Response to Sunflower as small livestock feed supplement

Pat, we have fed black-oil sunflower seeds to our Dairy Goats, Nubains and LaMancha's for some time. With the Y2K stuff it was what I put away for feeding of protein during lactation. The only draw back in storage is that they contain moths. So we store them in their sacks in a metal dumpster with a lid, away from the house and barn. I keep about 150 pounds in the barn in rubbermaid trash cans. (A dear friend down the road had squirrels chew holes through the top of her lids to get to them, they left her sweet-feed alone) Sunflower seeds are high in protein, excellent roughage (the shell) and add excellent fat to the diet which increases the butterfat of my milk, more cheese etc. The one added bonus that we found is that it is a food that my baby goats love and will start consuming early. We take our kids from their mom's at birth and raise seperatly,(the only way I can guarantee health for sales) so they don't learn to eat from mom. I offer them some of our custom mix at about 2 weeks and though they pick through it, I wouldn't call it eating, with the sunflower seeds on top, it is eating! We have such poor hay quality here in Humid Texas, we can get nice hay it just doesn't keep, so getting the kids eating good feed with nice roughage is important, we show our stock and kids have to be extra growthy. I have never fed seeds to anything else, I am going to go out this morning and see if the rabbits want some. Good luck with your farm. Vicki McGaugh

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