I do, however, caution you that certain unwanted weeds pulled from your flower beds and gardens may be toxic to goats, especially if they are offered in wilted format. Also be aware that certain plants — sudan, Johnson grass and hybrid sorghum Hays — tend to become toxic in the fall growing season due to high prussic acid and high ni- trogen content; careful as you go.


In closing, I concede that the nutrient requirements of goats are more accurately described than many of their owners can apply in practical circumstances, but don’t worry, make your calculations for guidance only.


Then do some trial-and-error feeding of your feedstuffs and ob- serve the results, making adjustments if/as necessary. If your lactating does have a wide range of body weights or if some are sucking sin- gles, twins,or triplets, your real real choices would be: 1. To separate them into individual management groups and feed according to their need, or 2. To strike an average DFI for all groups (and thus underfeed or overfeed some, or, 3. To offer all of the goats all they can eat all the time (in which case, some will surely fatten — not a good thing.


(Dr. Frank Pinkerton, PhD, is a retired extension goat specialist


living in San Marcos, Texas. He can be contacted at 512-392-4123 or by e-mail at akathegoatman@icloud.com. His book, A Compila- tion of the Wit and Wisdom of the Goat Man, is available for purchase at www.goatrancher.com.)


Table 1 — Calculating rations for winter feeding


January 2021 | Goat Rancher


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