The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: heyhay1984 on April 06, 2015, 11:29:21 am
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Hi all, first time poster but long time lurker! I run a small school 'farm', pet sheep and ducks, a couple of weaners a year for sausages, chickens, do a bit of showing.
We're rehoming a Pygmy goat (long story but it's on its own at mo so won't be any worse off with/next door to the sheep until we find a pal for her, she's old and her original pal has died) too, and my thoughts have turned to summer feeding, we always give a tiny bit of sheep feed to keep them hand tame which is obviously important in the school situation.
Rather than having a bag of sheep crunch, a bag of Pygmy goat food, a bag of mixed corn for the ducks (it's a batchelor group so no layers needed), all open for ages due to the small amount each animal gets in the summer, deteriorating, would I be better keeping, say, a bag of wheat and a bag of oats and using that for the sheep, goats and ducks?
Obviously the pigs will stay on their pig nuts and horse carrots but they could always have a bit of the straights mixed in for variety, I like to scatter feed them when it's dry.
Thanks for any advice and opinions- if sticking to several bags is the better option then that's not a problem but thought I'd put the idea out there!
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I'll bump this up for you ' the sheep would be ok on the corn fed whole and the ducks but a goat is above my pay grade :innocent:
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My goats get oats and barley but they also get alfalfa so that I can balance the calcium phosphorous ratio for them
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the goaty girl will love carrots - cut into long thin sticks so she can pick them up easily (not slices). I don't have pygmies, but from the many I see in photos that are somewhat overweight, I think she may be fine with mostly hay and carrots with only a very small amount of oats.
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Thanks all for your replies :thumbsup: goaty is in pretty good condition having met her tonight but definitely don't want any fatties of any species, but food is a great way to make and keep friends!
So pigs on pig nuts and carrots and maybe a sprinkle of oats and wheat as a scatter feed
Sheep and goats on the same mouthful oats and carrots each (tho the sheep are a bit thick about veggies)
Batchelor ducks on wheat and oats
Nobody on sticky molasses mixes and not many feed bags open at a time, sounds good to me!
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just something to be aware of with feeding wheat to the ducks - it is fairly low in linoleic acid (it has 1/2 the amount of corn) and a deficiency of this can cause poor growth and pale skin.
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I would not be feeding wheat to the goat or sheep personally but whole oats should be fine for all species.
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I worked at a place and they fed whole wheat in large quantities to sheep with no problems at all, couldn't comment on goats though....
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Looks like it'll just be oats all round then, lovely! I have put the little goat in with last year's North Ronaldsay ewe lamb- the sheep is definitely not the boss! Going to try my quiet wether in with them tomorrow too then the bolshy ewe and naughtier wether when timing seems right.