Do any of you mix your own grain rations? What do you mix it in? We have a lot of goats, and mixing it in a 50 gallon drum just wouldn't be feasible.I am milking ten does right now, and this morning,four of those does either ate very little of their feed, or refused it all together. Only the queen doe refused it yesterday,and it is the same bag of feed,which has been stored in a dry sealed 50 gallon drum. Sometimes nearly all of them will refuse the feed,other times they eat it eagerly(most of the time, thank goodness!). The mix is just COB with molasses,I can't see why they eat it one day and won't the next.The does that like sunflower seeds are still eating those, so I don't think they have lost their appetite in general.We go through this every year, and aside from being a hassle, the does production suffers if it goes on for more than a few days.I have tried switching feeds,but that is how I arrived at feeding COB, it was what they liked and would eat the most consistently.Vicki, you mentioned custom grain mixes, how do you get that? If the problem is the feed mill, it would seem like this would extend to the custom mix ,too.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), May 16, 2000

Answers

Rebekah, I started using a custom mix when I found no consistency in the commercial feed. One time it would be a nice mix of grains with a little molasses, the next time it would look as though someone swept the floor. The first mill I used mixed my feed after cleaning the unit so there would be no additive residues in it. I wasn't so lucky at another mill after I moved. I found on different occasions dried starlings (they are nasty enough alive!) and rat parts (leg bones, a skull and bits of skin) obviously from a dried animal too. I'm sure the critters just got into a bin, died and then were mixed into the feed. Needless to say, my animals weren't interested one whit in eating that stuff. To the mill's credit, they replaced each batch, even picking up the tainted batches and delivering fresh. The final straw was when I moved again and couldn't find a mill that would mix less than a ton.

I mix feed in a mixer that looks like a cement mixer but isn't. I bought it from a lady whose sheep operation had outgrown it. She bought it from Nasco years ago she said. I use corn, oats, wheat, milo, all whole, wheat bran, soy bean meal and dried molasses in my basic mix. I also feed free choice sheep mineral and salt, and use both grass and alfalfa hay and alfalfa pellets. The grains and amounts depend on what is least expensive at the elevator the day I go. I've played with several formulations that give me the 18% protein so it's just a matter of using a particular recipe for what is on hand.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), May 16, 2000.

Rebekah, it can be hard to find a mill that will do a good job. There may be inconsistencies in the mixing that are causing problems as you get to a certain part of the feed. I've known some dedicated people that bought the ingredients and then mixed a day's worth at a time.

Having a custom mix made is problematic. If the mill isn't doing a good job on their own stuff, they won't be any better on yours. For a good balanced ration, you need a variety of ingredients. I once looked at mixing a sheep supplement. My mill would have been happy to do it, but the ingredients weren't all things that they were already using. So they'd have to buy the wheat just for me-one train car load at a time. That would have been a lot of supplement. Some of the other things were also a problem.

(Here I go again) Contact your county extension office or nearest land grant college. Ask them about mixing a feed that takes advantage of locally grown crops (no train car load to buy) and common additives in your area. Also consider feeding them a basic local grain mix and having just a supplement mixed. That wouldn't be too hard to mix in a day or a feeding at a time. Talk to your mill and see if they are making a custom mix for someone else that might be fairly close to what you need. Then just add what little supplementing you need. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), May 16, 2000.

Rebekah, I called every grain mill around here and found a place 35 miles away that would custom mix and deliver it by the ton. They brought me one ton of lactating goat mix w/salt and vitamins delivered for $147/ton. Another place was willing to do the mixing if I provided the formula and took at least two tons each time. They both agreed to bag it for a very small fee, but I had it delivered bulk. Here's what I have:

1386 lbs coarse cracked corn 300 lbs 44 soybean meal 202 lbs oats 100 lbs dairy keymix 10 lbs bio plus 6 lbs mixing salt

They all love it. I feed about pound per goat per day. Maybe more; I scoop with a coffee can. I feed this to all the birds, too. This costs me less than half of what I was hauling myself in 50 lb. bags.

Good luck, e-mail w/questions.

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), May 16, 2000.

Rebekah, this is another one of those regional answers. Here in Texas cattle are the number one livestock, so its eaiser to use a feed mill that caters to them. Our custom mix started as a mixed grain ration. 6 rubbermaid trashcans, 1 part corn (I like crimped if it isn't dusty) 1 part oats, 1 part barley, 1/2 part alfalfa pellet, 1/4 part calf manna, headstart or any nutritional pelleted supplement, and 1/4 part BOSS. It's easier to weight these out once and put containers in the trash cans that hold the pound, 1/2 pound and 1/4 pounds. So when you mix them together they make 4 pounds of feed, the amount most of my largest milkers eat per day. When we got where we were milking 25 for our candy contract, we went to the custom mix. They found me at a show, the feed is milled in Brenham, has a lamb label because of the ingredeints. In the custom mix we added cottonseed hulls, 2 mineral packs, soda, baking soda etc. You can use COB in the place of the corn, oats and barley, but you do have to add the supplement for protein, the alfalfa pellets for protein and fiber, and the BOSS for fiber oils and fat. COB on its own is only about 12% protein, has no minerals in it and to high in molasses and can upset their rumens. I would think that this is your probelm right now. For right now put out baking soda. (The only cob I have fed was Purina and the molassas content was over 20 percent, when the molassas content of your feed should be under 10 and we want ours at 6. If you are going to tweak your cob please do so slowly, you will be going from a 12% protein to 17%, with a tremedous increase of fiber and fat. With this mix and with our custom mix we also use the blue bag of cattle loose minerals from Purina, to boost the copper more. Even now with my herd tiny, daughters LaMancha's are almost gone (3 more purebred weaned doelings for sale!Hint!) I will continue to feed the custom mix, its consistent and mixing your own feed can become a tremedous chore! Another long post sorry! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), May 16, 2000.

What is BOSS and bio? What about beet pulp, is that bad for the bucks? I have been supplementing the COB with black sunflower seeds to boost the protein, also feed kelp free choice for the minerals, along with a selenium/mineral salt mix. I feed the sunf seeds about a cup per doe twice a day, if the doe is a heavy producer or a yearling milker, she gets a little more.But that queen doe will also not touch the seeds-she is really picky,and one of our best milkers. The other thing I forgot to mention, is that they sort the grain, and seem to try to leave the corn out.I have been reading that most feed corn is now genetically engineered, and that cattle don't like to eat it, and wondered if there might be some kind of connection? My friend feeds nothing but organic ground barley free choice,but it doesn't seem like the protein would be high enough.Vicki, if we lived closer, I would be interested in one of those la mancha doelings! The ones we have here are just not of the quality that I'd hoped for,and it is hard to find then from an all CAE negative farm.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), May 16, 2000.

BOSS= Black Oil Sunflower Seeds. Even mixed 50/50 Cob and Boss gives you 14 and 1/2 protein. I have fed Kelp before and to me it was an expensive luxury. I love the loose minerals and Diamond V Yeast. I also feed Vitimin E top dressed the month before and during breeding season. I use Horse Health from Jeffers, though with the new catalog I told about before, I am ordering from there. We found out years ago that our problems with our kids was vitimin E problems and not Selenium. I think your feeding program is right on, I would just slowly increase my protein with a supplement pellet, I choose Headstart because I know that the animal protein in it is from Whey, it is in our custom mix. Buffering their rumen with baking soda, have your feed mill order you a 50 pound bag, you'll go broke using the grocery store kind! Remember that you want to think of your goats ration, grain and hay as a total mixed ration (TMR) So if your Alfalfa is 17 you can plummet the protein rapidly by feeding a 12% protein grain. I like to keep my grain up to 17% so that even with the feeding of grass hay our TMR stays up at 15%. Bucks are fine at 12%, but to grow your kids, and keep your milkers healthy and milking and kidding, and showing, they need to have a higher protein. Of REAL protein, not fish or feather meal. I also like to have a nice fiber content in my feed with alfalfa pellets and BOSS, that way when the girls don't get out because of rain, and you know how Nubains hate the rain! They don't get cow poop. My girls are just not big hay eaters during the spring, summer and fall, they would rather be out on pasture and woods. Blah Blah Blah Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), May 17, 2000.

We use a custom made speciality mix that has all sorts of goodies in it such as; corn, oats, barley, sulflower, flax, soybean, agrienzyme mix, turning point, transition, to name some of it off the top of my head without the formula in front of me. We have a 16% protien content. We have also used a variation when I wanted to increase milk production by adding distillers grain. The girls didn't like it even with a little extra molasses. We also buy loose minerals. We cannot find a milll close by that will mix this feed for us so we travel 3 hrs one way once a month to get feed. I think we have found a dealer near where I work that can pick up our order as they deal with this mills feeds. The results? I would not trade for the world, thats why we drive as far as we do. The girls looks so good, shiny coats and are well conditioned. The additives we use are available from a supplier who is on the net and can send the other goodies I mentioned; agrienzymes, transition & turning point. He also carries other products such as Immuno-G which i swear by as well. the addy to his website is: http://www.springbriar.com Good luck. I thin if you can find a mill and can get a good formula you'll never switch back. We used Blue Seal feed before hand, which was good, but nothing compares to the mix.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), May 17, 2000.

Ah yes, custom mixing! My feed mill will only mix a minium of 500# at a time. Since I only have 7 goats of which only 3 are getting grained that wasn't an option. So, I bought the ingredients. Barley, feed wheat, soybean meal, beet pulp, molasses and BOSS(now that I know the acronym, I'll use it!). I use two 50 gallon trash cans too, along with a couple 3 gallon buckets. I don't have the mixing ratios handy; they are written down. I only mix 50 lbs at a time to keep it fresh and easier to handle.

Rebekah, I know I haven't answered your question. But the addition of the beet pulp and sunflower seeds are the enticers, they love both and will eat either alone. You do need to add kelp or some other Iodine source with the beet pulp. I finally just started mixing it right in with the molasses and add the mix to the other mix.;-) Too bad those tumbler composters are so expensive, I think they'd make good mixers!

-- Jim Roberts (jroberts1@cas.org), May 17, 2000.

Are the sunflower seeds in the shell or out?? My girls won't eat anything in pellet form, what grain can I give that will increase the protein. They are currently eating crimped oats and barley, and free choice alfalfa hay and minerals. Also, my one doe seems to have dry skin would increasing the fat in her diet aid this problem? Thanks,Chris

-- chris dehne (mdehne@ccpl.carr.org), May 17, 2000.

My girls will not eat pellets in commerical rations. The reason is the oil and animal protein in them. If you could get yourself a sample of the supplement pellets, Calf Manna, Headstart, Animax from Purina etc. I know your girls will like them. You could also increase your protein with soybean meal, though some goats don't like finely ground grains. Soybean meal also has no vitimins and minerals added, and the supplement pellets are chocked full. You will not believe the improvement in your does with the increase of protein from soymeal based pellets or meal, and the fat from the BOSS. Yes it is shell and all. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), May 17, 2000.