Recommended Forage Systems for Goat Farm

Food for every farming animal is fundamental point that every farmer has to focus. Beside cage management system, forage system as same as important with the food business. Both for cattle, dairy, or wool goat has same right to earn good quality food.

Food business mostly known as forage system. Technically goat can only eat grass. But which one kind of the grass can be manage for every goal that we need. All forage system here basically made from grass but it is using little bit added management. Usually each manage that give for the grass has some used such like weight gain to cattle goat for example.

To make you clear about some recommended forage system for goat. Here is the way.

• Green forage

It is recommended if you give the green forage for goat at least 10% from their weight. It is around 4.5 until 5 kilograms/tail/day. The way you give this food is should be step by step which is at least 2-3 times per day. Don’t give it as much because goat needs to rest when digest this forage. Also, the gap time used to give time the goat’s digestion system to absorb the chlorophyll that contained of green forage. The benefit of this system is easy to look because this is mainly grass that you can find everywhere. The cost also cheap. And you don’t need to manage it as much because this is their natural food so you don’t need to put your effort as much.

• Dry forage

Dry forage usually made from food residual. This food used to weight gain moreover for goat cattle. This type usually mixed with green forage. Beside you can buy it in farm food seller, you can do it by yourself to make it.

• Water and salt forage

Even this point little bit unrelatable with the title, this part can’t separate away with goat’s forage system. Every cage should avail the water space but how we can maximise it to more profitable for our farm? You better make sure that the water 24/7 always available for goat because they need much of water. Salt here is used to balancing the minerals for goat. The salt better gives 7 grams/tail/day. If you can’t make this way, you can used salt block in every space in the cage. You can place it in the small box so the NaCl can fulfilled when the goad licking it. The thing that you need to manage on this point is your food giving style for goat. This habit need to be compare so when you give green or dry forage, this point can be including without decrease or broke the goat’s appetite. An example for you if you feel confuse to mix this two:

Use three times food style. First time, give dry or additional forage for goat in the morning. Secondly, still using dry forage in the afternoon for your goat. And thirdly, give green forage to fulfil fiber.

You better separate away when you giving dry forage like concentrate and bran. Also, you can chop the green forage before give it to the goat to make faster digestion.

• Fermentation forage

Different with some points above, this kind of forage made of straw and banana stem. This forage system claims more effective to weight gain the goat and moreover, the farmer don’t need to looking for grass anymore. The benefit of this system is increasing milk production on dairy goat, help to repairing goat’s digestion system, weight gain, increasing appetite, bigger meat or muscle, increasing immune, and the poop isn’t strong as if you give them green forage. This method more profitable because beside you don’t need to looking grass, this method using banana stem which is really easy to find. But still, if you want you can still give the goat green forage but don’t mix it with fermentation forage. Give time gap at least 3-7 days so you can use this forage.

However the forage system is, the main thing that you must to be put your attention on it is about the nutrition. Make sure that every forage system didn’t decrease the nutrition that contained inside the food. As mentioned before food is fundamental thing that using as main source by the goat to earn energy. You can imagine how the nutrition when the food is broke, right? It may called some disease to come up, not the health or weigh gain.