Feeding your goats and sheep

Dear Shane,

I have a question about feeding my rams.

Could I feed them horse feed to boost their mating performance? Also, could I feed cattle feed to goats and sheep?

Please give me some basic information on mixing ram feed on farm. If I use commercial feed, what must I add to improve condition and performance? Kind regards,

Morries

Dear Morries,

You could probably feed cattle feed to sheep and goats, but make sure that there is no urea/ NPN in the feed as the levels appropriate for cattle may be harmful to smallstock. The nutritional makeup of cattle feed may also not be perfect for smallstock, so I wouldn’t usually advise people to use cattle feed for their goats and sheep. I also don’t think that horse feed will boost libido in sheep or goats as the nutritional makeup is also different.

Here is a good feed mixture that I use for cattle and smallstock: mix 1 x 30kg bag of maize germ meal, 25kg milled lucerne, and 20kg crushed maize (I usually add 20kg of molasses meal to this for cattle). A good tonic with which to dose your ewes and rams (and even cattle) is Embamin T.E. This includes important trace elements and minerals that help with fertility issues and overall health. You can dose your smallstock with this three to four times a year, but read the mixing and dosing instructions carefully. Kind regards, Shane