# Own Grain mix Question



## ETgoatygirl (Mar 23, 2012)

I make my own grain mix to feed my does while they are producing milk. As there aren't any easily accessible organic/natural goat chow that I can get ahold of. Anyway, I was wondering how you would go about figuring out the protein content of your' homemade mix? My grain mix is 2 parts barley to 1 1/2 parts black sunflower seeds and 1 part oats. Anything in particular you think I should add? I want to make sure that they are getting the proper amount of protein. I have also recently started giving them flax meal once a week. Thanks!


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## Hobbyfarmer (Sep 7, 2011)

You can use a Pearson's Square. Here is a site that explains it well. Look under section 2: Making feeds of a desired protein level. http://www.lionsgrip.com/protein.html

The trickiest part for me was finding accurate protein contents on individual grains. Seem like most grains have a huge variation (+/- 5%) depending on what website you look at. It would be best if you could ask whoever grows the grain but that's next to impossible since we buy from a mill.

I use the recipe off Sweet Deseret Farms website. They are local to me and I've met and discussed goats with the owner, Daniel Babcock. He really knows his stuff and gets great results with this formula. http://www.sweetdeseret.com/wblog/?p=124

- 4 parts whole oats
- 2 parts whole barley
- 1 part cracked corn
- 1 part Black oil sunflower seed


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## Goat Song (May 4, 2011)

My way of figuring out protein content is pretty basic but it's close enough that I feel comfortable with doing it. Just add together the protein from each ingredient (the barely, oats, BOSS, and the flax meal if you put that in). Then take your total and divide it by the number of ingredients you added together (i.e. you added together three ingredients, so divide your total by three). Your feed mix sounds a lot like mine, except I don't use the BOSS (too expensive in my area!).


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