Farm working Dogs in New Zealand. 10. Practical Feeding

By Dr Clive Dalton

Old  dogs need special care after many years of loyal service

 
 Balanced feeding

Dogs need a balanced diet, which has everything in it to meet their needs for maintenance and production.

What does a dog need for maintenance?

Table below has a mass of information on the energy and protein that a dog needs.  First, look at the layout. 

  Note these features:

·      There is information for three weights of dogs.

·      The maintenance needs per weight of dog are shown in kcal of energy and in grams of protein.  So a small dog (15kg) needs 1005kcal of energy and 72g of protein each day to sustain its body functions.

·      There is a range of diets in the left column and their energy and protein contents are shown beside them.

·      Look back in the column for each weight of dog and you can see how much of that diet to feed and how near that quantity comes to meet the maintenance needs.

For example: 450 g of meat will provide 900 kcal of energy and 81g of protein.  This is 105 kcals of energy too little, and 9g of protein too much.  It's "near enough" you could say.

What about 'production' (working)  needs?

Here you have to provide feed over and above maintenance.  See Table below which shows the number of times you multiply the maintenance feeds by to meet the dog’s nutritional needs.

Dogs in work

Light exercise                 1.5 x M

Medium exercise            2.0 x M

Heavy exercise            2.5 x M

Bitches

Late pregnancy            2.5 x M

Early lactation              3.0 x M

Pups

Up to 7 weeks                  2.0 x M

7-9 weeks                        3.0 x M

9 weeks onwards            decrease to adult levels

Calcium and phosphorus

The Calcium and Phosphorus daily needs for a dog are shown in table below.

The table shows when supplements are needed for that range of diets.  If you need to add Ca or P, how much do you provide - the answer is in table 4, using the most readily available sources of dicalcium phosphate or bonemeal, and calcium carbonate.

Minerals and vitamins

Look at table below to see which type of diet is likely to be short of minerals and vitamins.

Note that the all-meat diet is short of all those listed so has serious implications for health.   Note also that vitamins D and E are going to be short in all the diets.

The all-meat diet

So many farmers will tell you that an all-meat diet is ideal for a working dog and they'll back their opinion with a lifetime's experience of feeding meat.  They point out that dogs are carnivores so meat is their natural diet.

These opinions are flawed!  But there are hundreds of farmers who won't accept these basic facts and nutritionists are regularly criticised for their ignorance of real life on a farm.  Owners also argue that commercially available diets are too expensive and there are plenty of cull stock to eat up which have little market value.  Again, remember my first question of what is a dog worth to your business.

There are all sorts of problems with all-meat diets for working dogs, and they require substantial supplementation with minerals like calcium, phosphorus and iodine, as well as vitamins.  Dogs on these so-called all-meat diets are in fact supplementing them by scavenging.  They are eating dung, carrion and goodness knows what else.  They maybe look all right but are not being kept at peak fitness, which a balanced diet allows.  Skinny underweight dogs are unhealthy and are even more prone to parasite attack.

The second common error is thinking that adding milk will balance an all-meat diet.  This is not true either. 

Bones

Bones with a red tinge of meat on them provide very little nutrients.  Bones are good dental exercise - and that's about all.  They do contain some calcium and phosphorus but it's better to supply these important minerals in other more digestible forms if needed. 

How long was the meat frozen?

This is a concern on farms where there are many shepherds using meat out of the same freezer.   There are no problems if the meat is cut up, bagged and dated, but so often this doesn't happen and you don't know how long the meat has been frozen.  If you mark on plastic bags remember the ink may come off or be hard to read when iced over.  Tie-on labels are always readable.

The rule of holding meat at minus 10 degrees C for 7 days is a MINIMUM.   Please note well this point.   And it's important to make sure the meat is at minus 10 right at the centre.  As many old freezers are used for dog meat, they sometimes are not at peak efficiency.  If you have any concerns, get your Dog Control Officer to check the freezer.

Big bags of mince for example will take much longer than 7 days to get to minus 10 C in the middle so they are not treated properly.

The key is to have a system that rotates the meat, and that everyone involved in using the meat understands it.  If you buy low-grade carcasses from a meatworks, make sure they have been held at the correct temperature and for the correct time.  The same would apply to local abattoir meat.

All meat sold at licensed pet food shops must meet the requirements of the Hydatids Act, so you can buy there with confidence.

Thawing frozen meat

Imagine working hard all day and getting a frozen joint to chew at all night.   What a great reward from a grateful boss!   This happens to many dogs when things are busy and the planning breaks down.  Allow at least a day for meat to thaw out and in winter it may take 2-3 days.  So allow plenty of time for this.

And remember – the juices that flow from frozen meat contain important vitamins and minerals that the dog should have.  The chore of catching the juice and returning it to the meat just shows impractical all-meat feeding is.

Cooking sheep and goat meat for dogs  

Do NOT feed any fresh sheep or goat meats to dogs, to prevent the spread of sheep measles.  Cooked meat must be brought to the boil and then left for a minimum of 30 minutes, and probably more like an hour.  If there is still blood showing at the end of the cooking time, then boil it a little longer.

Cooking offal and sheep and goat meat

This is a messy time-consuming business, even when proper facilities with modern electric cookers and time switches are available.  Although the law allows the feeding of correctly cooked offal, you would be wise to forget the idea.  

With so many good dog feeds available these days, it’s unwise to feed cooked offal to dogs.   If you think that feeding cooked offal produces a cheap dog feed, then you should do your sums again.  The true costs and the risks make it a poor alternative feed for dogs.

The risks of inadequate cooking are high because cooking time can vary depending on many things.  As a general rule, 1.5 to 2 hours is needed.  If there is still blood showing at the end of cooking time, then the meat needs some more treatment.

Feeding other meats

Meat from cattle, horses, deer, rabbits, pigs and possums can be fed raw to dogs without risk of infection from sheep measles.  However, it would be unwise to feed raw possum in areas where there is a risk of Tb which dogs could pick up.

Other dietary problems

There are a few problems such as bad breath, anal gland infection and bad teeth which can all arise as a result of feeding.  Check them out with your veterinarian. 

Farm working Dogs in New Zealand. 9. Basic Nutrition

 

By Dr Clive Dalton 

There's a mountain of information available these days on the nutritional needs of dogs.  And yet, there are still far too many dogs that are not properly fed – not through intentional neglect but through ignorance. 

Unfortunately nutrition is not an easy subject, and you can easily get lost in the technical detail.    

The important point to remember is that your working dog is an athlete and deserves more than a leg of frozen mutton at the end of the day.

What a dog needs from its feed?

Carbohydrates

These are compounds made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen and provide the "energy" part of the diet.  They contain such things as sugars and starch.  The most complex carbohydrates are broken down in digestion and end up as sugars before final absorption.

Glycogen is carbohydrate stored in the muscle ready for action.  Marathon runners have to build this up days before the race so they don't have to wait for digestion to take place before energy can be used.  Working dogs as athletes need this in a big way too.

To get the energy out of the carbohydrates the animal needs oxygen from the lungs via the blood stream.  This burns up the carbohydrate releasing carbon dioxide and water which is then excreted.  Excess carbohydrates are stored in the body as fat. 

True carnivores don't need carbohydrates - but dogs need them in a properly balanced diet.  Carbohydrates should not exceed 60% of a dog's diet. 

Dogs cannot digest large amount of fibre, so cereals should be cooked before feeding or the dog will suffer from diarrhoea.  Too much lactose (milk sugar) will also cause scouring so don't add large amounts of dried skim-milk powder to the diet as it is 50% lactose.  Fresh milk contains only 5% lactose.

Proteins

Proteins are used for muscle building and come from both animal and plant sources.   The building blocks of these proteins are "amino acids".  The dog needs 23 amino acids but can synthesise (ie make its own) only 13, so 10 must be supplied in its diet to prevent deficiency diseases.

The "complete" proteins that contain these essential amino acids are found in eggs, milk, soybeans, peanuts, yeast, as well as muscles and glandular organs.  So the best way to make sure you have covered all the essential amino acids in a diet is to use both animal and plant proteins in a diet.

Proteins like carbohydrates and fats are made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.  But they have one important difference - they contain nitrogen.  Proteins are insoluble in water so have to be broken down by enzyme action into amino acids, which are then soluble and easily transported around the body.

Animals can break down protein for energy but this is not a very efficient process.  Surplus nitrogen produced in the process is excreted as urea in the urine.  To avoid this, make sure dogs are not fed high protein diets over long periods, and there are enough carbohydrates and fats in the diet to balance things up.

A dog should be fed protein daily as it is not stored in the body in large quantities like fat.  It should make up from 20 - 25% of the daily diet.

Fats and oils

These are made up of chains of chemicals called "fatty acids".  They contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen just like carbohydrates, but they differ by having a greater proportion of carbon in them.  They also contain more than twice as much energy on an equal weight basis. 

So nature has designed fat depots to be highly effective energy stores for times of need.  You get a lot of energy into a small bulk!  Putting fat on is a very efficient process, for example the energy in 4 kg of starch to can be stored as 1kg of fat.  Taking fat off is harder, as you only get 2kg of starch energy from 1kg of stored fat.  Remember this when trying to slim down an obese dog or to lose weight yourself!

Fat serves as important body insulation, as well as helping to transport fat-soluble vitamins around the body.  It also improves the palatability and texture of dog foods.   A shortage of fat in a dog's diet can cause an abnormal skin and hair condition and may increase susceptibility to skin infections.

A dog needs a minimum of 5% of fat in the total dry weight of its diet.  At least 1% of the fatty acid called "linoleic" is needed for skin health.  If you feed the recommended maintenance level of 20% fat, then enough linoleic will be present.

If you boost the fat level to 40% or more this will provide all the dog's energy needs, but you'll risk problems with rancidity.  This can then impair the utilisation of Vitamin E, cause deficiencies in the B-complex vitamins and generally depress appetite.  If the dog doesn't eat, then it stops thriving.  So don’t expect top performance from all that fatty mutton - put it down the offal hole and buy a decent balanced feed.

If you feed these high fat diets, then you must readjust the mineral, vitamin and protein levels to keep the diet balanced.  You may also have to add an "antioxidant" to preserve nutrient quality and stop the fats going rancid.  Avoid these problems by feeding lower fat levels in the diet.

Vitamins

Vitamins are essential to growth and health.  They help the body to resist disease and body cells to function properly.   We have to consider two types of vitamins - water soluble and fat soluble.

Water soluble vitamins

The B-complex and vitamin C are water soluble. They cannot be stored in the body in large amounts so must be supplied regularly in the diet.

When a dog loses fluids by vomiting or diarrhoea, its vitamins must be replaced..   Overfeeding these water-soluble vitamins does not cause toxicity as excesses are lost in the urine.

Vitamin B1 (thiamine)

·      This is very important to dogs.

·      Dogs differ genetically in their need for thiamine.

·      Metabolic disturbance, exercise and cold housing may increase demand.

·      Only small amounts of thiamine are stored in the body. 

·      Treating meat for hydatids (freezing and boiling) reduces thiamine - it is lost in the       thawed water and boiling juices. 

·      The heat of cooking will destroy thiamin.  Commercially prepared dog feeds have extra thiamine added to their diets to compensate for cooking losses.

·      If you are cooking your own feed recipe, add some yeast tablets to it.

·      Feed a dog supplementary thiamine 2-3 times a week.

·      Brewer's (not live) yeast and wheat germ are valuable sources.

·      Meat and cereals are also good sources.

·      A high fat diet contains less thiamine than a high-carbohydrate diet.

·      Never feed dogs raw fish as some species contain an enzyme (thiaminase) which       will make thiamine unavailable.  Nervous symptoms may develop leading to       paralysis.  Cooked fish is safe as thiaminase is destroyed.

Other vitamin B-complex

·      These include riboflavin (Vit B2), niacin pyridoxin (Vit B6), pantothenic acid, biotin, folic acid, and vitamin B12.

·      The best supplies are in wheat germ, brewer's yeast, liver and the organ and muscle meats.

·      Under normal feeding there should be no problems, but egg white and sulpha drugs can make them unavailable.

·      "Black tongue" is a defect of the mucous membranes caused by a niacin deficiency.

·      Poor blood clotting can be caused by folic acid deficiency.

·      Riboflavin shortage can cause slow growth, poor appetite and low fertility.

Vitamin C

·      Plenty of this is synthesised by the dog to meet its needs.

Fat-soluble vitamins

These vitamins (A, D, E and K) need fat to be transported and absorbed by the body.  So if the fat metabolism of the dog is upset, then a vitamin deficiency may occur.

Get veterinary advice when supplementing fat soluble vitamins as excess builds up and is stored in the body fat and can lead to problems.

·      Liver, kidney, muscle fat and fish liver oil are good sources.

·      Handle fats with care - the vitamins are lost if the fat goes rancid.

·      Vitamin A deficiency results in deafness, nervousness, diarrhoea, retarded growth       and partial loss of vision (night blindness). 

·      Excess vitamin A will lead to bone deformities.

·      Vitamin D deficiency results in rickets (bowed legs) and enlarged joints seen in       pups growing quickly (knobbly knees and splayed feet). 

·      An excess of vitamin D will lead to over calcification of bones and soft tissue such       as heart, lungs and muscles.

·      Vitamin E deficiency causes pups to be born weak or dead.  Can lead to muscular dystrophy and hear muscle damage.

·      Vitamin K deficiency reduces blood-clotting ability.  It's rare in normal diets.

Minerals

There is a range of minerals needed for various functions of the body.  They are used in the skeleton (bones and teeth), muscles, glands, body fluids and for correct functioning of the cells.  Deficiency problems are easily avoided if you feed a balanced diet.  Commercial diets these days provide more of these minerals than are needed by the dog so there are no concerns. 

Important minerals are:

            Calcium            Phosphorus            Magnesium

            Sodium            Chlorine            Potassium

If you ever see a feed analysis (eg. on the bag of purchased dog feed), you’ll see a component called "ash".  This is what’s left after the feed has been burned to measure the heat or energy released.  All the mineral components are in the remaining ash part.

Calcium and phosphorus

These two minerals are closely linked in the health of the dog and are very important.  We need to consider not only the amount fed, but also the ration between them.  This is referred to as the Ca:P ratio. 

The general recommended ratio in a good diet for a mature dog is between 1.2 and 1.4 parts of calcium(Ca) to 12 part of phosphorus (P). 

Meat has a Ca:P ratio of about 1:10 while liver has a 1:40 ratio.  Liver is also a good source of vitamins A and D which tends to modify the effects of a calcium deficiency

·      Calcium deficiency is most common bone disease in dogs caused by poor feeding.        It can happen by a shortage of calcium or an excess of phosphorus in the diet       upsetting the Ca:P ratio. 

·      You won't fix a deficiency by throwing your dog a few bones to chew!  Never feed       a dog cooked bones, fish bones or chicken bones.

·      Watch out for meat rich diets which are high in P and low in Ca.

·      When the body tries to balance up the Ca:P ratio, loss of bone mass which results in       pain in the bones, joints and muscles can occur.  Lameness and a tendency for       bones to fracture is seen , and in pups you get poor tooth development and       sore and swollen joints.

·      Pups should be reared on a diet with a Ca:P ratio of 1.4:1.  You can ensure this by       adding bone flour or calcium phosphate at 15-20g/kg of dry food to the diet of       a large rapidly growing pup

Sodium

The dog will get plenty of this in its diet as salt (sodium chloride), and often the concern is feeding too much.  Providing plenty of water is essential to avoid toxicity by feeding too much.  In very hot conditions, the dog may need extra salt.

Magnesium and potassium

These are important to the dog and can be best provided by feeding liver, heart, or muscles in general.

Trace elements

Some components of the dog's diet are only needed in very small or "trace" amounts - hence the name trace elements.  Excess intake of some of these can cause poisoning, or too much of one can affect absorption of another.

            Iron                         Sulphur            Iodine

            Copper                        Selenium            Fluorine

            Molybdenum            Manganese            Zinc

            Cobalt

The way to avoid any problems is to feed a good balanced diet.  Seek veterinary advice if you feel the need to add extra supplements.

Water

Water is not a strictly a nutrient but it's essential to life.  Muscle for example contains 80% water, fat 20-30% and bone in a young animal 70-80%.  Animals will survive for a long time without feed but will soon dehydrate without water.

Blood, which transports all the digested nutrients around the body, is largely water as is the lymph which finally bathes the cells in nutrients.  Blood and lymph then carry the waste products away from the body cells and tissues for excretion.

Water is the main constituent of all digestive juices and gland secretions.  It's also a product of digestion when foodstuffs are broken down in the body to produce heat and energy.

Dogs should always have a clean water available at their kennels.  There will be a large variation in how much a dog will drink depending on its work load and so on.  Don't let a dog drink large amounts of water just before or just after strenuous work.   Frequent small drinks during work are best and will increase endurance.  But it's hard to stop the dog diving into the creek on a hot day and trying to drink it dry!

Digestibility & Palatability?

When an animal eats feed, only some of the nutrients in it end up in the blood stream to be used for maintenance and production.  These are the digested nutrients and what is not used passes right through as indigestible into the faeces.  Large amounts of fibre for example are not digested by the dog, but help intestinal function.

Palatability is how attractive the feed is to the animal.  Remember it's NOT necessarily related to nutrient content.  Dogs eat because they like what they eat, and not because it's good for them!  Remember it’s your job to balance the diet - not the dog’s.

Maintenance and production

Think of dogs' nutritional needs in two parts - "maintenance" and "production", as we do in other farm animals.  The maintenance part of the diet is the feed nutrients needed to maintain healthy body functions such as its temperature, digestion, blood flow, action of glands and excretion.

“Maintenance” needs are based on the dog's liveweight, so regular weighing is useful to see if you have the feeding right.  You can use the bathroom scales weighing yourself with and without holding the dog.  It's much easier on sheep scales.

The feed nutrients needed for “production” are over and above the maintenance needs and include work, pregnancy, lactation and growth.

What does a dog like to eat? 

This is an interesting question and you may take the view that it's not important.  As a domesticated servant of mankind, a dog should eat what it's given!

Remember the dog's wild canid ancestors.  They survived best if they devoured their food quickly and generally had either a feast or a famine.   Also, they ate virtually anything - their diet varying from freshly-killed meat to rotten stinking carrion.  When they caught prey, they usually started on the guts first - warm and sloppy.  They certainly preferred "variety" and this has been confirmed by properly controlled scientific trials at Massey University. 

Where dogs were given a free choice of food and their preferences measured, there were some surprises!  Researchers found that dogs prefer pork and beef to mutton, cooked meat is preferred to raw meat, and ground meat is preferred to chunks.  Dogs also prefer their food warm, wet and sweet. 

Now remember this says nothing about nutritional value - all it says is what a dog prefers, if given the choice.  The work removed the bias of a person making decisions for the dog, which is not very realistic, especially in the supermarket. 

But it's people who decide what dogs eat in our modern lives these days.  Studies at the Meat Research Institute in Hamilton showed that pet foods have to be made attractive to the owner of the animal!  So things like rich colour, juiciness and chunkiness suggesting good flavour are essential - not for the dog but for the owner who imagines the pet feels like they do!   This may not be the case if you want to be truly objective and avoid being “anthropomorphic” or judging animal feelings by human feelings.

It is quite normal for dogs to eat grass and their own vomit.  Indeed, eating grass irritates the stomach and encourages vomiting.   Dogs enjoy scavenging and will eat their own faeces (coprophargy), and sheep’s faeces, as one of nature's ways to make sure they get all the minor trace elements and vitamins needed. 

Feed aversions

The instinct to avoid certain feeds is interesting and you see it best in wild canids.  They use aversion to foods to learn to avoid poisons.  If young wolves for example eat berries that make them ill, they know not to eat them again.  This is how they learn.  If a dog learns to associate a food with a bad experience, it will never eat it again.  It's an inbuilt survival mechanism that can be a nuisance at times when you’ve gone to a lot of bother to provide a feed and they won’t eat it.

Angora (Mohair) Goat Basics: Feeding

Farming, animal husbandry, goats, Angora, Mohair, feeding, nutrition, behaviour

By Dr Clive Dalton


Feeding
Feeding behaviour

• Goats don’t have a split upper lip like sheep so don’t graze as close to the ground.
• They are classical browsers and are used successfully by farmers to graze out weeds and avoid chemical sprays. Offering goats a wide choice of feed can cause problems as they may for example take a liking to feeds of low nutritional value when you want them to put on weight.
• They are effective ruminants relying completely on pasture by about 15 weeks of age when feral goats synchronise their grazing behaviour with their dam.
• Goats seem to be less concerned about eating prickly plants suggesting their lips are different to sheep.
• They eat a lot of roughage that includes weeds, woody shrubs, leaves and bark. They are well known for ring barking trees.
• They eat plants from tip down to base which explains why they are so good at killing gorse and thistles and stopping them seeding.
• Goats will stand on their hind legs to reach up high to browse and will use their front legs to hold branches down. They'll even climb trees to get at leaves. This has a major reason why they have been involved in turning farmland into deserts aided by humans.
• They do not relish clover so goat pastures end up being very clover dominant.
  

Nutrition

• The key principle of nutrition is that feed intake by the animal must meet its nutritional needs in terms of energy, protein, minerals and trace elements and vitamins.
• Water is important and although it’s not classed as a nutrient, it’s essential for body function. Water must come from a clean source and not from stagnant dams, swamps or dirty troughs.
• The animal’s feeding needs are divided into “Maintenance”, and “Production. Maintenance feed keeps body systems functioning when the animal is standing still in a warm temperature.
  
• Nutrients for Production are needed over and above Maintenance and are used for movement, grazing, bodyweight, fibre growth and reproduction. More nutrients are also needed if the animal is stressed by cold or disease.
• Goats have a greater level of voluntary feed intake that sheep relative to their metabolic body weight so when fed hay, goats ate more than sheep.
• As ruminants, goats can digest cellulose in plants more efficiently than by any other ruminant. Lignin is plant cellulose that normally cannot be digested.
• As well as feed intake, the digestibility of what they eat is important. Lush pasture is highly digestible but has low Dry Matter, and feeds high in plant fibre have low digestibility and high bulk. All these components have to be taken into account when working out feeding levels.
• In calculating feed requirements, an Angora or feral goat is taken as 0.7 stock units. A stock unit is the feed needed to maintain a 50kg ewe with a single lamb for a year.
• A goat equivalent is another measure used and is a 40kg goat. One goat equivalent equals 0.25 stock units. Note that these values are very crude measures but have been used for years to describe “carrying capacity” of farms.
• Kids are less efficient than calves or lambs when fed milk diets. Kids fed at the same concentration, goat milk, cow milk or milk replacer resulted in similar growth rates.
• Minerals, trace elements and vitamins are important but a balanced diet based on pasture should meet these needs.
  
• However as New Zealand soils are “recent’ in geological terms, mineral deficiencies such as copper, selenium and Iodine can occur. There are also situations where there can be too much, so for peace of mind consult your veterinarian to have blood and liver tests done on animals at critical times of year such as in mind pregnancy, as their body stores may need to be built up over time like charging a battery.
• With any ruminant, changes in diet should be made gradually to allow the rumen micro-organisms to adapt to any changes. Allow from 4-7 days for complete diet changes, and when starting off on concentrates, feed very small quantities(e.g. <40g/head/day).>

Feed intake
A goat doesn’t eat knowing its nutritional needs. Seeking out fibrous plants or salt may prove this statement wrong, but generally they are mainly interested in feeds that are palatable and to continue eating until they are satiated.

At certain times such as when they are suckling kids we want them to eat as much high quality digestible feed as possible and in winter when pregnant we provide feed for maintenance only so they may be hungry for parts of the day and be looking for a chance to escape to get more feed


Factors affecting feed intake are:

• Type and quality of feed. They will eat more high quality than low quality feed.
• Amount of feed on offer. If you see goats lying contented and cudding after grazing and clearly full, if you open the gate they will generally run to the new feed and start grazing again. Give them more and they will usually eat more.
• Frequency of feeding: If you offer feed many times a day in small amounts goats will eat more than if they are fed in fewer larger feeds. They also waste less when fed more frequently.
• Liveweight. Maintenance feeding needs is related to liveweight so bigger heavier animals will eat more than smaller animals.
• Stage of lactation: A milking animal milking has a high appetite to cope with the nutrient drain from its body.
• Pregnancy: In the last 2-3 weeks of pregnancy rapid foetal growth causes an increase in nutrient needs, but it’s at this time that appetite often drops. This is partly because the rumen is affected by the enlarged uterus and contents but there are also hormonal reasons involved in this appetite drop.
• Activity: It’s a rule of thumb that you should add 25% more to feed allowances for animals that have to graze actively.
  

Key times for good nutrition
Pre-mating

• It’s important to have does in good condition when the bucks are joined with them. It’s been a traditional practice with sheep to “flush” them for about three weeks before joining, and this practice has been applied to goats to ensure good fertility and twinning.
• It’s always difficult (if not impossible) in dry summers leading into autumn to build up quality green feed for mating, so a far better practice is to make sure your goats never get into a skinny state as good body weight is critical in stimulating cycling (as well as declining day length) to start cycling and stimulating good ovulation rates.
• Where good pasture feed is not available, then good quality silage or balage can be used and if finances allow, concentrate feeds at around 50g/goat/day.
• Concentrates should only be needed if goats were in low body condition. Hay has too low a feeding value for this and weeds won’t meet their needs either.
• Coming up to mating, goats should be in as good condition as possible. It’s hard to Condition Score goats compared to sheep, as goats don’t lay down fat as easily as sheep.
  
• This is especially the case with milking goats that always look thin. But skinny goats are very obvious, and healthy well fed goats should have some fat cover on them.
  

Liveweight
Liveweight has a very important impact on fertility as the following table for Angora goats shows;

Post-mating

• Good feeding should continue for at least 4-6 weeks after the bucks go out hoping that few animals return to oestrus.
• This is a very critical period for the implantation of the embryo and the establishment of the placenta which has been shown in sheep to be very important in embryo survival later in pregnancy and birth weight and hence survival.
• There’s no reason to assume that goats will be any different. Whether your feeding regime is working is best judged by liveweight and BCS.
  

Pre- and post-kidding

• These are very important times. In the last 2-3 weeks of gestation the foetus grows rapidly so needs extra nutrients to ensure it has a good birth weight which is critical in survival, but this coincides with a drop in appetite by the dam.
• Then after kidding there is a massive surge of nutrients into milk and this cannot be met from the doe’s feed intake. The doe is described as being in “negative nutritional balance” for at least the first six weeks after birth and it’s a time when feeding concentrates is most cost effective.
• Her needs are often described as 2.5 times Maintenance.
• You cannot overfeed milking does, and do everything possible to get them to eat more and keep on eating such as offering new grazing twice a day.
• Goats cannot be made to eat soiled pasture to graze it out like you can with sheep and cattle.
  
• Aim to feed pasture of 2500kg DM/ha (700mm high) made up of 70% green content. Don’t make them graze below 500-600mm high so they are getting the most palatable and digestible parts.
• Nibbling weeds won’t do any harm as long as it’s only the very tips which have good feeding value in spring.
• If does were not shorn before kidding, this massive nutritional stress on their system will cause thinning of the fibre, weakness and break.
  

Post-shearing

• Good feeding for at least the first 2-3 days after shearing is a good insurance against any losses due to stress if the weather is cold and wet.

Growing kids – weaners & yearlings

• There is plenty or research is all ruminants to show that feeding and hence growth in early life (pre and post weaning) will affect subsequent weight and production during the rest of the animal’s life. So it’s vital to keep young goats growing well.
• When using milk replacers, it’s never wise to use a cheap product. Feed the best quality product you can find and follow the instructions on the bag to the letter.
• There are plenty of figures for the feed needs of growing milking goats and an example is the table below showing the maximum Dry Matter intakes needed at different weights.
  

Weaning

• This is a critical time as from this time, young animals are “on their own” with no more milk supplementation so they should be eating well.
• Kids can be weaned from 5 weeks old but normally weaning is around 2 months of age. Weaning weight should be based on weight and not age.
• A guide is for weaning weight to be at least 3.5 times birth weight and eating concentrates (around 40g/head/day).
• Young goats after weaning need around 1kg of DM/day (pasture plus concentrates) to keep them growing to reach a good weight for mating.
  

Angora (Mohair) Goat Basics: Feeds available for goats

Agriculture, animal husbandry, goats, Mohair, Angora, feeds, feeding, nutrition

By Dr Clive Dalton

Feeds available to goats

Pasture

• Future goat farming in New Zealand is based on pasture feeding, and as world grain prices have gone crazy less of it will be fed, and it will be fed more carefully.
• The problem with “pasture“ as a feed is that it varies in quality and quantity every day of the year. It goes from low DM, low fibre, high protein and high digestibility in spring and autumn, to low protein, high DM, high fibre and low digestibility in the summer.
• Balancing all this to meet the nutritional needs of the stock at different times of the year is often described as more art than science.
• The other key to good pasture management is the balance between roots and shoots. The shoots generate nutrients through photosynthesis so are the factory of the plant. If you keep them grazed off hard, then it takes longer for them to recover and made food to be stored in the roots.
• This is why rotational grazing is successful as it allows time for shoots to recover before being grazed again.
• The aim of all plants is to mature quickly and go to seed so the key to grazing management is all about “controlled defoliation” to prevent them doing this.
• Remember of course that with goats, they will prefer the seed heads over lush green leaves and clover.
• It’s not economic in New Zealand to use machinery and diesel to control pasture, so the animal is used instead. So the animals control the pasture and the pasture feeds the animals.
• Again it’s a question of keeping a balance and making decisions well ahead of time e.g. When stock should be moved and when pastures will start going to seed.
• When you can see 10-15% of seed heads in a pasture, it’s time to make silage and this will be good quality. If the seed heads have gone beyond this – then it’s a hay crop.
  

Supplementary feeds

Hay
Good things about hay

• Cattle of all ages will eat hay with relish unless it’s really old, mouldy or full of thistles or docks.
• Hay has high DM (86%) and the high fibre content is good for rumen digestion which generates heat in the animal.
• It’s easy to make hay as long as the sun shines.
• It’s easy to handle when baled in the paddock, in storage and when feeding out – provided you have small bales or equipment to handle big bales which seem to get bigger every year.
• Hay keeps well for a couple of years and is easy to buy and sell.
  

Bad things about hay

• It can vary greatly in quality depending on the pasture it was made from and how mature the crop was when it was cut, also how badly it was weathered before baling.
• You lose about 80% of the feeding value of the original grass crop when you make hay of it.
• The protein content in good hay is only around 4%.
• Hay will catch fire, and if baled or put in a shed slightly damp it will heat up and self-combust.
  

Pasture Silage Good things about silage

• In good silage you only lose about 20% of the original nutrients from the pasture if cut at the 10-15% seed head stage.
• Good leafy silage is a high protein feed at around 17-20% protein in the DM.
• Really good silage is around 25% Dry Matter.
• After cutting a silage crop the paddock will return to regrow quicker than with hay.
  

Bad things about silage

• Silage smells and many people say it stinks, regardless of whether it was made well or badly. On small farms this regularly causes problems with non-rural neighbours.
• You must get everything right in the ensiling process or you’ll end up with an inferior product which can cause animal and human health problems - especially if it goes mouldy.
• You cannot make good silage from short, lush spring pasture as it is hard to get a good fermentation, and the end product will be only 20% DM or less. This will restrict the nutrient intake of the stock.
• Likewise, pasture that is well on the way to hay makes poor silage.
• Silage is hard to cart around and feed out as bales are 500-700 kg, and too many folk have been injured by them. A bale on a small trailer pulled by an ATV can jack-knife and kill you.
• If you open a bale in the paddock and let stock help themselves, the acid in the silage will burn the grass and the stock will pug the area. Burning can also happen if you dump it in great forkfuls and stock don’t clean it up that day.
• The juice that can leak out of bales or pits is an extremely bad environmental hazard as if it gets into streams it eats up large quantities of oxygen.
• Old silage wrap is an environmental hazard too. It can cause serious digestive problems in stock if they eat it and it blocks open drains. It is supposed to be disposed of in “an approved land fill” – which could cost you dollars.
• Wrapped bales need care in handling and protection from stock, rats and magpies to prevent punctures, air entry and mould.
  

Balage and haylage

• There is no difference between these supplements and balage seems to be most commonly used! Both are made from a very mature crop that ends up around 40% DM.
• But beware especially when buying it as it could be a hay crop that became wet, or a silage crop that went too far to seed.
• Get a sample analysed to be sure what’s in it before you buy it. And pick the sample from a range of bales.
  

A buyer’s guide to silage

• When you buy silage, get the vendor to open a bale and dig deep inside to see what it’s like.
• Check the bales for tiny holes as mould forms quickly if air leaks in. You can also do a squeeze test. Take a handful and squeeze it hard and if juice comes out between your clinched fingers – it’s too wet and certainly below 20% Dry Matter.
• Or take a sample and twist it to see if juice appears. It’s easy to squeeze juice from wet silage lower than 20% DM. Do a “sniff and feel” test using Table 16.
  

Silage quality check list

Send a good representative sample of the silage to a laboratory for feed analysis to get DM%, Protein% and ME.

Other crops
Look in any seed company’s catalogue and you’ll see a wide range of crops that can be grown to feed goats. The term “crop” covers such things as subtropical grasses and a wide range of brassicas and pulses. The catalogue information is comprehensive and well presented and companies have specialist agronomists who will help you. The key things to look out for are:

• When do you need the extra feed the crop will provide?
• What yield of Dry Matter can you expect per hectare?
• What climate limitations does the crop have? Will it grow in your area?
• What soil type limitations does it have?
• What fertiliser requirements does the crop have?
• How will you control weeds? These are always a major threat.
• How will you harvest the crop – do you need a machine or can it be grazed?
• Are there any animal health risks from grazing the crop?
• What are the costs of establishment?
• How long will the pasture be out of production while the crop is growing?
• How do you treat the paddock after the crop?
• There are probably many more questions so that’s why you need to talk to an agronomist.
  

Maize silage

• Maize silage is high in carbohydrates and low in protein.
• It’s a good winter feed when animals are dry or during spring to supplement lush green pasture.
• It’s a bulky feed so make sure milking does are fed any high-energy grain feed first.
• Maize silage needs to be kept well covered at the pit face as moulds grow very quickly.
  

Concentrates

• These feeds are based on grains (barley and maize) and hence are very expensive per kg of DM. A kg of DM in spring pasture may cost 10cents, in silage 20c, and 80-90c in commercial meals. So they need to be confined to times of clearly defined need.
• The are “supplements” and not “substitutes“ for their pasture diet, as this will eat up any profits in the enterprise.
• The full nutritional content of the meal must be shown on the bag.
• Goats soon learn to eat meal but start at 40-50gm/head/day for 7-10 days, and don’t exceed 0.200g/head/day for adults. Dams will soon teach their kids to relish grain-based feeds.
• For lactating goats, check their mineral needs. Some farmers add 1% of ground limestone or cement if feeding for longer than two months. Check this with your veterinarian.
• Coccidiostats can be added to grain feeds but discuss this need with your veterinarian.
  

Weeds

• Goats are not miracle workers able to produce quality mohair fibre from scrub and weeds. Good fibre comes from good nutrient intake.
• Feral but also Angoras have been used for weed and scrub control, and there have been some spectacular results. In trials, as well as pasture weeds, they dealt successfully with gorse, sweet briar, manuka, kanuka and tutu.
• When new shoots on weeds and shrubs are growing rapidly, they are high in protein and energy and will meet the full nutritional needs of mohair goats, but in winter when bark is eaten because there is nothing else, nutritional needs will not be met.
  
• Ringbarking is certainly an effective way to kill woody weeds and may be a planned management practices.
• Stocking rates to achieve these results need to be around six goats/ha.
• However, it would not be good practice to use Angora goats farmed to produce high quality fibre to break down scrub although they’d be well able to deal with pasture weeds.
• If you want to leave selected trees in areas where goats are eating scrub, then they need to be protected from bark damage as the goats do not discriminate.
  

Feeding levels

• It’s important to remember that the fibre processor wants a fibre that is even along its length, and feeding levels control this. Synthetic fibres don’t have this problem and that’s why they have been such a success.
  
• There is a genetic limit to how thick the fibre will grow but the environment (feeding) can certainly dictate how thin it can grow and in times of starvation the fibre will be so thin that it will break. In Merino sheep this is called “hunger fine”.
• Little work has been done on the precise feeding levels for pasture fed Angora goats in New Zealand, and even if we did know these, it would be difficult to work out how to provide them because of the way goats graze and browse.
  
• Feeding an even pasture sward of 2300kg DM/ha, rotationally grazed on a 40day rotation would be easy to work out what they were getting, but this is not the way goats are fed.
• A good New Zealand pasture made up of 70% grass and 30% clover will provide feed that has protein and energy levels, as well as minerals and trace elements for most of the year to meet the needs of mohair goats.
  

Target liveweights
A “target” weight is not an average weight. It’s a minimum weight and should be reached or exceeded by all animals in the group.



Nutrient values of feeds
This table shows the Dry Matter (DM%), the Energy Value measured in Metabolisable Energy (ME) and Crude Protein (CP%).