I am confused about mineral feed for my animals.

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I have beef cattle, dairy goats, a horse (which will be gone by winter) and sheep which all run together in the pasture. I want to provide a mineral block or loose minerals, and I get confused by those available at the farm store. There are some exclusively for horses, for beef cattle, lactating cattle and goats, wormers, fly repellants and on and on. It gets very confusing. I can not seperate a different block for each species since they all will have access to it. I have heard that copper is toxic to sheep and that selenium is very important for all. It is hard to find minerals without copper and with selenium. Any suggestions on how to feed them all minerals from the same block or bag?

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), October 02, 2000

Answers

Well to be on the safe side with the sheep, use plain salt and loose minerals without any cooper. How do you feed grain to these animals .My sheep feed can be toxic to the horses, I guess you could give corn to all. Had a friend feed a cattle feed that claimed to have no copper and it did and they lost some sheep. Another problem is the other animals need copper. Let us know what you do, I have a similar problem, just divide in to different areas for the feed and have separated the pastures for different mineral blocks. Yes selenium is so... important especially to sheep. Lambs will dies right after birth if you are defiecient. You can buy a jell of selenium mixed with Vit.E thought MidStates and it tells how much to give to each animal per weight.

-- Debbie Wolcott (bwolcott@cwis.net), October 02, 2000.

Do not give your sheep any mineral with copper in it, they will die. Find a mix with selenium, and if you think its not enough you can give selenium shots. Can you give the goats a copper/mineral suppliment when you milk them? Can you sprinkle their grain in their stanchions with kelp? I would mix DE in with the minerals for all animals as a natural wormer, throw some DE on their backs as a fly repellent or squirt them with a vinegar/dish soap mix. Can you hand feed the goats and/or cows some grain with kelp or copper suppliment? My goats had a copper deficiency and were in very bad shape, I would check with the cattle raisers in your area (maybe your vet, too) and see if your area is deficient, you might not need to suppliment copper.

-- Julie (julieamc@excite.com), October 02, 2000.

Julie, what kind of luck do you have with DE, I had a terrible parasite problem this last summer. In fact it took 11 worming to get it straigten out (they had an immunity to two of the wormers I was using and couldn't get it through the vets mind about this!) I have been thinking of using DE on the ground in the paddock that the sheep are in just for night(coyote proof). I feel there is a parasite overload in that paddock even though I have cleaned it over and over again. Thanks, Debbie

-- Debbie Wolcott (bwolcott@cwis.net), October 03, 2000.

I feed all my animals the same mineral: 2/3 kelp and 1/3 plain salt,mixed. I add powdered garlic most of the time, for worm control. I use this on sheep, horses, cattle, llamas, donkeys. Have always had healthy animals, even the sheep, though I was reluctant at first because of the cautions on copper.Perhaps has something to do with certain breeds of animals? Maybe breeds whose genetics include grazing by seashore are more apt to do better on just kelp, since it is quite perfectly balanced. I also worm all my animals once every month or two for three days straight by giving them Shaklee Basic H soap in their water; I never use chemical wormers,and have no problems with parasites.

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), October 08, 2000.

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