- fodder and sugar beets;
- Jerusalem artichoke;
- potatoes;
- carrot.
If possible, at home, animals can be given some apples, pears, apricots and pitted plums. The fruit is washed, cut and fed to the animal in an amount of about 1 kg per day.
Juicy forages are given year-round, since many of them are well stored until the new harvest, and Jerusalem artichoke rhizomes can be dug out of the ground from early spring. The amount of succulent feed per head may vary. It depends on individual preferences and the general diet of the animal. Usually they give 2-3 kg of juicy feed per day.
Roughage
To obtain good milk yield, no goat can do without roughage. These include:
- straw;
- hay;
- branch hay.
Dairy goats are best fed with oat, barley and millet straw. Wheat straw is less digestible, and many animals simply refuse rye.Before giving the straw, it must be chopped with a knife or chopped with a special straw chopper. You should not feed milking goats with old straw, dusty and worn into dust.
To increase milk yield, forbs meadow or forest hay is suitable. In it, the presence of timothy, bluegrass, plantain, dandelion, red clover, wheatgrass is desirable. Animals like shallow hay more and can also be chopped with a knife or passed through a special chopper. Hay should be in the daily diet of dairy goats at any time of the year. A goat will need about 2-3 kg of hay and straw per day.
Tree branches also belong to roughage. They are harvested in the form of brooms in the middle of summer. You can increase milk yield with branch hay from:
- and you;
- linden;
- maple;
- poplar;
- birch.
Branches about 0.6 m long cut from trees are tied into brooms, dried and fed in winter, 2-4 brooms per animal per day.
Concentrates (grain feed)
You can increase the quantity and quality of milk by using concentrated grain feed. These include:
- barley;
- oats;
- wheat;
- corn;
- sunflower cake;
- soybean meal.
For better assimilation of grain, it is crushed using a special mill or grain grinder. It is important to remember that it is concentrated feed that dairy animals need as a source of protein. The amount of combined feed per head should be equal to 300-600 g. At the beginning of lactation, the amount of concentrated feed should be higher, gradually decreasing towards the end of the milking period.
Additives
Special goat swill can significantly increase milk yield. It is prepared from water and crushed grains, cake. Usually they take 2-3 cups of a grain mixture of barley, wheat groats, oatmeal and pour 3.0-3.5 liters of boiling water. Stir and allow to cool. Then they are fed to the animal. For the attractiveness of the swill, you can throw a handful of dried apples or berries into it, add a little salt.
Sometimes, instead of water, water is added, in which pasta and potatoes were cooked. This water, even without additives, is an attractive broth for dairy goats.
Compound feed (recipes)
Combined feeds are also used to obtain more milk. You can buy them ready-made, or you can cook them yourself. To increase milk yield, the second option is preferable. A recipe will help to prepare about 1 kg of compound feed, for which you need:
- rolled oats 200 g;
- wheat bran 100 g;
- feed wheat 90 g;
- table salt, 10 g;
- sunflower meal, 100 g;
- feed yeast, 50 g;
- premix, 30 g.
Step-by-step instruction:
- Soak yeast in 0.5 liter of water at +32 degrees.
- Stir, let stand for a quarter of an hour.
- Combine with chopped grain mixture and the rest of the ingredients, mix.
- Withstand 5-6 hours, stir the mixture 1 time per hour.
The finished mixture is fed to goats. At home, you should not prepare such a compound feed for future use.
High-yielding breeds
The most dairy breeds include the following:
- zaanen;
- nubian;
- Toggenburg;
- Russian;
- nubian;
- gorkovskaya.
Do not expect high lactation from dairy goats after the first lambing. Milk yield reaches its maximum after the second or third pregnancy.
Why milk yield can fall
The drop in milk yield may be due to the inactive keeping of goats. For normal lactation, animals must move quite actively. If it is not possible to graze them, then you need to equip a walking yard near the barn.
The reasons for the decrease in milk yield can be winter frosts, when the temperature in the stable is less than +6 degrees. A sharp change in feed, their poor quality also worsen this indicator. Milk yield decreases in goats over 8-9 years old. This is due to age-related changes in the body.
