Every farmer want’s to know What Do Goats Eat. Usually, people think goats can easy the same as humans, so they feed them all items, which is not right and unhealthy for goats. If we separate the goat feed category, then we have only three types of feeds for goats.
What Do Goats Eat
- Non-Concentrated Feed
- Concentrated Feed
- Minerals Feed
These three are the primary division of goat fodder, which anyone can differentiate easily. Each of these categories subdivided into individual or group of the component, which gives proper nutrition to a goat.
Non-Concentrated Feed
This Feed can be dry or wet based on availability or weather season. Non-Concentrated Feed has many individual fodders that are enough to consume one at a time for goats. All of these Non-Concentrated fodders may not be available at the same time, so you can see availability and start using them as your primary fodder. Usually, farmers used Non-Concentrated Feed as the primary source of goat survival. In the ASIA region, farmers used to grow these fodder on their lands as crops and let goats graze over them daily. This practice is widespread in the Punjab sector of Indo Pak. An estimated 1 Acre of fodder is enough for 100 goats for the whole year.
- Hay
- Barley Fodder
- Corn Fodder
- Silage
- Napier
- Para
- Guinea
- Cenchrus ciliaris
- Berseem
- Lucerne
- Cowpea
Concentrated Feed
These feeds are also called dry Feed because they are either mixture of multiple components or grains or individual dry components. Concentrated Feed has a vast collection for goats. You cannot feed some of the individual’s feeds as a secondary source. Only a few ingredients that you can individually feed to your goats do not harm the goat immunity system.
Note: Concentrated Feed is to make your goat healthy and put the quick gain in weight.
Now it’s your own choice to pick components and mixed them to prepare your own formulated Concentrated Feed for your goats. Each element from the below list is highly nutritious for goats in the secondary Feed.
Such as:
Barley, Wheat bran, Rice bran, Rice polish, Oil Cake, and Maize are suitable to feed pregnant or milking goats as a mixture.
- Barley (Can feed separately)
- Wheat bran (Can feed separately)
- Rice bran
- Rice polish
- Maize (Can feed separately)
- Soybean (Can feed separately)
- Pulses
- Gram (Can feed separately)
- Sesame
- Oil Cake
- Mustard Seeds
Minerals Feed
These feeds are taken as natural medicines for goats, like salt. Some non-concentrated feed already has natural salt in them, but some of them have natural sugar, so to complete the nutrition farmers use to add salt rocks in fodder so goat can lick them as they required. Just place big salt rocks, and goat can sense natural how much they need salt with food.
There are other minerals that are also given to goats based on veterinary doctor prescriptions, like vitamins A, B, C, D & E based on goat conditions.
Farmers use to place limestone and calcium blocks on farms to goat can get their required minerals from these blocks. Some companies have introduced complete mineral blocks included all the essential things which you can buy from veterinary medical stores.
