Goats: How much feed will a goat need per day

[Fnwarui]

Dry matter means the quantity of feed when all the water have been driven off. Fresh grass contains about 25% dry matter (DM). This means that a 100kg of such grass will contain 25kg solid and 75kg  water. So if you have a 20kg goat that needs a daily feed intake of 4% of its body weight in DM, you'll need to feed it ...... Kg of grass per day?


Let's calm down a bit. Goats don't need only grass to meet their nutrient requirement. They need concentrates too. So let's say you're feeding them 80% grass and 20% concentrate.

So the total DM requirement of the goat is 4/100 x 20kg = 0.8kg DM. Now 80% of this value should be grass and 20% concentrate. So:

80/100 x 0.8kg = 0.64kg grass DM.
Concentrate needed is then 0.8kg-0.64kg = 0.16kg concentrate DM.

Let's focus on our grass:
we know that our fresh grass contains only 25%DM and we need enough fresh grass to supply 0.64kg DM. Here is how you do the calculation:

100kg fresh grass contains 25kg DM
How many kg of fresh grass will contain 0.64kg DM? It will be less, so more should divide:

0.64/25 x 100 = 2.56kg of fresh grass is needed.

Remember that we need 0.16kg DM of concentrate feed. It is important to know the DM content of your concentrate. Let's assume 90%. So:

100kg concentrate contains 90kg solid.
How many kg of concentrate will contain 0.16kg DM? It will be less, so more will divide.

0.16/90 x 100 = 0.21kg concentrate.

Finally, our 20kg goat needs 2.56kg of fresh grass and 0.21kg of concentrate every day.

 Nice read. 

Kindly advice on how I can make total mix ratio (Trm) for goats using hay, nappier grass, molaplus and grinded corn and comb mix.

Please also advice on the amount of feed in kg that each goat should be fed.