Introduction
Proper diet and nutrition are crucial for maintaining the health, productivity, and reproductive success of Boer goats. Understanding their specific dietary needs, from kids to breeding does and bucks, is essential for any successful goat farming operation. This article provides a comprehensive guide to Boer goat diet and nutrition, covering various aspects such as essential nutrients, feeding strategies, and potential health problems related to improper feeding.
Essential Components of a Boer Goat Diet
Roughage: The Core of the Diet
The foundation of a Boer goat's diet is roughage, which includes plants like high-quality hay, long grass, or alfalfa. Goats are ruminant animals with a specialized organ called a rumen, which allows them to break down cellulose, better known as fiber. Long, fibrous food is essential for efficient rumen digestion. Many types of roughage are packed not only with carbohydrates but also protein and minerals. Goats are browsing, not grazing, animals - they prefer not to eat anything that's been on the floor.
Concentrates: Supplementing the Diet
Concentrates, also known as ‘goat mixes,’ are used to supplement the diet of growing or milking goats or when additional forage is in short supply. These mixes include additional vitamins and minerals. However, concentrates should be given in small amounts to avoid health problems.
Water: The Most Important Nutrient
Water is the most important nutrient for all types of animals, goats included. Goats require about one-half to a full gallon of clean, fresh drinking water each day, but in hot temperatures, they’ll require more. Lactating does need constant access to fresh water. Remember to clean and refill their drinkers or bowls regularly and remove ice during the winter (but don’t use chemicals to do this). They often prefer water that’s a little warm or at least has had the chill taken off.
Nutritional Needs at Different Life Stages
Kids
In the first stage of life, newborns can get by on milk alone for a while, although you should consider creep feeding as well. If you have plentiful pastures for them to graze on as desired, that should be enough. If not, try a starter/grower feed.
Read also: Feeding Pygmy Goats
Breeding Does
It’s important that breeding does be at an optimal weight, indicated by a body condition score of 3 (BCS 3). If your does are underweight, try flushing them by giving them more calories and energy. Does don’t need a lot of food during the first two trimesters of pregnancy. In the third trimester-the final 50 days of pregnancy-they do need a lot of nutrition. In the third trimester a doe can’t actually eat a higher quantity of food because the growing fetus is compressing the rumen. Lactating nannies also require more energy. Once the kids are weaned, the mother will enter what’s called the “dry period,” during which their nutritional needs drop and the body begins to fill back out.
Breeding Bucks
Breeding bucks require particular care to ensure they are in peak condition for breeding season. Bucks should have a healthy body condition score going into breeding season, ideally around a 3 out of 5. Bucks require a moderate protein level (12-14%) in their diet to support muscle maintenance and energy. High-quality hay, forage, and a small amount of grain can provide this balance. Just like does, bucks benefit from a mineral mix containing selenium, zinc, and copper, which support sperm production and reproductive health. In the weeks leading up to breeding season, increase the energy intake slightly to give bucks the stamina they’ll need. This can include small amounts of high-energy grains or feeds.
Feeding Strategies for Boer Goat Breeding
Body Condition Scoring
Before breeding, assess each doe’s body condition score. Energy-dense feeds, like high-quality hay and forage, help maintain a healthy BCS. Avoid overfeeding grains, which can lead to weight gain and affect fertility.
Minerals and Vitamins
Adequate levels of minerals, particularly selenium, copper, and zinc, support reproductive health. A free-choice mineral mix specifically formulated for goats is an excellent way to provide essential trace minerals.
Pregnancy and Lactation
During the first trimester, avoid significant changes to the diet. In the last trimester, as the kids grow rapidly, protein needs increase. Calcium and phosphorus are crucial for fetal bone development and milk production. Begin to introduce additional energy sources, like a controlled amount of grain, to prepare the doe’s body for lactation. Lactating does benefit from a higher protein diet (16-18%) to support milk production. A high-energy, high-fiber diet is essential.
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
Key Nutrients for Boer Goats
Protein, Energy, and Fiber
Protein, energy, and fiber are essential for Boer goats. The goat's overall total diet should be 16% protein. Forage/browse and grasses are the nutritional foundation, along with loose minerals that range from 1800 to 2500 ppm of copper. If your forage/browse/grasses test out at 8%, then you need to add quality hay and pelleted goat feed to achieve an overall 16% protein. Shortfalls can be made up with more sacked feed and/or alfalfa (legume) hay. Alfalfa does NOT cause urinary calculi. Too much phosphorus in relation to calcium is the problem. Calcium to phosphorus ratios in goat feed should be at least 2-1/2 to 1. A higher ratio of 3:1 or even 5:1 may be acceptable under some conditions.
Carbohydrates
Cellulose, better known as fiber, is an essential carbohydrate for goats. Just like people, goats can’t break down fiber themselves. However, goats are ruminant animals, with a special organ known as a rumen. Non-Fibrous Carbohydrates are goat favorites. A high NFC measurement is good. Simple sugars contained in NFC's are easy to digest and provide quick ENERGY.
Fats
Fats provide energy, too, at more than twice the rate carbohydrates do.
Minerals
Goats have specific mineral needs that directly impact their health, especially in reproduction. A high-quality, goat-specific mineral mix offered free-choice ensures that your herd receives a steady supply of essential nutrients. Minerals like copper, selenium, and zinc are crucial for reproductive success, while vitamins A and E support immunity and fetal development. Loose minerals should have at least a 2:1 calcium to phosphorus ratio and pelleted 16% protein feed as needed.
Potential Health Problems Related to Improper Feeding
Goats that get too little or too much nutrients can develop all sorts of problems.
Read also: Walnut Keto Guide
Acidosis
Too much starch in a goat’s diet can cause acidosis. This condition has to do with bacteria in the rumen, which convert the starch into lactic acid. Goats often get acidosis, refrain from eating for a day or two, and clear the problem themselves.
Enterotoxemia
Feeding your goats too much concentrates too quickly can cause enterotoxemia. Be on the lookout for this condition, especially during flushing. Diarrhea is the most common symptom of enterotoxemia, but death typically results rapidly. The main way to prevent this condition is to moderate how much concentrates you give your goats.
Bloat
Bloat-as its name implies-is caused by overeating. Specifically, it’s caused by too much grain or protein in a goat’s diet. This condition can kill the animals in as little as 60 minutes. Legumes, which are high in protein, are often another culprit. Another strategy is to feed goats roughage first so that they aren’t too hungry when sent out to graze. Additionally, don’t send them out to pasture when dew is still on the ground or too soon after it has rained.
Grass Tetany
Grass tetany can occur when goats have low levels of magnesium, which is typically caused by goats having too much potassium in their diet. To avoid grass tetany, make sure your herd is not grazing for too long.
Ketosis
Ketosis can occur during a nanny goat’s third trimester. Remember how we mentioned fetuses quadruple in size at this time? If this happens, the body begins turning to fat stores for energy. Metabolizing fat needs sugar, but the doe may not have enough to keep up.
Urinary Calculi
If there’s more calcium than phosphorus in a goat’s diet, it can combine with magnesium to form stones-calculi-in the bladder. These can cause blockages in the urethra, potentially leading to death. Urinary Calculi is mis-named and can result from wethering young males too soon, drinking brackish water, and overfeeding grain with too much phosphorus in relation to calcium.
White Muscle Disease
Not enough selenium in a goat’s diet can lead to white muscle disease. Kids are the usual victims of this condition. To treat, inject kids with vitamin E and selenium.
Goat Polio (Polioencephalomalacia)
This mouthful of a term simply refers to “goat polio,” which occurs when the production of thiamine (vitamin B1) in the rumen is blocked, as can often happen with anti-coccidiosis medications. Goat polio damages the brain. Thiamine injections can reverse the problem, but only if it’s caught early enough.
Nitrate Poisoning
Nitrogen fertilizer, along with a lack of rain, can cause problems with grasses in your field. As grasses grow, they suck up the nitrogen from the soil, and too little water means it turns into nitrates. If your goats then eat these plants, it can result in nitrate poisoning which leads to insufficient oxygen flow and death.
Prussic Acid Poisoning
If goats eat leaves or branches from cherry, plum, or peach trees (any member of the Prunus family), they can develop prussic acid poisoning. Prussic acid in these plants turns into hydrogen cyanide when damaged-for example, if they’re covered in frost. The same goes for sorghum, sudangrass, and johnsongrass.
Poisonous Plants
Goats love eating wild plants and hedgerow cuttings. Unfortunately, many plants - including common garden plants - are poisonous to them and could even kill them. The golden rule is ‘when in doubt, don’t feed’. Check any pasture to make sure the plants aren’t growing there. Plants to avoid include: alder, yew, rhododendron, laurel, privet, laburnum, honeysuckle, walnut, evergreen shrubs, green stuff from flowers including delphiniums, hellebores or any bulbous plants such as tulips and daffodils, hemlock, buttercup, bryony, ‘dog’s mercury’, ragwort, mayweed, foxglove, celandine, the nightshade plants, and ‘old man’s beard’.
Practical Feeding Tips
Regular Feeding Routine
Goats like a regular and predictable feeding routine.
Hayracks
You can use hayracks with a lid, positioned at a height where the goats can’t foul the hay.
Gradual Diet Changes
Goats have sensitive digestive systems, and sudden changes in diet can lead to issues like bloating or acidosis. Whenever introducing a new feed or increasing grain amounts, do so gradually over a week to allow their rumens to adjust.
Monitor Body Condition
Body condition is a reliable indicator of health and reproductive readiness. Bucks should enter breeding season at a moderate body condition, and does should maintain a BCS of around 2.5 to 3. Too thin, and they may lack the energy reserves for pregnancy; too heavy, and fertility may decline.
Observe Individual Needs
Pay close attention to each goat during critical periods, such as the breeding season, late pregnancy, and lactation. If a doe appears to be losing weight or seems less energetic, she may need additional calories, whether in the form of high-quality hay or a small amount of grain. Similarly, bucks may need extra energy sources during breeding season to sustain their activity levels.
Pasture Management
Pastures contain annuals, perennials, and grasses. Because annuals bloom in spring, don't last long, and re-seed slowly, they are easy to quickly over-graze. Perennials grow fast in the spring then growth slows quickly, resulting in over-grazing. Young, succulent, highly digestible grasses last longer and re-grow quickly but can also be over-grazed. Forage/browse regenerates much more slowly than grasses and should be eaten to no less than half their original height. The previous paragraph makes it clear that you need lots of acreage over which goats can roam to raise healthy goats. Pasture raising puts goats eating at ground level, which isn't good, and feedlotting goats does not work. They can't take the stress caused by crowding and goats can't overcome the increasingly concentrated wormload existing in feedlots.
Forage and Hay Quality
Quality forage/browse and hay are required. Forage/browse and grasses that are high in rough fiber (stemmy) result in worn teeth and a poorly fed goat.
Pasture Quality
Pasture quality differs from morning to night. Hay producers have learned that hay cut in the morning is higher quality than hay cut in the afternoon. Never tell a hay seller that you are buying hay for goats. They will sell you junk hay because they believe goats will eat anything.
Pasture Rotation
Pasture rotation helps but not on small 5- or 10-acre properties.
Hay and Forage Testing
Hay and forage testing is available in many places, but I use Dairy One Labs in New York. Pasture analysis of multiple plants costs more. Ask for pricing.
Understanding Goat Digestion
Goats are extremely selective eaters and have a very fast (11 hour) rumen passage rate. Cattle take two to three days to digest their food. What goes into the goat must be easily digested because the animal has a very short time to extract nutrients from what it eats. Much of the plant material in pastures has too much lignin (indigestible cellulose) for a goat to be able to extract nutrients.
Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) is a measure of plant digestibility. The lower the number, the better. Plant materials including grasses with an ADF of 39 and higher have too much lignin (indigestible cellulose) for goats to eat. The taller the grass, the bigger the stem, creating fibrous material that goats cannot digest. Shred pastures to a height that allows sunlight to dry out the ground and also stimulate regrowth to increase the ratio of leaf to stem.
Mineral Requirements in Detail
Mineral requirements for body maintenance and productive functions in goats can be described with factorial models. Maintenance needs account for the largest proportion of each mineral’s daily requirement and are a function of body weight and dry matter intake. Minerals needed for growth are those deposited in developing tissue or bone. Minerals required during pregnancy are those lost to the developing conceptus (ie, uterus, placenta, and fetuses). Lactational mineral requirements are a function of the minerals lost in milk.
Feeding goats to meet their mineral needs maximizes production, reproduction, and immune system function. Mineral nutrition in goats, as in other ruminants, is complicated by mineral-to-mineral interactions, as well as by the rumen environment's impact on dietary mineral bioavailability.
Macromineral Requirements
Macrominerals are dietary elements required in grams or ounces per day. They serve as components of skeletal structure, electrolytes involved in acid-base balance, and elements in membrane ion gradients, nerve conduction, muscle contraction, and high-energy bonds, among other functions. Key macrominerals for goat nutrition include calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, chloride, potassium, and sulfur.
Calcium requirements in Angora or meat goats are generally met under grazing conditions; however, in high-producing dairy goats, concentrations should be checked, because calcium deficiency can lead to decreased milk production. Goats in late pregnancy need more calcium to support fetal bone development and prevent gestational hypocalcemia. Some high-producing dairy does may also develop postparturient hypocalcemia if not fed adequate calcium. In browsing or grain-fed goats, adding a calcium supplement (eg, dicalcium phosphate, limestone) to feed or to a salt or trace mineral-salt mixture is usually sufficient. Forage legumes (eg, clover, alfalfa, kudzu, bird's-foot trefoil) are also good sources of calcium. The dietary calcium requirements for goats are 0.18% (1.8 g/kg) dry matter for maintenance and 0.65% (6.5 g/kg) dry matter for lactation.
Phosphorus is often the most limited mineral in grazing animals, as grasses are low in phosphorus. Soil fertilization can increase the phosphorus content of plants, and excess fertilization can cause phosphorus content to potentially exceed the requirements of animals. Soil pH is an important determinant of plants' calcium and phosphorus content, and neutral soils take up these minerals more efficiently. If acidic soils are not treated with limestone to neutralize soil pH, forages may become deficient in calcium and high in phosphorus, potentially leading to nutritional diseases in goats that consume them. Phosphorus deficiency results in slowed growth, unthriftiness, and occasionally a depraved appetite (eg, pica). Goats can maintain milk production on phosphorus-deficient diets for several weeks by using phosphorus from body reserves; however, with prolonged phosphorus deficiency, milk production will decline dramatically. A dietary calcium:phosphorus ratio between 1.5:1 and 2:1 is recommended, because goats are predisposed to urinary calculi.
Feeding Show Goats
Providing proper nutrition to your goat kid is important for that kid to reach its full potential at the market goat show. Making sure that the goat receives appropriate protein, energy, and minerals allows the goat to not only grow to reach market weight, but also ensures that the goat develops muscle and reaches an appropriate fat cover for show day.
Start by feeding a small amount of grain, ¼ -½ lb. per feeding two times per day, and over a week to ten days gradually increase the amount until the kid consumes all the grain in 10-15 minutes. Commercial concentrate feeds often include two additives to maintain goat health. The first additive is a coccidiostat that prevents coccidiosis, an internal parasite that causes diarrhea. If severe, coccidiosis can result in death. The feed label on commercial feeds intended to control coccidiosis will indicate that the feed is medicated with either Rumensin or Deccox. The second additive is ammonium chloride, which is fed to prevent urinary calculi, which blocks the urethra in show wethers.
Most show animals are fed hay to provide the roughage portion of the diet. Goats should receive a handful of hay each feeding to keep the protozoa in the rumen functioning well for digestion. The goal with feeding hay is to prevent the rumen from becoming too acidic. This causes an issue called acidosis, which results in the animal eating less than desired.
Always provide clean and fresh water. Be sure to scrub water buckets on a regular basis to encourage water consumption. Poor-quality water or not enough water can affect feed intake.
Commercial feeds are formulated to meet the vitamin and mineral requirements of animals when fed as directed. Therefore, you do not need to provide additional vitamins and minerals if you are feeding according to the label. However, some custom grain mixes do not include minerals. Market goats should be consuming 2.5%-3.0% of their body weight daily in dry matter. Dry matter is the amount of feed the animal should consume without any water in it. All feeds have a portion of their weight as water.