Adult meat goats must not be fed more than 1% of their body weight in grain. That is, the weight of grain fed must not be more than 1% of the goat's body weight. If the goat weighs 30kg, don't feed more than 0.3kg grain (i.e. 1/100 x 30kg = 0.3kg or 300g). This is
necessary so as to avoid a metabolic disease called acidiosis. For lactating does, grain shud not exceed 1.5% of her bodyweight.
If you feed grains to your goats place a bowl of baking soda. They will occasionally lick it whenever their stomach acidity increase.
In this post I'll be sharing some very important facts about goat health. I got them when I was doing some goat research as I'm planning to start a goat farm.
1. Offer kids feed containing coccidiostat from 2-6 weeks of age. Also offer it when they are weaned.
Examples of coccidiostat and their dosage (mg/kg body weight) in braclet include:
amprolium (50 mg/kg body weight . For 5 days)
monensin (0.75g per 44kg body weight or 15g/ton feed. This is fairly toxic. Should be fed throughout feeding period)
Sulfa drugs (include dimidine, guanidine, methazine, quinoxalin,) Reduce dose by half on subsequent days and treat for 3-5 days.
Lasalocid (20-90g/ton feed)
Decoquinate (0.5mg/kg feed for 28 days. No withdrawal period needed before animal is slaughtered)
Urea molasses block is a good suplement for cattle, especially those that are fed low quality forage like rice straw, grass hay, corn stover and other crop residues. It helps make the low quality forage more digestible and the animal gain more weight and produce more milk.The block is rich in protein (from urea), energy (from molasses, grain meals etc) and minerals (from mineral premix).
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There are different ways to produce urea-molasses blocks. Here is one:
Molases: 30%
Rice bran: 20%
Urea: 4%
Cassava meal: 23%
Soybeans meal: 10%
Bone meal: 5%
Mineral premix: 3%
Salt: 5%
Bentonite: 5%
PKC contains copper at levels toxic to sheep. But for cattle, it is a good supplement and fattening feed. Up to 80% PkC is used in growing cattle feed in Malaysia. For dairy cows, up to 50% can be used. For sheep, limit it to 30%.
Here is a feed formulae for cattle that can be fed in addition to grass:
Poultry litter: 65%
Citrus meal: 25%
Molasses: 9%
Minerals-vitamins premix: 1%)
Just like in poultry, knowing how much a cow will consume per day is important in planning feeding. Cows will eat more if the forage quality is high and vice versa. Below is the info:
1. Low Quality Forage: Examples include mature grass, crop residues etc. Intake will be about 1.5% of the cow's body weight.
2. Average-to-Good Quality Forage: Includes leafy grass with few seed heads. Intake is about 2.5% of body weight.
3. High Quality Forage: include young, leafy grass, legumes. Intake will be about 3% of body weight.
Beef cattle can be fed a diet containing 70% grass and 30% legume. If crude protein intake is ok in forage-based feed, most other essential nutrients will be ok. But some minerals, especially phosphorus may be needed.
Napier grass and sweet potato forage can give as much as 0.5kg weight gain per day in heifers.
Green leaf desmodium and poor quality Pennisetum purpureum (16 weeks regrowth and 6.4% crude protein base on dry matter) gave 0.638kg daily weight gainto Heifers in Kenya. The desmodium was fed at 20% of dry matter intake and the grass was made available free choice.
Beef cattle can be fed a diet containing 70% grass and 30% legume. If crude protein intake is ok in forage-based feed, most other essential nutrients will be ok. But some minerals, especially phosphorus may be needed.
Napier grass and sweet potato forage can give as much as 0.5kg weight gain per day in heifers.
Green leaf desmodium and poor quality Pennisetum purpureum (16 weeks regrowth and 6.4% crude protein base on dry matter) gave 0.638kg daily weight gainto Heifers in Kenya. The desmodium was fed at 20% of dry matter intake and the grass was made available free choice.
Beef cattle can be fed a diet containing 70% grass and 30% legume. If crude protein intake is ok in forage-based feed, most other essential nutrients will be ok. But some minerals, especially phosphorus may be needed.
Napier grass and sweet potato forage can give as much as 0.5kg weight gain per day in heifers.
Green leaf desmodium and poor quality Pennisetum purpureum (16 weeks regrowth and 6.4% crude protein base on dry matter) gave 0.638kg daily weight gainto Heifers in Kenya. The desmodium was fed at 20% of dry matter intake and the grass was made available free choice.
Urea is a very cheap form of protein for ruminants. It is a form of protein called non-protein nitrogen (NPN) because it is not like the proteins found in meat, soybeans meal, fish meal etc. But mricrobes in ruminants' belly can use it as protein and multiply. When they die, the animal will use them as a source of protein.
Urea can do wonders in terms of promoting growth or milk yield. But too much can lead to disastrous effect. For milking cows, give a maximum of 220g per cow per day. But 110 to 150g per cow per day is more common. Mix it in the concentrate feed to achieve 1 to 2% urea in the total grain ration or 2.8 to 5.6% crude protein from NPN in total grain ration.
Urea contains about 262 to 287% crude protein.
Don't feed urea together with raw soybeans hull because an enzyme in the hull will break down urea to ammonia, causing poor palatability (poor feed intake). Also, don't feed it to calves less than 3 months old.
Aspilia africana is a weed that can be found in nigeria and other countries. It is good for rabbits. It can increase their milk production and growth. Fresh one will give higher milk yield and growth than wilted one.
In this experiment, the diets used were:
Centrosema pubescens: 200g or
Sweet potato leaves: 200g or
Panicum maxima: 100g or
Aspilia africana: 500g
The rabbits were also fed a concentrate feed that contains:
Maize offal: 45%
Palm kernel cake: 30%
Soybean meal: 20%
Blood meal: 2%
Bone meal: 2%
Vitamins-minerals premix: 0.25%
Salt: 0.25%
250g of the premix contains vit A: 1500IU, vit D: 300IU, Vit E: 3 IU, vit k: 0.25g, Thiamine: 0.2mg, Riboflavin: 0.6mg, Pantothenic acid: 1mg, Pyridoxine: 0.4999mg, Niacin:4mg, vit B2: 0.002mg, Folic acid: 0.1mg, Biotin: 0.008mg, Choline: 0.05g, Antioxidant: 0.012g, Manganese: 0.0096g, Zinc: 0.006g, Copper: 0.0006g, Iodine: 0.00014g, Selenium: 0.024mg, Cobalt: 0.004mg
Nutritionally, cassava leaves is as good as alfalfal and Aspilia africana. Fresh cassava foliage (leaves and stems) and cassava whole plant meal (dry roots, leaves and stems that has been grinded) can be included at up to 45% in weaned rabbit diet to replace maize and this had no adverse effect on performance or apparent nutrient digestibility.
PKC has a low starch to fiber ratio and this is good for rabbits as it may decrease mortality. It can be included at 20-30% in well-formulated rabbit feeds. Higher levels may lower performance. It can replace up to 50% of the protein supplied by soybean meal and 37.5% of that supplied by groundnut cake.
PKC is low in lysine and sulfur amino acides, supplying only58% and 80% respectively of the recommended levels.
Carrot tops can replace 75% of soybean meal in growing rabbits diets, resulting in increase nutrient digestibility, live weight gain and feed conversion efficiency. Higher inclusion than 75% is bad.
This growth rate is quite poor as it will take a rabbit about 66 days to gain 1kg in weight. But I think it is still manageable as a kind of maintanance diet or so. You should also consider the value of rabbits manure and urine. The urine is a good foliar spray to crops.
Here is the fmla:
Millet mash residure: 78%
Moringa leaf meal: 20%
Di calcium phosphate: 1%
Salt: 0.5%
Vitamin-mineral premix: 0.5%
Forages, that is, legumes and grasses, can supply a major part of crude protein and fiber for rabbits. But they can't supply a major part of energy. So supplementing forages with energy sources like wheat offal and rice bran is good. High-starch feedstuffs like maize, roots, fruits should be fed in small quantities as too much is unhealthy for rabbits.
Forages can also be supplemented by protein sources like soybeans meal, groundnut cake, palm kernel cake etc.
Cassava contains a toxin called cyanide. This toxin, when consumed up to a certain quantity can cause bad health effect on rabbits or even death. You can reduce the toxic effect by adding 5% palm oil to cassava peel.
Leucaena is a legume tree that is highly nutricious for rabbits. But it contains a toxin called mimosine. Symptoms of this toxin in rabbits include poor growth, hair loss, dermatitis etc. The toxin is at its highest level in young leaves (4.5% content). By 10 weeks old, it has reduced to 2% while crude protein decrease from 31 to 14%. There is no change in fiber, tanin or phenolic concentration. The best way to feed this highly nutricious leaves without endangering rabbits' health is by mixing it with other forages so that they won't consume too much and get affected.
If you're faced between these 2 grasses, choose elephant grass! Guinea grass is very poorly digested by rabbits. Energy digestibility is 10.7% for guinea grass and 45.2% for elephant grass. Protein digestibility is 13% for guinea and 64.7% for elephant grass. So it is wort searching for and using elephant grass. Guinea grass seem to be more common but you can still find and plant elephant grass. I did just that for my goat and the yield was very good. I will write about planting elephant grass when I have the chance.
