Mixing Our Own Goat Grain

[@takeitslowhomestead5218]

I appreciate how careful you are at introducing their new feed. Thanks for the education!

[@heidipustelniak652]

Oh my goodness! I am mathematically challenged! Glad you are going able to figure all that out! Having a decent amount of grain sure helps during milking!

[@jennahelton7412]

Thanks for sharing this! I'm actually one county over from you, and I am looking to get into dairy goats in the near future. Thanks for this valuable info!

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

Be warned: they are addictive! Lol. I LOVE my goats!

[@barkerfamilyfarms6482]

We just had to put down our son's goat yesterday due to UC, and we had quit feeding boys grain a while ago. I'm so happy to see you are taking UC into consideration

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

Oh I'm so sorry for your/his loss! It's so horrible to lose our beloved animals.

[@QuailTale]

Beautiful vlog 🙂 keep on sharing!

[@TateBugs]

Wow!!! You did a lot of math work! How has this feed been performing the last 5 months? Do you have an update video?

[@plainpat]

Part of me would want to just throw it together, the other part knows these sweet animals would depend on me doing all that math. They are worth it! Good to see you all!

[@highroad3580]

I am with you on dairy goats feed needs and want to see how your goats do on your new mix. Our goats pastures/woods are organically kept and we fed Tucker Milling goat pellets and free choice minerals and copper mix per Pat Coleby book Natural Goat Care. Last year our goats were needing more as they had Dec kids. So I added BOSS and rice bran horse boost feed. It helped, but like you found, there was expense and it was not really enough. I was pouring the feed to them. Tucker Milling added a dairy goat feed to their line and after researching the ingredients and price, I got excited! And it feeds less than the maintenance feed. Started feeding it a few weeks ago and everyone, including the buck is doing great. Had two does kid early August and their milk is high and holding! So far we are very happy with this new feed!

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

So glad that you are having success! We will definitely be keeping everyone posted on how the girls do on this new feed! I have no complaints at all about the Tucker Milling dairy feed, just want to see if we can maintain quality while also keeping production up. 🤞

[@jamesjessee4064]

👍

[@DannyYoung-s3t]

I don’t know what I’m missing, but I can’t find it. Thank you for your help though.

[@HeatherNaturaly]

Where are you getting the rolled barley? I'm having a hard time finding most grain at all, tho I have a readily available wheat supply. Decades ago, when I had a commercial goat dairy, I used to mix their feed. Funny I had totally forgotten that till I watched this video. I used to soak oats/grain in water with apple cider vinegar and seaweed meal and copper sulfate then mix that 1:4 with chaff hay. Yes, I mixed this daily, for 80 goats. I've never seen or heard of chaff in America except compressed alfalfa or straw bales. Currently I feed my animals on sprouted grains, but I no longer have goats. Sprouting grains doubles the available protein from 15% to 30%.

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

There is a small feed store near(ish) to me, and they can order it from a local mill for me. The barley and the oats had to be special ordered, but if this mix works out I can order more at a time. I would love to try sprouted grains at some point! Though I can't imagine mixing it every day for 80 goats! Just trying to feed half a dozen has been melting my brain. Lol

[@HeatherNaturaly]

@@WelcomeGroveHomestead 🤣

[@louisaholman3838]

Hi, they are adorable! Do you feed them leaves and grass? Good luck with the gi

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

They do have a pasture and have been fed hay. The grain is additional feed to help them during milk production.

[@domesti-city]

I recently saw a youtube video on a rolling soil sifter made to sift compost. It appeared to originally have been designed from a five gallon bucket, then evolved. I'm thinking you could rig up something similar with some pvc pipe for a stand and handle, and a bucket or barrel instead of hardware cloth sides, and make a simple efficient mixer for your feed. Maybe search on rolling soil sifter on KZbin? I love that you can do math!

[@TateBugs]

And is there any chance you priced out what 50 lbs of this mix costs verses 50 lbs of general goat feed?

[@beckyprice5957]

What about using a composting barrel to mix the feed?

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

We did get one to try, but it's an imperfect solution. The edges don't seal, which would lose a lot of the soybean meal during mixing. We are actually looking into getting a small cement mixer in the future.

[@trenarexroad4083]

Hope the new mix works out great for your babies😊

[@garyscales4808]

What is your new lactating doe feed recipe? I saw you comment on it to another question and am trying to come up with a recipe for a doe that isn't producing a lot.

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

I'll have to do a video soon! It's 30% crimped oats, 30% cracked corn, 20% alfalfa pellets, 15% soybean meal, and 5% black oil sunflower seeds. Protein is at 16.76% Additional alfalfa can help with calcium levels as well to balance with the phosphorus in the grains.

[@timnichols8275]

Is this totally safe for bucks to eat with out adding ammonium chloride?

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

It is a balanced ration, so I think it is fine. My bucks don't eat it regularly though. They just don't need it. They enjoy it as a treat during hoof trims. My growing buckling and wether ate it for months with no ill effects

[@timnichols8275]

@@WelcomeGroveHomestead thank you😀

[@CatalpaCreekFarm]

Hi, do you still use this mix for your goats? How is it working out?

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

Yes I do. The goats love it, and it kept condition on the bred does all winter. Bulked up the bucks just before breeding too. I am experimenting with a new mix that is slightly higher protein for lactating does. We shall see how it plays out.

[@Adnancorner]

Why dont you try lentils and other pulses for the goats instead of soybean ? Even alfalfa seeds are also legume

[@sandieweatherup]

How do you keep the bags of grain safe from escaping animals?

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

The extra bags are in another barrel and locked up

[@DannyYoung-s3t]

What did the % come out to in 2lb scoops

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

If you look at the later video I posted I included directions for hand mixing in the description. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pKPSgXutaJyJjcU

[@doinacampean9132]

Are you going to grow your own oats, alfalfa, grain etc for the goats?

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

There is not a current plan to do so, but I would really love to.

[@DannyYoung-s3t]

What was the actual mixture ratio?

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

I gave a full breakdown in the follow-up video I made, but here is the ratio: Rolled barley (35%) Alfalfa pellets (35%) Cracked corn (10%) Crimped oats (10%) Soybean meal (6%) Black oil sunflower seeds (4%)

[@cherylguess3859]

get you cement to mix it in

[@charmainemrtnz]

Does it help your channel if we watch the commercials. And do we need to watch them all the way through? I call this KZbin math! I want you to get the best bang for your buck!

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

So the way it works is if you watch at least 30 seconds of the ad, it helps the channel (for the skippable ones). After 30 seconds it no longer matters and you can skip. I actually didn't know that until I looked it up! Lol

[@jo-annjewett198]

I use whole oats and whole barley. Does it make any difference?

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

Ruminants don't thoroughly chew food on the way down the hatch because they chew cud later. But grains don't usually come back up with the cud. So many of the whole grains continue to stay whole. The hardened seed casings make them a little harder for the digestive system to break down and utilize the nutrients. Getting them slightly broken down in the form of rolling or crimping can make those nutrients a little more available to the animal. But breaking down TOO much can also lose some of those nutrients just to natural decay (not spoilage, just a loss as the seed dries out). I haven't done a side-by-side comparison myself. This is information that I learned back in college when I took a feed and nutrition class. So I say do what works for you and your herd. If you prefer the whole grains then stick with it. I don't know if the difference is significant.

[@davidj.mackinney6568]

I can't believe you could feed any animal a non organic feed. I don't think they eat rocks. Do you feed your males grain?

[@WelcomeGroveHomestead]

Adults, no. Babies get a small amount of grain while they are growing (also Ca:P balanced)

[@kkeenan536]

What is that noise in the background? Really distracting when I’m trying to listen to you! I realize most people probably don’t even hear it, but as a “music” person I hear all the sounds!