Mineral Adventures

Because of the way I feed my herd, it's hard to give an individual "dose" per animal, but when I first started using the EZ Pelz I substituted about 1/8 of the ration for one feeding, with the EZ pelz. So in essence, 1/16th of the ration for that time was EZ Pelz. I did that for about a week, and then I went back to the normal ration, putting a top dress of EZ Pelz on the regular feed and then mixing that in. I continue to do that once a day, though sometimes I forget. I don't double up the next day though.

I have seen my bucks get much stronger colors in their coats. Rut was extended by a couple of weeks, though with the warmer weather they are much calmer now. Does that had trouble conceiving, seem to have settled, though again, it may just be the end of breeding season. We'll see in a couple of months if that's true or not.

The strongest evidence that we have an improvement is that I have two does that now look very similar. Before, Timpatience was as white as a Saanen. Her past brothers had often been white, and she, at two years old, had never shown any sign of any other color. Now she's a heavily roaned white with red guard hairs. Her half-sister, Mithral, is very much the same color, and since both are now bred, it can be very hard to tell them apart.

We still find that the herd wants kelp, as there is still a race to the bucket when we fill it up, so obviously the EZ pels isn't the complete solution here. But those are organic minerals, so they are naturally chelated. We still have one doe with a problem, but we're working on finding that solution. Hers is not as simple as a lack of access. It's more one of personality. Hopefully we'll find the answer to her problem soon.

But in this herd, EZ Pels has made a big difference. As with anything else, I don't think there's ever any Easy Solution to every problem, but it's a big step toward a solid baseline. Hope that helps.