The milking goats here get prime lucerne hay most of the time although with the constant droughts of late, this has proven easier said than done. My husband grows as much lucerne as time permits and the remainder is bought in. It is fed basically ad lib which seems to always work out at 1 bale (25kg) per 7 goats per day, roughly 3.5kg per day.

In the bale at milking time the milkers also get 300 grams of grain supplement (600 grams a day). This is made for me by North Coast Stockfeeds at Yandina who are fantastic about how fussy the goats are. It has varied depending on what grains are cheapest and is quite expensive although the cost per day per goat is kept down by the fact that they only get a small amount. My theory is that I also save money because I am not trying to feed a supplement that the goats won't eat half the time and which I have to throw out. I'm also saving my sanity.

The grain is almost 14% Protein, the Energy is 13.5 MJ and the crude Fat is 3.7%. It contains micronized barley and maize, also oats when cost permits. It never contains sorghum. It's other ingredients include Soybean Meal, Full Fat Soybean, Availazinc, Dicalcium Phosphate, Limestone, salt, Bovatec and a dairy premix. This is all coated in vegetable oil and molasses so that it is no longer dry and the goats can't pick out just the grain and leave the vitamins etc.

Molasses is added to drinking water in the evening at the rate of 300ml per goat. A bathtub full of water has about 8 litres added to it.

Goatlings over 8 months of age and Dry goats get whatever hay or silage is available, usually sorghum or grassy lucerne. They also get 300g of grain supplement per day.

All kids under the age of 8 months receive lucerne hay which may or may not be grassy. They also get the same amount of grain supplement as the adult milkers ie. 300g twice a day. If the kids are changed down to the goatlings diet before 8 months of age, they never do as well and take much longer to achieve decent milk volumes once kidded. 8 months seems to be a magical figure for some reason.

I would like to mention here the difficulties I have encountered getting the goats to eat the grain. This is where North Coast Stockfeeds have been fabulous. On many occasions in the early days the goats would come into the bales and immediately pull their heads back out. This made milking a nightmare as only a goat owner could understand. They can be very stubborn and agile. With the help of Bill, Graham and now Peter at North Coast we discovered the following

• Make the grain after horse feed preferably, not after pig feed or, often, cow feed. Goats must be able to smell any contamination from the previous feed despite heavy molasses
• Make any changes to the diet, gradually. Don't make a big change overnight
• Avoid the use of the recycled oil. Use fresh, clean oil

In conclusion - goats won't eat anything that is cheap. I was told by a previous grain supplier that the reason the goats wouldn't eat their grain mix was that they were too well fed! That was 8 years ago when I was still floundering with my goat and dairy knowledge. If the same man said that to me today, he'd be sorry he ever heard my name.