Notes ON NUTRITION

Dairy and meat goats have specific feed needs, and they're not the same.

- ALLI KELLEY

As with feeding cattle for milk and meat, the ideal goat diet depends on your farm management style and what feedstuff is available to you. In this article, we'll provide the general guidelines you can follow for feeding dairy and meat goats.

DAIRY GOATS

Feeding dairy goats is very similar to feeding a dairy cow. Like a dairy cow, the dairy goat's diet changes as its stage of pregnancy and production changes.

About four weeks prior to kidding, the mother should be slowly transitioned to feeds that will be given after the birth. The body condition score should be about a 3 at this point.

The animal's diet should also start to contain a high-energy feed, such as grain, if none was being offered before. Slowly increasing the grain it consumes to about 1% of its body weight dry matter - will help prepare its body for the stress of lactation and minimize the possibility of mastitis and metabolic health problems. The exact amount your goat will need is going to depend upon age, health and number of kids it's expected to have.