Organic Goat Feed Recipe
Well looky here! We've got a new tutorial! Three cheers for Caity, who never seems to do these when she intends to!! Wait, wha? Oh never mind...
Goat food. Recipe. More specifically, dairygoat food recipe. Yep, I live an exciting life. Instead of doing what the average 21 year old does, this one writes down and tries out recipes to feed goats. What can I say? I like to live life on the edge; with lots of danger and excitement. 'Cause, um, goat food is so -- so -- risky and thrilling? Okay, I give. I plead guilty to being a farm girl. And one who likes to cut costs when possible, increase profit, and be able to customize my own feed for my stock. That's excitement enough for me. :)
Almost seven years ago I started looking around for a way to make my own custom feed for my milking does. The feed at the store was something like $17 for a 50 lb. bag and not only did that NOT last long, but it had corn, soy, and a bunch of empty fillers in it; none of which I wanted my does to eat since I was trying to keeping things corn free/soy free for the sake of my customers. I was pretty clueless at first. What in the world did people feed their goats back in the old days? Can you really mix your own feed? *skeptical tone and look*
Modesto Milling–organic Goat Dairy Pellet 16% (#5030)
Then I found a recipe that seemed easy enough to make, proved to be cost effective, and the goats did AMAZINGLY on it. I've used this recipe ever since. I've even fed it to my dairy cows (with a slight modification that is explained below). So I thought I would share my recipe with y'all; if you're looking to try making your own feed for your caprine friends, then give this one a whirl!
The barley is essential for this mix. Barley = milk. The oats can be replaced with a different grain, but take care that you look into how that changes the protein content. This mix is supposed to come out averaging 16% to 18% protein, but you may want to check that on your own since grain can vary in protein content from area to area.
1. Find a big clean tarp (those blue, 10'x12' ones work great) and a clean leaf rake. These are your grain mixing tools!
Holle Goat Milk Formula Instructions
2. Dump the oats and barley onto the tarp and use that rake to start mixing it all together. This can take a few minutes.
3. Once the grain is thoroughly mixed, scatter the linseed meal and kelp meal over it all and gently spread it out. Over mixing at this point will make it all sift to the bottom, which makes the next step a bit harder...
4. Pour molasses over and mix that in too until you get a slightly tacky, but still well coated mix. How much molasses does it take? I can't say for sure. I've gotten nice thick batches of molasses where it only took 12 cups to coat 100+ lbs. of feed, and I've gotten thin batches that took loads of that sticky, sweet stuff to coat everything. I would probably suggest starting with 10-12 cups worth and then working your way up from there. It takes a LOT of mixing to really coat everything. It's almost like you have to rub it into the grain with that rake. When you think you've gotten everything coated, pull on a tarp corner to get the bottom flipped onto the top and then get that coated. Yep, right when you think you're done, you'll find that you're not. ;)
Dumor Goat Feed, 50 Lb. At Tractor Supply Co
5. Store! I kept my grain in metal trash cans meant specifically for grain. I find that this stuff stores pretty well (I think 40-50 days is the longest I've ever had this stuff hang around before it all got eaten), although since we don't get REALLY hot days here in Oregon, or humidity, I can't say what the shelf life of it would be for those of you who get real summers.
You may have noticed that I didn't include any salt in the mix; that's because I offer salt free choice at all times to my goats/cows. The kelp meal is a nutritional powerhouse that is packed with vitamins, minerals, and other such goodies, but not all of my goats would eat it free choice. Hiding it in the molasses coated feed got it in them no problem.
So there you have it! It's easy to make, relatively cheap, and you are able to choose what is - or isn't - in your feed. :)Once you’ve had chickens for a while you may want to experiment with making your own animal feeds. Making your own may not necessarily be cheaper, but you can use local and highly nutritious ingredients. Most conventional animal feeds rely heavily on corn and soybeans as the main ingredients. Unless you are paying for a high priced feed that is tested as being GMO free, your chickens are most likely eating genetically modified ingredients. Some people have no issues with GMO corn and soybeans, but others would prefer to use heritage varieties. Luckily making your own animal feeds is not super difficult!
James Kyle Custom Goat
Last winter I came across a GMO free feed recipe and I was super excited. I had already switched the goats off their prepackaged feed but was hesitant about phasing out the layer feed. I ended up switching all the animals to a feed mix and I am very happy with the results.
Our chickens are having the easiest molt ever, the goats are sleek and shiny, and the rabbits are looking good as well. I did make some personal tweaks to the recipe so the nutritional content is not exactly what is posted on the link. If you are interested in mixing your own feed at all check it out!
The mix I started out with is one part split peas or lentils, one part flax seeds or sunflower seeds, one part barley, and one part oats. I buy these in bulk from Winco or the feed store, where ever I happen to be shopping when it’s time to bulk up. Since switching I realized that the chickenswill pick through the mix to find their favorite items. Invariably this leaves behind a lot of split peas and lentils. If you want to keep using the split peas, grind the mix, add water, and feed daily as a mash.
Feeding Dairy Goats
If you are using lentils, sprouting them usually motivates the chickens to gobble them up. Sprouting is super easy, simply soak the seeds over night and then rinse daily until fed. If you have the space you can even green it up for fodder.
Recently I’ve switchedto using sunflower seeds as the main protein source, in addition to alfalfa (if you can find a GMO free source…) for the rabbits and goats. The barley can be swapped for wheat berries or cracked corn in the winter. The goats can eat whole oats, but the rabbits and chickens will absorb nutrients better if they are rolled or sprouted first. Recently I’ve been adding flax meal and a handful of salt to the mix for extra nutrition.
You will need to add supplements in separate dishes to make sure there are no nutrient deficiencies. The goats and rabbits will needminerals, and the goats will need baking soda. The chickens need oyster shellfor additional calcium. Ground kelp is a good source of copper and other nutrients, and my chickens and goats come running every time I refill their kelp bowl.
Supreme Show Goat
It’s also very important that your animals get fresh live foods daily as well as high protein ones. the best option is pasture or forage. You can even pasture your chickens on your lawn!
If that isn’t a possibility, you can still grow foods and bring them to your animals. Extra garden produce such as beets, chard, squash or cooked potatoes, comfrey, and even weeds like nettles and dandelions are highly nutritious and delicious to our furry and feathered friends.
If you plant cover crops you can cut them for feed or let the animals come to the garden plot in a tractor or temporary fencing. Some good options are kale, turnips, radishes, buckwheat, and clover. Some grains can even be grown in small spaces such as dent corn, broom corn, or amaranth. Left over fruits or ground nuts make good chicken and duck feed, and worms, slugs, Japanese beeetles, kefir or leftover dairy are great for added protein.
Organic Goat Feed Recipe
Chickens are also happy to eat extra eggs (hardboiled0, and even offal and blood left over from butchering your rabbits. The book The Small Scale Poultry Flock dedicates a great portion of it’s chapters to discussing replacing purchased feeds. If you want to get away from buying both premade feeds and purchased grains I highly recommend it.
If you want to learn more about animal nutrition National Academies Press offers a free download of the Nutrient Requirements of Poultry.
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