NH Homesteader's journal

[frustratedearthmother]

want to get away from pre-mixed feeds because you don't really know what's in them

I agree - just can't do it now. Too many stooped goats, lol! But, I do have good pasture/browse so they get the chance to balance themselves as much as possible.

When I showed my pygmies barley was a big part of their feed. Not sure why it agrees with goats so well, but it does. Problem with a lot of grains is that they're just not very high in protein. Doesn't matter so much in a wether, dry doe or non-breeding season for bucks. But for pregnancy/milk production ya gotta have protein. Alfalfa and Calf Manna (even though it's a pellet) is good to raise the protein level.

There's a lot of conflicting info out there for sure. When you get it figured out - lemme know!

 

[NH Homesteader]

That would be awesome to see! I have a friend who gets oats in bulk for his horses so I was thinking of getting some from him. I know the calcium/phosphorus ratio of them is wacky but alfalfa pellets should balance that out, and I already feed them plenty of those.

The turkeys are doing great! The one with the neck issue is doing much better! He's smaller than the others and a little awkward in his stance but straightening out more.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Oops typing at the same time. BOSS is also higher protein.

My concern is copper... Would I need to bolus them if they didn't have added copper in their feed?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Either that or a mineral mix that's pretty high in copper would be my guess.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Hmm mine is min 1350 ppm max 1600 ppm

 

[NH Homesteader]

I really don't mind bolusing. I have a small enough herd I can do more work! Lol

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I use Manna Pro...and I still have to bolus, ugh!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Yep that's what I use also. I haven't bolused before. My vet, who I otherwise love, insists that if I give a free choice mineral my goats can't be deficient. Sigh. They also are typically cheap price wise, but they said it would cost me $85 to do a mineral analysis on one goat!! I need to learn to draw blood. I have a suspicion of zinc deficiency on my Nigie. But I am not prepared to pay $125 (with office visit fee) to find out.

 

[lcertuche]

https://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/zinc.php has some ideas for zinc. Maybe grow more veggies high in zinc for animal feed. Squash, pumpkin seeds, spinach, beans, mushrooms? At least at least a couple should be possible. Some people believe that squash and pumpkin seeds make a good natural wormer. I am planting some this year for my chickens (eventually).

 

[NH Homesteader]

Well we now have 2 broody turkey hens sitting side by side, lol. It's my oldest hen and her daughter from 2 years ago. Now we need to separate the tom and other hen so I'm bugging DH to help me with that asap so we don't have a repeat massacre like last year. Just going to make a hoop coop so it should be fairly simple. The biggest problem is the panels are part of our current pig fence...