I am wondering how much grain people are giving their does when they put them on the stanchion to milk. Hubby tends to give just 1 cup, but when she is out of grain she starts dancing and gets restless and occasionally kicks the milk pail over. I give 2 cups of grain and I put some alfalfa under it to keep her busy. It makes milking easier, but hubby is concerned she is a bit on the overweight side. This is true, she has always loved to eat and is chubbier than our other doe.
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Thanks for the tip on Alfalfa pellets, we'll try that! We make our own feed so I can't check the bag for suggested amounts. We use the feed recipe posted on the Sandy Lane Dairy Goats web site:
www.sandylanedairygoats.com/feedrecipe.htm
We buy bulk organic ingredients through Azure Standard and make up 50pound batches of the Sandy Lane recipe. The goats love it! Honey loves it a little too much...
See what your bag of grain says. Purina Goat Chow says 1 pound of grain per 3 pounds of milk plus the regular maintenance ration. Some goat feeds are more alfalfa and roughage based and say free choice. I basically let them eat as much as they can while I'm milking, and I mix it with alfalfa pellets because I'm a pretty slow milker. My daughter gives them straight grain, but she milks so fast that some of them will start to lose weight if she milks often. If your doe is really overweight, I'd add more alfalfa pellets to the mix so that she has something to eat while being milked. It's no fun to have an angry goat on the milk stand.