Post suggestion by Allan
I recently got an e-mail from a long-time viewer of the blog with some follow-up questions regarding a post I wrote a few years ago about avoiding Coccidiosis. Here's how the conversation went:
Matt,
I have several questions but first a little background. My wife and I bought a ranch as I retired ten years ago. It is in south Texas and adjoins her parents’ ranch. We have also taken over my father-in-law’s cattle operations.
However eight months ago, at age 89, he decided he would start a goat business. He knows little about goats so I have been trying to learn as much as I can from websites like your blog ever since. That said, I am very interested in learning better ways to do it both for helping today and to prepare me for tomorrow.
Your blog has me interested in Rumensin minerals. Would you be willing to give me some advice as to how you feed this product to your goats?
What period of the year do you use the SweetLix with Rumensin?
Do you control which goats have access to it?
How do you make certain all the goats you feel should have it actually get it? Our goats have a pecking order around the feed and I’m sure some don’t get any at all.
Do you have to get the doelings/bucklings you wish to sell off of the medicated feed for a defined period before they can be sold?
My father-in-law still has good forage available (50% south Texas brush, 50% pasture with mixed grasses/ weeds). The only supplemental food he puts out is corn. Initially it was to train the herd to come in every night. But as soon as we get a freeze things will change more.
Thanks,
Allan
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Allan,
Welcome to the goat business! I hope you enjoy it as much as we have.
I'm happy to tell you about what has worked for us; I'm not a vet, though.
We don't mix our minerals with anything. We just leave them out for the goats to eat whenever their bodies need them. We offer free-choice minerals year-round but mainly worry about Rumensin minerals from about a month before kidding until the kids are weaned. We offer minerals to every goat on the ranch but NOT TO HORSES. I've been told that goat minerals have too much copper for a horse and can kill them. I'm not sure if this is true for cattle. We give our goats Sweetlix 16:8 Meat Maker with Rumensin. I found an online store that carries it here.
Since the minerals are always available, the goats usually don't fight over them too much. Any goat that wants the minerals can walk over and get them. We have had to stop providing minerals for a few months occasionally; when we put them out again, the goats will sometimes eat a whole bag in about 48 hours. After a couple weeks, they slow down again. 200 goats will eat a 25lb bag about every 2 weeks. But, the rate varies wildly depending on the season.
I believe Rumensin is safe to feed to animals before slaughter. I found this FDA article that says it can be used to increase weight gain in slaughter cattle (among other uses).
We use a swivel feeder that we got from a friend to give the minerals to the goats. At the time, we never would have paid this much money for a glorified feed bowl. However, I would definitely pay for one today. We've been using ours for over 10 years and it still gets the job done. The fin on the top of the feeder turns the opening away from the wind when it's raining. This keeps the minerals dry. The swivel also prevents the goats from knocking it over. It doesn't take very many bags of ruined minerals to pay for the feeder. Here's a link to a similar Sydell product.
If we do give feed (separate from the minerals), we usually use 20% protein cattle cubes. The main reason they need feed is to supplement a lack of good weeds to eat when the property gets eaten down too much. Protein is the most important thing in bagged feed.
I hope this helps! Keep questions like these coming. I'll probably start turning them into posts that might help other people who have the same questions!
-- Matt
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