"Goats'll eat anything"

This is what you hear time and again but in my experience it couldn't be farther from the truth. I assume that a hungry goat will eat anything just like any other animal that is starving (which, I might add, occurs all too often with goats). Goats will eat different foods to many other animals but they definitely do not "eat anything".

At our goat dairy we have found the best way for us to feed the goats is to bring their food to them. I know that goats are kind on pasture but in our situation with wild dogs aplenty and kilometres of creek that would require fencing and refencing after floods, this is what we choose to do.

This photo was taken about an hour after milking in the morning.

I have spent many hours standing watching goats eat in a pasture. Zelda over to one side thinks that Betty on the other side might be getting something better than her so she starts running over. All the others look up to see what the commotion is, see Zelda running and think that something is going on so I better run too. All heading for poor old Betty who is now forced to move along at which time she realizes there is a better piece of pasture another few metres away anyway, so starts stepping out toward that when, lo and behold, old Daisy or Sunshine or Hilda sees Betty and off they all go again.

Unfortunately all this constant moving around requires a lot of energy and where does that energy come from? The pasture they are eating. That energy should be going into milk production.

Now, you watch a cow eating. She's way more sedate and quite comfortable to be more than a few metres from her mate. She doesn't have predators to worry about and she doesn't seem to think that Daisy is getting something better than her.

My Goat Diet will provide you information about how my goats are fed.