Calculating a Goat Ration

Calculating a ration requires 7 steps (Haenlein, 1995):

1. determine body weight to calculate maintenance requirements of energy, protein, fiber, calcium and phosphorus from tables;
2. determine milk yield and fat content per day plus a challenge factor in early lactation of 10 percent for calculation of production requirements of energy, protein, fiber, calcium, phosphorus from tables;
3. add the two requirement categories for each of the 5 nutrients on a dry-matter basis;
4. determine the composition of your eaten hay (minus the refusals) for the 5 nutrients from tables or actual lab analyses;
5. determine the daily actual hay intake by your goat in question and multiply this with the nutrient composition on a dry-matter basis;
6. subtract the results of step (5) from the total of step (3), giving you the nutrient deficit, which must be provided by a grain supplement on a dry matter basis;
7. determine composition and price of various alternative commercial or farm-grown grain supplements and multiply with the most probable intake level to arrive at the nutrient deficit total, remembering that ration calculations and feeds offered can not exceed the normal level of daily dry matter intake by goats between 3 to 5 percent of body weight. If goats are found to eat less than 3 percent of body weight on a dry-matter basis, they are either starving or their feed is not palatable to them.