Dietary choices of goats at the trough

This paper reviews a set of experiments underway since 1980 studying the feed and animal factors influencing the feeding preferences of goats at the trough. The methodology used consisted of a series of short-term (4×30 s) cafeteria tests on 12–16 dairy goats. The goats referred to in the present article preferred dry feeds in pellet form to flour and accepted very fine particle flour with difficulty. Goats proved very sensitive to feed prehensibility. Several feeds such as rapeseed oilmeals, fats or meat meals reduced the palatability of mixed concentrate which feeds included them. When the quantity of these feeds of bad palatability was increased in mixed feeds, goat preferences fell abruptly or progressively. Adding commercial aroma containing various flavours to feeds can improve the preferences of goats. There was a wide range of individual variability of responses in the tests. The physiological stage (gestation, early- and mid-lactation) did not influence the preferences. Previous or daily diets modified goat preferences. Generally goats seeked diversity in their ingesta, probably to maintain the rumen environment within a certain physiological and microbial range.