Your op on protien pails

[Cannon_Farms]

I have seen them at the store but doesnt seem to sell well, to be honest I have not even looked to see what they are about.
Pros and cons, and should I be buying one? The goats share salt block with the horse, mineral block rather and the more I learn the more I wonder

[DQ]

do you have working goats (milking) or pet goats? working goats need more than a horse block or a protein tub, the tubs tend to be full of molasses and don't contain a good salt to mineral level which is not good. pet goats wouldn't need extra protein from them anyway.

[Alice In TX/MO]

If it has Urea, it's not good for horses, either.

Use good hay, good alfalfa pellets, good simple grain - oats or barley.

[KimM]

I bought a few of the goat protein pails from TSC and my goats won't touch it. They have plenty of loose mineral so maybe that's why. I wish they'd eat it though, I want to use the little pails!

[effboergoats]

My 4 boer cross does love the goat protein pails from TSC. They go thru one in about a month and since I have been giving it to them they look a lot better than they did before. They did not touch the salt block that was put out, put that pail they just love.

[jill.costello]

I have also used and liked the TSC goat protein pails. I feed alfalfa hay (1 big flake per goat per day), loose minerals and the pails. They also get to nibble whatever grows in their yard.

I don't use them to supplement anything, really, just something sweet and yummy for them to "do"; they like them!

My goats are NOT milkers, just pets.

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

What is the protein source? Most down here are cottonseed meal. Make sure you read the tag each and everytime..Sweetlix makes a protein lick, and although they are about as goat savvy as they come, one of the blocks they make that is labeled for goats does contain urea...the first symtpom of uric posioning is death.

Also make sure you need the protein in the diet of your dairy goat. IF she is recieving the protein she needs from her calicum rich alfalfa than adding yet more protein will make her leach out her calcium as she candy coats the urine which is rich in protein they pee out. Excess protein in the urine is acid droplet that the body pulls calcium out of the bones and blood to coat so it doesn't burn the urethra. This is the same thing that happens to women. Osteoperosis is the resulting problem in our western diet...in dairy does it bows their legs and causes hypocalcemia.

Protein is the most expensive part of your feeding management, excess is wasteful. What does an adult goat use protein for? Answer that question first before you spend money on a product. vicki

[Cannon_Farms]

the majority of my goats are still growing, and since they where stunted from a bad year with coccidia I was thinking about it to help them out. All of them seem to make a grand improvment once they come here and get off the medicated feed and have a large browse selection.
I am not feeding alfalfa hay until there is nothing left for them to eat, until a horse or two get adopted, its just not finacially something I can do, or feel the need to.
The only grains they get is what the steal from the horses and some all stock for putting up purposes, since they are pleasantly plump I didnt see where they need to much more to eat.

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

I am not feeding alfalfa hay until there is nothing left for them to eat, until a horse or two get adopted, its just not finacially something I can do, or feel the need to.

The only grains they get is what the steal from the horses and some all stock for putting up purposes, since they are pleasantly plump I didnt see where they need to much more to eat.
........................

Do you have dairy goats? You say they are pleasantly plump and that thy don't ned to much more to eat, than why the protein licks, which aren't just protein but grain? Why not alfalfa pellets to put them up? You won't need to get through to many pregnancies and lactations with loss from hypocalcemia, which will be missdiagnosed as ketosis with loss, to understand that if you can't find a readibly asorbable form of calcium for your does everyday, even if it is only a pound of alfalfa pellets or some alfalfa hay daily, you will have problems. If you had been feeding alfalfa you wouldn't see any plumpness in your kids, they would be lean, long and hard. That is what alfalfa gives you. Finding alternative sources for the calcium needs in dairy animals is always key when alfalfa prices go up like they have.

If you were local of course this conversation would be eaiser I would have you out in the pens with my kids Prevention for cocci and worms would have meant these kids of yours would not have problems already, and prevention of hypocalcemia as you breed and freshen them will mean you aren't on here with dieing does or does who freshen skeletally thin. Prevention is of course key. Vicki

[Cannon_Farms]

These are meat bred goats, I only have one possible pregnant doe, the rest are all 5months or less.
i wasnt sure what the protien pails where for, but considering they are shorter than what they should be I thought they would benifit, but its also a question customers have asked.

Vicki, if I understand you properly, if alfalfa is fed they wont need protien blocks?

I dont have a problem with coccida yet here, but the woman who i buy them from does, and oddly, it seems that when I bring them home and get them off the medicated feed is when they start looking allot better, and thats all she uses for a prevetion. She has 40 acres for them and about 30 goats

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Alfalfa pellets have at least 17% protein guranteed and most alfalfa hay has alot more than this. What you should be asking yourself for the incoming winter is not just roughage, does your forage in your woods last all winter like ours does because we don't have anything more than night freezes and the occasional frost? And how will you be supplementing your goats energy?

So what you have learned from the gal you have purchased from is that medicated grain only works AFTER you have them eating enough of it. Kids do not eat enough medicated grain at the 4 weeks old when cocci strikes, so treat them orally at 3 weeks, and perhaps 6 weeks and then rely on the medicated grain...but if you use medicated grain they have to be consuming as much as the bag is dosed at, so if you scrimp and only give them a small handful when the medication is dosed at 1 pound per 33 or 50 pounds of bodyweight, than you have never medicated them anyway. So as you build cocci and worm burdens in your pasture and barns, over the next several years, don't fall into this same problem, stunted kids by using meds and wormers that don't work because you aren't using enough or using them incorrectly.

40 acres and 30 goats is fine, 100 acres and 30 goats is exactly the same. The goats congregate near the barn, near the water source, that is the problem. Vicki

[Cannon_Farms]

I will have to feed them through the winter, which isnt a huge burdon, I get alfalfa hay for 8 a bale, I just dont feel as though they really need anything with all they have to eat hear, the varriety alone is quite bountiful. the grass kinda stays year around but the vines die off. If I had thought they really needed the protien pail they would have had it, the little buckling I just got from her would be a nice one, if he would grow, so I didnt know if it would help him along..

Your right about the feed, 50lb bag for the whole herd every other day and there are some looking rather rough. They get pasture, and the DQ feed from TSc

[SLD Farm]

I feed the Sweetlix Meatmaker Roughage Balancing protein tubs. I like them and my goats like them. The goats utilize these mainly in the winter. With them I feed grain (only 1/2# each, 2-3X per week) along with grass/timothy hay. Since I began their use my goats hold their weight better, kid easier and those kids are up and at it more quickly.
In the summer, the goats ignore them, they get all they need from their pasture so I feed sweetlix loose minerals only.

Shannon L Darby
SLD Farm
Beallsville, OH
http://www.sldfarm.net

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Here is the ingredient label of your product. Feather meal as some of your protein the rest cottonseed meal, there isn't a product that carries more insecticide and exfoliate than cottonseed meal...add mineral oil (a petroleum product) to this list of goodies and do you really want this in your milk or meat? Vicki

Cane Molasses, Cottonseed Meal, Hydrolyzed
Feather Meal, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Oil,
Dicalcium Phosphate, Salt, Magnesium Oxide,
Calcium Iodate, Copper Sulfate, Cobalt Sulfate,
Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Oxide, Manganese
Sulfate, Sodium Molybdate, Sodium Selenite,
Zinc Oxide, Zinc Sulfate, Vitamin A
Supplement, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Vitamin
E Supplement, Mineral Oil and Propionic Acid
(as a preservative).