What Do Dairy Goats Eat?

Goats have been a common feature on farms for centuries. Though goats are sometimes used for their meat or wool, the most common use for goats is for their milk. Goats milk can be used to make cheese and ice cream. Many soaps and lotions are made from goat's milk as well. In many parts of the world, goat's milk is drunk more frequently than cow's milk. To get quality milk, a healthy diet is absolutely crucial. There are many unique factors in a dairy goat's diet that should be explored to ensure a safe and nourishing production of milk.

  1. Function

    • Like cattle and sheep, goats are ruminants, meaning that they have four stomachs. These stomachs work like fermentation vats, using bacteria to break down the food. A goat's diet must have an ample supply of fiber and roughage in order for the stomachs to work properly. Changing a goat's diet too suddenly will disrupt the balance of bacteria and can be very dangerous. A healthy diet for a goat will be very stable with few dramatic variations from day to day.

    Types

    • Goats in the wild will browse for a variety of food. They eat flowers, shrubs, grass, and tree bark. Goats even have a preference for the bark from pines, cedars, and maple. Saplings, poison ivy, herbs and weeds will all make for excellent browsing for a goat. Domestic goats will enjoy browsing for these plants as well, and the roughage is very important for their diet. Domestic goats will usually also have a combination of grain and hay in their diets. Alfalfa cubes, kitchen scraps and treats can be supplemental to their main diet.

    Features

    • Does who are being milked need a very specific diet. This includes ample grain and hay as well as browse, minerals and water. Yeast culture and a dietary supplement should also be added. Black oil sunflower seeds are a healthy addition to a dairy goat's diet, though some will enjoy these seeds more than others. A milking doe should have access to more food than other goats, as she will need the extra energy to continue producing milk.

    Considerations

    • Milk production can be very strenuous for a doe. Milk production is as much as 10 percent of a dairy goat's body weight each day. This requires her to eat anywhere from 5 to 7 percent of her body weight daily. This is significantly more than dairy cows, who will produce around 5 percent of their body weight and consume only 4 percent of their weight. Even a healthy doe may become very thin if she is being milked regularly.

    Warning

    • Goats have a reputation for eating almost anything. However, just because a goat will eat it does not mean that it should eat it. Practice care and caution when feeding goats, and trust your own judgment, not theirs. Some folklore suggests feeding cigarette butts to worm your goat, but the chemicals and additives in cigarettes make this a very unhealthy practice.