The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Jon Feather on February 10, 2016, 07:19:38 pm
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Bought this yesterday (supposed to be the same as the nomal one we get that has all sorts of flakes, grains and bits and pieces in it) but it just looks like brown pellets.
The label is a bit worrying too. I'd appreciate it if more experienced shepherds would take a look and give me your oppinion,
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Ewe 18?
That's what we get, possibly another name for them? Can't comment on the breed though :)
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Primitives don't need 18% protein, 16% is more suitable. I've not seen such a palaver about copper on the ingredients list before, so for that reason alone I would not have bought it. Also 'confectionary products'??
Ours love the stuff with lots of bits and have never had pellets or rolls so I don't know if they would eat it. The lambs love the bits of rolled maize. Ours is Carr's Champion Tup, suitable for all our sheep.
Maybe you could mix this with your usual feed half and half?
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i always feed a nut over a mix, the copper declaration is just letting you know that there is only naturally occurring copper and that extra has not been added. Confectionary products could be anything from broken biscuits to boiled sweets. As a basic feed goes I would say it should be ok but at 18% protein and primitives it depends on how much of the diet is hard feed and what is the quality of your forage.
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That is a general stock feed for cattle and sheep, not a dedicated feed for ewes/sheep. That's why there is the note about copper because cattle need it but sheep (mostly) don't. Most sheep feeds have molybdenum added to counteract the natural copper content of the ingredients. I think the copper is probably in the distillers grains?
Anyway, if its in-lamb ewes that you have then I would try to get a ewe-specific feed instead so that it has the right proportion of minerals that they need at this time of year. If you are just feeding stores or pets then it'll be fine. It's in pellet form so all those nice flakes and what not that you usually see have just been minced up together and re-formed into pellets. The pellet feeds are called "nuts" or "rolls" (bigger pellets), and the flake type feed is called "coarse mix". Hope that helps! :)
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I know that product and have used it as bucket/training food for our sheep but stopped getting it when we got our North Ronaldsays as they are very sensitive to copper.
Ok if you just want a bit of something to rattle in a bucket, ours were happy to eat it. I'm just wary of the copper problem with the Ronnies now (don't know if Shetlands have same problem, sorry)