Has anyone ever mixed their own feed? All help/suggestions appreciated.I mixed cracked corn/oats/soybean meal to 18% mixture and gave free choice minerals. Thanks, Cindy

-- Cindy (ourfamilyfarm@email.msn.com), March 03, 2001

Answers

Most of us that have kept goats for a long time have tried mixing our own feed.One year,in an effort to save money,I bought grain at the local elevator,molasses,minerals and vitamins,and cottonseed meal to boost the protein content.It worked and the goats liked it.It only cost about 2.00 more per hundred than the purchased stuff.

-- JT (gone2seed@hotmail.com), March 03, 2001.

A couple of other things here.If you mix your own,be sure to use a little molasses.Some don't use it but you hear their goats coughing from the dust.Also,18% protein seems a bit high.16% is the recommended amount in most of the literature.If feeding alfalfa hay you could drop the protein even more as the alfalfa will have 16-20% depending on what stage it was cut and baled.

-- JT (gone2seed@hotmail.com), March 03, 2001.

Sounds pretty good, but you might want to reduce the protien; 14 - 16% depending on time of year. We use much the same mix with the addition of molasses to bind it. We also add selenium, check to see if it is needed in your area. JD Balenger's book Raising Small Livestock has some good recipes. We have a 1974 copy, I'm sure it has been updated.

-- Nancy Bakke-McGonigle Mn. Sunset (dmcgonig@smig.net), March 04, 2001.

There is actually an old feed mixed called Thurman's mix (named after a LaMancha breeder, Udder Udder herd, that came from California) he is now deceased, but lots of folks used his mix. You take 5 trash cans, fill one with chopped or crimped corn, one with whole or crimped oats, one with whole or crimped barley, one with alfalfa pellets and one with Black Oil Sunflower seeds. You mix this 1 part corn, 1 part oats, 1 part barley, 1/2 part alfalfa pellets and 1/4 part BOSS. To milkers and unweaned kids you also give them 1/4 cup of any nutritional supplement pellet, Animax, Headstart, Calf Manna etc. It makes for a really nice feed, protein from the Boss and Alfalfa Pellets, Carbo's from the grain, fat from the corn and Boss, and added protein to your milkers and kids (the only two classes of animals who need this kind of protein) with the Calf Manna. My custom mix is very similar to this mix. Same as what was stated above, this Thurman's mix costs me more per 50# than the 7$ I pay for it mixed custom. Plus with lots of goats its a hassle to have to mix your own grain. Thurmans mix is a great option though, and it goes without saying that a good loose cattle mineral would need to be out free choice. I also agree that your aiming for way to high a protein on your grain, we only feed kids that high of a protein. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), March 04, 2001.

My county agent recommended striving for 18% because that is about what commrcial feed is. The companies must guarantee 16% so they usually hit about 18% if you calculate the ratios out. I never tried but alot of people around here mix their own feed. Previously, I had my feed custom mixed with cornmeal, oats, and soybean meal. This was a recipie from a goat dairy owner. With custom mixing I had to order 500 lbs and it was a pain to keep up with. I chose cracked corn instead of the cornmeal as they usually pick out the solid parts. Never used molasses and have not noticed any coughing.

-- Cindy (ourfamilyfarm@email.msn.com), March 05, 2001.

With a sacked feed guaranteeing a 16% protein, there will not be a minute amount of any protein above that in the 16%. With the way most sacks guarantee their minimums you have no way of knowing what the protein is in this particular batch of feed, since it will say roughage by products, grain by products and plant by products. They could choose anything to hit these minimums, including things that have very little nutritional value. When you do mix your own grains or have the opportunity to have it mixed, pick the most unprocessed grain, crimped corn over corn meal, crimped or whole oats or barley over wheat middlings or bran. The courser the grain, except for whole corn which grinds down the girls molars, the better it is for the goat, the more they can assimilate out of the grain, by the initial grinding, then the ruminating of the grain further in the rumen and then the rechewing of the grain by the cud. If you feed processed grains, chopped corn, cornmeal or pellets, than the rumen and the cud chewing is lessened. Especially in the cold scarry weather some of you are talking about, the girls need to ruminate to keep their body temps up, their rumen truly is like a little furnace in their when it is full and working correctly. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), March 05, 2001.