How Much Grain to Give?

Marble's triplets are now a month old. There's plenty of good pasture and they're out all day. I'm worried that we're giving her too much grain now. She's been getting 10 ounces twice a day, though the babies have been nibbling off with her more and more. It seems to be taking her longer to finish her grain, which is why we're wondering if it's just too much. The babies are doing fine and obviously getting plenty to eat (we visited the breeder we bought Marble from the other day who had babies about 10 days older than ours and it was amazing how much bigger ours were), plus they nibble grass and things out in the pasture too.

How much should we be feeding at this point, or about how long should it take her to eat a serving? Weight is already a problem with our other three goats, and we don't want Marble to get fat or to overfeed the babies right from the start.

And also, when should we stop feeding grain completely? Would it be once they're weaned?

The amount of time it takes a doe to finish her grain really is not an indication of how much they need. I have some that practically inhale it that are overweight and some skinny ones that take forever to eat, so I just sit next to the milk stand waiting for them to finish after I'm done milking them. Body condition is really your best indicator. If she is in good shape, I wouldn't hesitate to pull her off the milk stand as soon as you're done milking her or to cut back on what you're feeding her if she's with her kids. As for the kids, it really depends on their growth too. When we were new, we didn't feed our kids grain at all, and they grew up nice and healthy and were big enough to freshen as yearlings. But then we had a drought and corn prices skyrocketed, which meant no one wanted to grow hay, so the hay we could find was horrible. It is really unlikely that you will wind up with fat kids. In my experience, if they get "too much" to eat, they just grow that much faster rather than getting overweight. Typically I quit feeding kids grain around six months because they've done the majority of their really rapid growth at that point and are within two or three inches as tall as the adults. Last year we had a buck that was huge as a 2-month-old, but as a yearling, he's about the same size as the rest of the boys his age. His mama is our top milker though and peaked at 6 pounds a day, so he was getting at least a quart a day, which is a lot.

Replies

Hannah March 29, 2012 at 3:08pm

Marble seems fine. She's definitely not as skinny as when we got her, but she doesn't feel fat at all.

I suppose she just takes a little longer to eat now that she's getting fuller on pasture all day. Yesterday she actually walked away from her grain without finishing it, so we cut it back today.

Ok. So the babies will just grow faster then.

Thanks!
Deborah Niemann-Boehle March 28, 2012 at 8:02pm

The amount of time it takes a doe to finish her grain really is not an indication of how much they need. I have some that practically inhale it that are overweight and some skinny ones that take forever to eat, so I just sit next to the milk stand waiting for them to finish after I'm done milking them. Body condition is really your best indicator. If she is in good shape, I wouldn't hesitate to pull her off the milk stand as soon as you're done milking her or to cut back on what you're feeding her if she's with her kids. As for the kids, it really depends on their growth too. When we were new, we didn't feed our kids grain at all, and they grew up nice and healthy and were big enough to freshen as yearlings. But then we had a drought and corn prices skyrocketed, which meant no one wanted to grow hay, so the hay we could find was horrible. It is really unlikely that you will wind up with fat kids. In my experience, if they get "too much" to eat, they just grow that much faster rather than getting overweight. Typically I quit feeding kids grain around six months because they've done the majority of their really rapid growth at that point and are within two or three inches as tall as the adults. Last year we had a buck that was huge as a 2-month-old, but as a yearling, he's about the same size as the rest of the boys his age. His mama is our top milker though and peaked at 6 pounds a day, so he was getting at least a quart a day, which is a lot.

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