Why Goat Farming

Goat Keeping

Kidding Management

Stall Fed Farming

Lactation Parameters

Feeding Habits of Goats

Nutrient Goat Requires

Feeding of Goats

Routine Operations

Goat Shelter/Housing

Goat Keeping Equipments

Diseases Of Goats

Vaccination Program

Fodders For Goats

PRACTICAL FEEDING OF GOATS

Despite similarities in sheep and cattle, goats differ markedly from them in grazing habits, sensitivity to sweet, salty, bitter and sour taste in accepting or rejecting the feeds. Goats are more tolerant of eating feeds containing bitter principles and refuse any soiled feed.

In general goat feeding agrees with the expectations based on universal formula of feeding ruminants. However, it is noted that a goat generally produces more milk than a cow from the same quantity of nutrients. The nutrients conversion efficiency for milk production of a dairy cow is on an average 38%, whereas for goat it ranges between 45-71%. It has been observed that goats were 4.04% superior to sheep, 7.90% to buffaloes and 8.60% to cows in crude fiber utilization, a goat uses less feed for its maintenance than a cow and a goat uses more fodder for digestion and metabolism than a cow does.

A Feeding Table For Goats

FEEDING KIDS

Kids must receive colostrum from the doe within one hour after birth and should continue for 3 days as the total energy reserves of new born kids from well fed does is about 800-900 kcal and kids of under nourished does oly 400 kcal. These reserves would be adequate to meet the energy demand in drying the birth coat in a reasonable warm environment, but in winter the heat loss could well approach 150 kcal/hour in kids weighing 3 kg body weight. Thus after the reserves are over and if the suckling is not established, the kids will die, colostrum is rich in all essential nutrients, it provides antibodies for protection of man diseases and it has got laxative properties, cleans from its intestine the accumulated faucal matter known as meconium, which is often of a dry, putty-like nature.

Feeding Schedule For Kids

Feeding Schedule for growing and adult Goats (Feed Per Day)

FINISHER RATION FOR GOATS

Since goats are slaughtered mostly for lean meat, the ration should be planned to include 30-40% of the dry matter from roughage source and the balance amount from concentrate portion having 12-14% protein and 60-65% TDN. Feeding concentrate more than this amount will yield fat in carcass. In general goat attains slaughtering age by 10-12 months having variable body weights (20-30 kg.) as specific for various breeds.

Concentrate Mixtures for Dairy Goats