Everyone is Happy at Feeding Time

The goats and Longhorns eat pasture most of the time.  In the winter they eat haylige or hay.  When I come to the farm, all the animals know it is time to eat grain.  I feed them a mixture of distillers grain and corn meal.  Distillers grains are a byproduct of whiskey and fuel ethanol production. They have a very long history of being fed to livestock.  I am usually at the farm for 2-3 days and I put the grain out upon my arrival usually around 11 pm and again before I leave.  I put out 150 pounds each time.  I spread it out between 4 troughs so the animals have plenty of room to eat.  The smallest cows/newest arrivals get pushed back into the pasture but the tiny baby goats have no problem standing in the middle of a trough and getting plenty to eat.  In general everyone seems happy.  Even the small cows eat plenty; when the others are finished they get to come back in.  I think once the smaller newly arrived cows have been around for a month they will get better treatment.  Some people have told me the cows will over eat and get sick.  I have not seen this as a problem.  There is usually a lot left over the next day and they will go back out to the pasture to eat grass before coming back to finish all of the grain.