Thread by @ZazoBoergoats

Continuing with goat nutrition… this thread is more to provide some practical nuggets around the topic having laid the foundation earlier…

Goats are predominantly browsers rather than grazers… although they can graze head down in pastures like sheep, if given the choice, they often prefer to reach for the leaves of trees or shrubs – heads up!. Goats that browse are happier and healthier goats!

As mentioned earlier, the primary limiting nutrient in summer is phosphorus. We generally supplement the goats on veld feeding with phosphate blocks during the summer months and have seen very positive results from a production perspective. They feed on the blocks free choice.

We also generally provide nutrition for our goats based on their stage of “production”. The table below is a guideline of what we provide for the different production stages. Providing nutrition on this basis has resulted in higher productivity for our operation.

We grow yellow maize and soya beans in summer to provide the basis for our winter supplement rations. We roast the soya beans which destroys components in the bean that reduce digestibility of the protein in the bean.

We also plant oats during the winter season under irrigation and this provides us with some decent quality hay in late September and October just before the rains. Planting oats fixes nitrogen in the soil which is an added benefit for us.

Playing around with feed formulations is exciting if you have a good knowledge of animal nutrition requirements. However it is something that can result in production losses if not done properly so it is advisable to use the services of an animal nutritionist to assist.

One of my go to to rations during the dry season is per the image below. My goats love this and do very well on it. The end product looks more like the image in picture 2. Some of the items are only available in South Africa though.

Goat kids can start nibbling on complete feeds from when they are a week to two weeks old. We generally provide them a creep feed during this period. The formulation above can act as a creep feed from 2 weeks to 6 months old. This is the most critical period for kids development.

As mentioned in another post, provision of clean drinking water is extremely important to ensure goats get the best out of what you feed them. Another important instrument is a scale to weigh both the goats and the feed!

Nutrition development also requires that we use our farms as our laboratories. I have started experimenting with some rations made from locally available pods as a source of protein in Zim. Important if one goes down this route is to send samples to the lab.

I hope you will find the information I have shared very useful on your farms. Have a blessed and productive day further!