The better to feed the goat at home so that there is more milk

The productivity of goats depends on the characteristics of feeding and keeping conditions. Animals do not belong to capricious and whimsical in food, but the quality and quantity of milk, the value of fluff vary depending on the diet. It is important to find a good pasture for summer walking, prepare food for the winter. Let's consider what and how to feed a goat in order to get high quality milk, provide the animal with a tasty and healthy diet and not harm health.

Varieties of feed, their features

For feeding goats, different types of plant feed are used, depending on the season and opportunities. The ideal option is grazing, in which the animal feeds on succulent grasses on its own and frees the owner from many worries, but in most regions this is possible only part of the year.

To have more milk, vitamins and protein are introduced into the diet. These components help to avoid health problems and strengthen the immune system. The ration is made up by combining coarse, juicy and concentrated feed.

Juicy

Green forage is a source of vitamins, proteins, all goats love to nibble on grass and enjoy doing it on the pasture most of the day. The category of juicy food includes:

1. Tops of garden plants. When harvesting vegetables, the tops are separated and given to the goats. Animals eat the tops of beets, carrots, Jerusalem artichoke. Juicy greens contain a lot of nutrients. To reduce acidity, 1 gram of chalk is added per kilogram of green mass.
2. Grass. When kept in a stall, they mow and give grass, but it is better to drive the animals to pasture. When feeding with grass, remember that some species are dangerous and poisonous (celandine, fern).
3. Vegetables. Root crops, melons and vegetables culled for their small size are excellent juicy food for goats. Carrots, fodder and red beets can be fed with tops. Heads of cabbage and root leaves of cabbage love to crunch all goats.
4. Fruits. A drop of apples and pears goes into the feed. In stone fruit cultures, the nucleoli should be removed.

In winter, fresh forage is replaced with silage. It is harvested from grass, tops, stored in trenches or containers of inert material. A goat eats 2-3 kilograms of juicy feed per day.

Rough and dry

This type of feed is the basis of the winter diet. Dry and roughage includes:

• hay - based on alfalfa, clover, the richest in nutrients;
• straw - stalks of cereals and legumes after grain threshing;
• brooms - birch, poplar, eucalyptus, aspen, linden, willow, mountain ash.

Branches are cut and dried at the beginning of June, choosing young shoots up to 1.5 centimeters thick. The grass is harvested in July, tying it into bunches and sheaves.

Concentrated

In winter, goats cannot do without concentrates, especially necessary for young, pregnant and milking goats. For feeding are used:

• cereal grains - wheat, barley, oats;
• corn - high in protein;
• legumes are a source of protein;
• oil plants - vegetable fats and protein;
• combined feed;
• bone and fish meal, milk - dry and fat-free;
• food and processing industry waste - cake, molasses, bran, bagasse.

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Description and characteristics of Kashmir goats, conditions of detention

Goats are given grain in small quantities and in crushed form, large grains, peas are poorly digested, cause an increase in fat mass and a decrease in milk yield. It is especially dangerous to uncontrollably feed obese corn. Several methods are used to process coarse grains:

• crush, flatten;
• subject to yeast;
• fry;
• germinate - significantly improves the vitamin composition.

Vitamins, trace elements are necessary to improve the quality and quantity of milk in goats and maintain health. Goats can be given bread, even better croutons, dropping liquid vitamins on them ("Tetravit").

Diet by seasons

When feeding goats, one has to take into account seasonal opportunities, prepare food for the winter in order to provide the animals with a full diet. Harvesting hay, haylage, silage, brooms reduces the consumption of purchased feed in the winter.

Summer

In summer, at home, goats are in the pasture most of the day. Before tying a goat or sending it to free range, they inspect the vegetation around so that the animals do not eat poisonous plants. In summer, grazing goats can eat up to 8 kilograms of grass. By the end of the season, the greenery becomes scarce, dries up so that the goats are fat and well-fed, and the milk yield plentiful, the animals are fed in the morning and evening.

Summer feeding chart for goats:

Without additional feeding on one grass, milk yield will be insignificant (less than 2 liters), the quality of milk will suffer.

During the breeding period, the goat is put on enhanced nutrition, 0.8-1 kg of concentrates are given per day, and is driven out to pasture with succulent grass. You should prepare feed with carotene - carrots, rose hips.

Winter

The main problem for novice goat breeders is the preparation of the winter ration, the preparation of feed. The grazing season ends quickly, the stall season lasts 7 months (depending on the region). One animal will need for the entire period:

• roughage - 350-560 kilograms;
• juicy - 400-600 kilograms;
• brooms, foliage - 1-5 pieces per day;
• compound feed - 30-40 kilograms.

The following volumes of hay are given to animals per day: goats - 1.8-2 kilograms, goats - about 3 kilograms, goats - 1 kilogram. With a lack of high-quality hay, straw is used.

Approximate feeding schedule:

1. Morning. They give swill - warm, with steamed compound feed, juicy roots. Then milking, after which the goat eats hay.
2. Day. Food waste, boiled table cleaning, root vegetables, silage. Milking is carried out. Further hay, straw, brooms.
3. Evening. Compound feed with moisture, brooms.

For good milk yield, it is useful to give juicy raw root vegetables (carrots, beets), pumpkin, zucchini without seeds. The quality of milk in winter is improved by rowan berries containing vitamins and microelements. Goats happily eat steamed dried fruits, chopped corn stalks.During feeding, they put warm water, it should be freely available at all times.

Important: milk yield falls with a monotonous diet, using only one type of feed. Even during the grazing period, food should be supplemented with compound feed, bone meal, and vitamins.

Feeding pregnant goats

During pregnancy, the goat eats for two, the volume of feed is increased, and special attention is paid to quality. Fundamental rules:

1. The feeding rate is increased in the second half of pregnancy, in the first half, there is no need to increase the diet.
2. In summer, the animal must be taken out to the pasture.
3. In winter, they give granulated compound feed. Closer to childbirth, they transfer to swill - liquid porridge from vegetables, cereals, which are easier to digest.

Approximate diet for the day:

• morning - cereals (200 grams), vegetables, roots (0.5 kilograms);
• day - hay, brooms (2 kilograms);
• evening - cake, mixed feed (200 grams), hay.

They closely monitor the quality of everything that goats eat. Feed with traces of rot, infected with insects is discarded.

What foods should be limited?

Goats can chew anything, the owner must monitor the cleanliness of the pasture and how much feed to put in the trough. In limited quantities they give:

• sweet berries, foods with sugar - cause bloating, fermentation, indigestion;
• corn causes an increase in weight, give limited;
• wet herbs, tops, vegetables lead to fermentation processes, they must be dried before laying in the feeders;
• cereals ground into flour, dough;
• celandine, bird cherry are dangerous in large quantities.

Do not give animals a lot of unusual food for them.

Poisonous and dangerous feed

Much of what a goat is willing to eat is hazardous to health. The farmer should be aware of which poisonous plants litter the surrounding pastures and should not let the animal go there. The most dangerous:

• lupine;
• hellebore;
• green potatoes (tops are given in limited quantities and only mixed with other types);
• fern.

Some types of oilcakes (flaxseed, hemp, cruciferous) are dangerous if given incorrectly. When feeding an animal with food leftovers, you need to remove garbage, paper, pieces of plastic from the swill from the table.

Feeds that reduce productivity

Certain foods and plants reduce the quality and quantity of milk. These include:

• wormwood, celandine, tansy - add bitterness;
• sorrel - sourness appears;
• garlic - bitterness and specific smell;
• marigold - reduces milk yield;
• silage - when consumed more than 3 kilograms per day, it reduces the content of protein and fat;
• cabbage - lowers fat content.

Some grasses are dangerous only during certain periods of the growing season, drying reduces their harm, while ensiling increases. Those who want to get high yields and better quality milk from a goat need to think over the diet, make the menu rich and varied. This will preserve the productivity of the animal, ensure the birth of healthy offspring, and protect the pet from diseases.