My feed mix

I began by feeding my livestock organic no-soy feed which I purchased from a wonderful co-op in Amery, WI.  I was doing one thing for the chickens and another for the boy goats with additional adaptations for the girl goats.  Yikes!  It was like running a blessed livestock cafe!  In addition, whole kernels are hard to digest, so it came cracked.  I knew from my reading on human nutrition that once grains are cracked or ground they lose most of their nutritional value in 24 hours.  So I was hassling, driving, and paying more for less nutrition.

My goal was to develop my own recipe for local, organic, whole uncracked grains which could be easily and quickly adapted from 14% protein for male goats to 16% for lactating goats to 18% for chickens.  I wanted to be able to soak daily portions overnight to sprout the grains making them more nutritious and easier to digest.  Plus it would be nifty if the recipe could somehow dovetail with the cat's carnivore diet.  All for less money, preferably.

Oh, and the sun, moon, and stars, too. :)


Over time, I researched,  consulted with the nutritionist, and  developed my own recipe which I now mix once a month using a bathroom scale I keep in the garage.  I store it, divide it into daily portions, and soak overnight.  I continue to tweak as I discover better ingredients and better local suppliers.  

Here's the basic recipe:

Amy's 14% protein mix (for male goats and non-lactating females):

• 5 parts barley
• 4 parts wheat
• 1 part oats
• 1-2 parts flaxseed

For 16% protein (for lactating goats):

• add alfalfa pellets 

For 18% protein (for chickens):

• add meat and dairy

So, for example, using my bathroom scale, I would weigh out 5 pounds barley, 4 pounds wheat, 1 pound oats, and about 2 pounds of flaxseed.  Or if I triple 15#, 12#, 3#, and 6# respectively.

My favorite chicken meat supply is free deer carcasses which the chickens spend weeks pecking down to the fibers in the bones.  This keeps them active on chilly days as well as providing protein.  Another good source is the cat's raw meat chunks.

On my kitchen counter, I keep food scraps in piles- omnivore, herbivore, and carnivore.  Then about dusk, I distribute them to chickens, goats, and cat respectively.  I throw in vegetable scraps, cheese rinds, fruit cores/pits, meat bits, leftover soup, pork chop bones, raw kifer too long in the fridge, forgotten bits in the bottoms of pans, the last unappetizing bean sprouts, etc.  The one exception is that no livestock eat any meat like other animals we have on the farm, so all chicken and turkey meat/broth/bones get thrown away and egg shells get composted rather than served.  I don't want anybody getting ideas about nibbling on anybody else.  Besides cannibalism is taboo for health reasons as well as moral ones.  Fortunately, we eat a lot of pork so those scraps do get served as do fish or beef or lamb.

This fall we froze winter livestock rations- apple cores, under and over-ripe squash, blemished tomatoes, sweet pepper seeds and stems, pineapple cores- all kinds of leftovers from processing and freezing our own stuff.  We collected leftover, frost-damaged pumpkins from the local pumpkin patch for free on November 1.  Those were a big hit with chickens and especially goats through December.  When we went apple picking for ourselves, we picked up apples off the ground separately and let them freeze in the garage in old clothes baskets.  Also a big hit through January.

I try to feed to 'condition' which means adjusting the amount based on the animals' body shapes, aiming for livestock that are neither too fat nor too thin.  This works well for the lactating does when they're on the milking stand twice every day, assuming we actually know how to evaluate this accurately, which Tim and I are learning to do.  Unfortunately, all the goats ended the summer overweight; they've been slimming down this winter so kidding won't go badly.

In practice, especially with the chickens, I watch their behavior.  If they are fighting over food or frantically searching and searching for more,  I add some.  If they are leaving a bunch to freeze on the ground, I either reduce the total amount or divide it into a morning main feeding and a bedtime snack.  If they hustle to the food, all settle into eating without bickering, and then go off to rest, I've gotten it about right.

In the future I would like to offer:

• the goats free-choice kelp, baking soda, goat minerals, and herbal dewormer
• the chickens free-choice kelp, oyster shell, and herbal dewormer

We throw away ounces of food scraps a week now and we've cut our feed and transportation costs way, way down while increasing quality and nutritional value.

I'll keep you posted on the sun, moon, and stars. ;)