FULL FEED, SUPPLEMENTS, LIMITERS, CREEP FEEDING, FREE CHOICE --
The Devil is in the Definitions

Do you feed a full feed or feed supplements, or use some combination of the two? Do you offer feed free choice? Do you creep feed your goats?

What do these terms mean? More importantly, what do they mean to you? Terminology has a way of getting us into trouble -- words mean different things to different people.The purpose of this article is to clarify what these terms mean so that management mistakes do not occur that cause illness or death to your goats.

Full Feed is defined as a nutritionally-balanced ration that contains sufficient protein, minerals, vitamins, and energy that, under most circumstances, nothing else (other than long fiber -- hay/forage) need be fed. Full feed is usually provided to goats in the form of sacked feeds manufactured at a feed mill. Note: Long fiber (roughage found in forage/browse and hay) is seldom available in adequate amounts in any full feed and should always be available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to goats. Pelleted feeds should definitely be accompanied by forage/browse and hay. See this writer's article entitled The Importance of Long Fiber in the May 2006 issue of Goat Rancher Magazine and on the Articles page. Textured full feeds have sufficient roughage but have other nutritional drawbacks; the potential for developing Listeriosis is higher with textured feeds, and goats tend to pick out what they like and leave the rest -- resulting in an unbalanced diet. Cottonseed hulls that have not been ground are high in long fiber but, if fed alone, are not nutritionally balanced and are therefore not a full feed.

Feed and Mineral Supplements are items like protein blocks and tubs, as well as combination protein and mineral and vitamin blocks and tubs, that are fed to goats that are primarily on forage/browse or pasture to supplement deficiences in their diet due to poor plant growth or low-quality hay. These items should be available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to the goats. Range cubes are a feed supplement that is usually offered on a routine schedule, i.e. daily, every other day, or once a week.

Free choice is defined as offering nutrition products twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, without ever removing them from the goats' access. Free choice feeding allows goats to choose when and how much they wish to eat. Items that should always be offered free choice are water, grass hay, and loose minerals made for goats, Protein blocks and tubs (along with loose minerals) or combination protein/mineral/vitamin blocks and tubs should also be offered free choice when a full feed is not being fed and/or forage/browse/pasture conditions are nutritionally inadequate for your goats.

Limiters are ingredients used in feed and supplements that reduce consumption of the product with the intent of forcing the goat to eat more forage/browse/pasture or hay and therefore less of the (more expensive) full feed or feed supplement. Salt and other minerals are used as limiters in many types of feed, so the producer needs to be very aware of the levels of all ingredients in products fed to goats. This writer had a nutritional disaster during the winter of 2004-2005 resulting from feeding untested custom-raised hay that turned out to be sub-par in protein and energy levels in conjunction with combination protein/mineral blocks fed as supplements. Read the article entitled Hay and Forage Testing in the May 2005 issue of Goat Rancher Magazine or on the Articles page. Learn to use sheep and goat blocks that do not have minerals and vitamins, therefore allowing the goats to consume more protein and energy faster, in tandem with free-choice loose minerals made for goats. This writer believes that the two products used together are superior to the combination protein/mineral/vitamin block or tub under such conditions.

IMPORTANT: Unless you have (a) a degree in goat nutrition, or (b) have direct access to a goat nutritionist who will help you formulate a feed for your herd, do not mix your own feed. You can easily get too much of one item that may bind up the utilization of something else by the goat. Even the form of certain items (oxides, sulfates, sulfides) makes a big difference in the goat's ability to convert them to nutritional use. Don't feed what your neighbor uses; his circumstances are probably different from your herd's needs. Every feed company has ruminant nutritionists on their staff. Contact the company that makes feed available in your area and work with him/her to develop a feed formulation for your goats. Feed companies want to sell their products; there may well be no charge for this service. If you don't have a goat feed available in your area, contact one of the big feed manufacturers, educate them on the number of goats raised in your area, and invite them to be first on the scene in your area. Being the incumbent has its advantages.

Producers should not mix full feeds with feed supplements in a single feeding. Example: Loose minerals should not be mixed into full feed rations. Full feed already has minerals and vitamins formulated at a level designed for proper delivery to the goat. Mineral supplements have much higher amounts of each mineral in them and are designed for the goats to consume much less of them per day. If the producer mixes loose minerals with full feed, the goat may receive an imbalance of minerals that can cause nutrition-induced illness.

Creep feeding is defined in various ways around this country. In this writer's part of the country (Texas), creep feeding means different things to different people. The problem arises when one person thinks he understands what the other is saying, but really doesn't. To this writer, creep feeding is the same thing as feeding free choice and almost always involves free-choicing sacked feeds. Do not ever creep feed/free choice feed sacked grain to goats of any age. The potential for entertoxemia (overeating disease), ruminal acidosis, urinary calculi, bloat, laminitis-founder, and a host of other very serious rumen-based and therefore life-threatening illnesses is put into play. See this writer's article entitled Feeding the Rumen - Not the Goat on the Articles page.

Some people define creep feeding as feeding sacked feeds to kids who are still nursing their dams. This is done to (a) provide additional nutrients above that which milk offers, (b) reduce lacatation requirements of the doe, and (c) ease the kid onto solid food so the transition at weaning won't be so difficult. Theoretically, if young kids are started on sacked feed early enough, they should eat very small amounts and increase consumption gradually -- thus avoiding digestive problems that come with eating too much feed too soon. In practice, this too often leads to problems. Goats as a species tend to overeat, and kids raised in managed populations that receive regular graining tend to become feed-bucket animals at best and develop rumen-related illnesses or die at worst. If regular feeding has to be a part of your management regimen, offer a measured amount of sacked feed to all goats (including young kids) on a regular schedule, take up what is left after ten minutes, and feed less the next time.

The next time you are talking with fellow goat producers about feeding, make sure you understand what they mean by the terms they are using so that no one receives incorrect information that might harm the health of your goats.

The author, Suzanne Gasparotto, hereby grants to local goat publications and club newsletters, permission to reprint articles published on the Onion Creek Ranch website under these conditions: THE ARTICLE MUST BE REPRODUCED IN ITS ENTIRETY AND THE AUTHOR'S NAME, ADDRESS, AND CONTACT INFORMATION MUST BE INCLUDED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE REPRINT. Acknowledgement must also be made that the articles were first published in GOAT RANCHER Magazine, for which Suzanne Gasparotto writes exclusively. We would appreciate notification from any clubs or publications when the articles are used. (A copy of the newsletter or publication would also be a welcome addition to our growing library of goat related information!)

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