The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: dixie on April 09, 2018, 04:03:39 pm
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Im running out of sheep mix so picked up a bag of goat mix as en emergency, ingredients are pretty much the same except the goat has 8.7mg/kg copper, I know sheep can't have too much copper but could I use this if nothing else?
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The maximum inclusion for sheep is 15 mg/kg I think, so unless you have copper sensitive breeds you should be okay.
Sugar beet nuts are an excellent alternative in an emergency, and they are 7mg/kg copper.
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I wouldn't because of the extra copper. If the feed shop is out of Ewe nuts I feed sugar beet or sometimes and all stock mix
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We're now feeding grass pellets, stocked by most pet and horse places as well as agri merchants. The Dengie one is meadow grass, nothing added, non-GM, 16% protein.
Or you could mix that with the goat mix and so dilute the copper ;)
Copper-sensitive breeds include North Ronaldsay (highly sensitive, even a little can kill a copper-naive sheep) and Texels. I've never been sure whether it's just that Texels are really good at managing on very low copper, or are actually likely to die from over-exposure. But even if it's the latter, I believe it's a cumulative effect, so they're unlikely to have their livers explode if they're fed goat mix for a few days.
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Thank you everyone, I've got enough sheep mix for the morning and I'm going to take the goat feed back, just means a drive to a different store in the morning, I have a bot of sugar beet left so I've soaked that to bulk out what I have left! Love this site and all the knowledge thank you.
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Just a note ..... sugar beet doesn't need to be soaked to be fed to sheep.
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I just like to soak it to bulk out the amount of sheep mix I have left.