# Feeding a no grain diet



## Jubillee (Dec 22, 2017)

I am highly considering feeding a no grain/roughage only diet. I want to hear from those that do, how it works for them. Currently we feed our goats 1/2c morning and evening per goat of whole grains and a handful of alfalfa grass. (barley or wheat, oats, boss, beet pulp mix)

How do you feed and what?

Ours are dairy goats (mini-nubians and nigerians). We have a buck, a 4 month weather, and two 10 month old doelings that are pregnant as well as a 2 year old doe that is pregnant. What do you do during milking times? Is this sufficient for growing kids/doelings? Pregnant does? 

Currently we don't have pasture for them to graze. We are cleaning up from loggers still. BUt we want to seed our pasture for what they need. We do cut brush from the fence and bring it to them every couple of days which they love. I am trying to understand more of how it works for others while keeping good condition for pregnant and milking does.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

*i dont have milk goat, well only a few but mostly boers*
If it’s just grain you want to cut out you can replace with protein tubs. I do not feed grain any more to my does! I ran into health issues with the dominate getting most of it, when the bottom Goats finally got their share they got sick. Also MY HEALTH feeding the crazy animals lol
Ok this is what I do. First I always have protein tubs out 24/7.
Dry does up till breeding get pasture (brush) and some hay at night to bring them in and also make sure their tummies are full for the night. 
When I go to breed them I have to lock them up (in a smaller pasture) since I run more then one buck and have registered stock. I usually try to rotate them out to eat out and about but for the most part this really doesn’t work. So they mainly still get hay (alfalfa). 
While nursing kids still alfalfa Hay and penned (that way coyotes can’t pack kids off) 
I do feed my kids grain in a creep feeder. They have grain and hay 24/7 and they can go and leave their creep feeder as they wish. I am a firm believer in a creep feeder. It helps kids grow but also, since no grain, it helps does out.
How do I like it? I love not feeding grain. My does do loose some condition with kids on them but I can’t say any less then most people feeding a normal amount of grain. My does can not compete with those that do pour the grain to them. 
Kids grow decent. Again they can’t compete with more......pampered managements but they are not far off of my friends Goats who get a lot of feed and grain and kept in a small pen.
My feed cost has dropped insanely! I’ll have to look up my tax info but it made a huge difference.
My does, once kids are weaned do a great job of putting weight back on.
What I love about the protein tubs it’s a extra for them but they can pick and choose when they need that extra, not like grain where if you put 200# in front of them they will eat it till they are sick no matter what forage/ hay they are getting.


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## Jubillee (Dec 22, 2017)

Jessica84 said:


> *i dont have milk goat, well only a few but mostly boers*
> If it's just grain you want to cut out you can replace with protein tubs. I do not feed grain any more to my does! I ran into health issues with the dominate getting most of it, when the bottom Goats finally got their share they got sick. Also MY HEALTH feeding the crazy animals lol
> Ok this is what I do. First I always have protein tubs out 24/7.
> Dry does up till breeding get pasture (brush) and some hay at night to bring them in and also make sure their tummies are full for the night.
> ...


Thank you so much for all that! One reason I want to stop is the cost, but also our buck seems to have gotten acidosis and we are treating him praying he pulls through.  I'm thinking my teen son had not been measuring out the food like I specified so he was getting more than he should. He also liked to eat the grain the rabbits knocked out. We moved the rabbits today though.

What kind of protein tubs do you get? I keep reading does in milk should get grain to keep up with production. My concern is them not being on grain but then getting it all of the sudden at milking time and then that throwing off their rumens.

Also trying to figure out if I can do no grain until our pasture gets properly seeded. I want to seed it with a good mix for goats. But I see you have some in pens (ours currently are) and are still fed just fine.


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## capracreek (Apr 5, 2016)

It is expensive but all my goats get a mix of 1 gal purina goat chow
1/2 gal Barley
1/2 gal Boss
1/4 gal Beet Pulp and when I feed I add 1 c and a half of minerals. For me it is not as much about the cost and being sure my guys have good nutrition as I believe it is closely related to herd health in general.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

When I lost a doe to acidosis that’s when I started thinking of quitting the grain. I’m not going to start a argument on why I officially stopped feeding grain lol
Ok I mentioned I have a handful of dairy, I do milk them when I pull kids but they only get as much as it takes to milk them. I can’t even tell you how much they get, I get a big bowel and put in front of them, milk, then take it away when I’m done. I have never had a issue with upsetting the rumen BUT I can totally see why your concerned! And what works for one doesn’t work for another. So what about a week or so before you plan to start milking them you put them on the stand, tie them, whatever, and start them off slowly till you get to what you think they would be eating when you start milking? I mean it’s going to be a pain for sure but it’s a safe way to introduce grain to them.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

When my goats are in milk and feeding trips, I do grain maybe every couple of days.

I also found when they dry off and I stopped all grain, they got sick on me. 
So now, I feed grain maybe 1 x a week for their health or when I think about it. 
This has worked well for me.
They seem to need it, well my goaties anyway. 
Not too much, I have a bunch of graining feeders spread out so they all get some.


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## Jubillee (Dec 22, 2017)

capracreek said:


> It is expensive but all my goats get a mix of 1 gal purina goat chow
> 1/2 gal Barley
> 1/2 gal Boss
> 1/4 gal Beet Pulp and when I feed I add 1 c and a half of minerals. For me it is not as much about the cost and being sure my guys have good nutrition as I believe it is closely related to herd health in general.


This minus the goat chow is what I feed mine. Except I'd add equal amounts of oats as I do barley. Our minerals are free choice and we give Purina wind and rain and icelandic kelp.


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## Jubillee (Dec 22, 2017)

toth boer goats said:


> When my goats are in milk and feeding trips, I do grain maybe every couple of days.
> 
> I also found when they dry off and I stopped all grain, they got sick on me.
> So now, I feed grain maybe 1 x a week for their health or when I think about it.
> ...


Once a week, that seems doable. In reality, we don't spend a ton on feed. We have 6 goats and they get a cup a day each. Now, the boys are going to be off it since we are dealing with this issue. My does are doing just fine on it, it seems. The buck ate the same mix I make, with his previous owner. I'm more wondering now if he got into some old stuff under the rabbit cages (that we have removed now) and has developed polio or listeriosis in addition to the asidosis.

I don't know for sure, but praying hard for my boy and seriously considering how I feed.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

Prayers for your boy.

Yeah, bucks/wethers are a bit more tricky.

With all goat, molasses products are not good long term and can cause a lot of issues.


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

1 cup a day of grain is nothing - it's a treat. It won't harm them to stop it. It's not providing them anything other than a tasty treat right now.

However, I do think young does that are expected to grow and lactate at the same time will need grain when the time comes. Pounds of grain, not cups, if they are going to be both nursing kids AND being milked for humans.


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## Jubillee (Dec 22, 2017)

SalteyLove said:


> 1 cup a day of grain is nothing - it's a treat. It won't harm them to stop it. It's not providing them anything other than a tasty treat right now.
> 
> However, I do think young does that are expected to grow and lactate at the same time will need grain when the time comes. Pounds of grain, not cups, if they are going to be both nursing kids AND being milked for humans.


After some time and reading, I had decided yesterday that the does seemed fine on it and that we would leave them as is. Actually, since we would most likely only milk in the morning, we'd drop them to morning feedings only and give them the full amount. That way they'd be used to it in the morning while milking. We don't intend to milk constantly at the moment. Just when we'd like some milk, separate the babies in the evening and milk that morning. Should the younger ones have more now while growing babies?

How much grain is recommended then for milkers? I don't mind feeding milkers grain. Since they are doing fine. We're just going to pull our boys off it so long as our main guy pulls through. I'm feeling a little more confident that it wasn't so much overfeeding of grain, but more eating some bad food or hay.


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## MtnRidgeFarm (Dec 6, 2017)

toth boer goats said:


> Prayers for your boy.
> 
> Yeah, bucks/wethers are a bit more tricky.
> 
> With all goat, molasses products are not good long term and can cause a lot of issues.


Why are molasses products not good for long term? *newbie question* We feed chaffhaye on a regular basis (in a small amount) and it has molasses in it.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

MtnRidgeFarm said:


> Why are molasses products not good for long term? *newbie question* We feed chaffhaye on a regular basis (in a small amount) and it has molasses in it.


It can mold faster, under certain situations.

Acidiosis can happen due to the high sugar levels in molasses.

Molasses has a lot of iron in it so it can interfere with copper intake.

It is OK short term but I do not recommend long term becasue of these issues.


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## GoatKeeper84 (Dec 8, 2017)

Should it not be pointed out that anyone wanting to go grain free with lactating does, had better be feeding high Calcium fodder/hay, lest they run into Hypocalcemia (Milk Fever)? I'm fighting with that this year but that's another story...


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

This is only tangentially related, but I found it interesting and maybe some of you will too. @Kath G.

https://permies.com/t/72292/critters/Goats-Buying-Feed

edited because I did not give the link, doh.


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