Yep, you read it right the first time, it’s a Mineral Buffet!
After many years of trying to get a good mix for our animals and then BoSe (Selenium/vitamin E supplement) becoming prescription only, we finally decided to give the buffet system a try.
We had a couple years we only did the mineral mixes and copper bonuses every 2 months, the 2nd year we lost 5 out of 7 baby goats born on our farm. The deaths were all boys. 1 girl went on to be a perfectly lovely doe, she’s had babies, has a lovely temperament, and she milks great. The other doeling however never could get pregnant for her owners, we even brought her back to the farm as a 2 year old and she lived full time with the bucks for 2 years and never settled. The bucks loved having her around because she always came into heat, she’d get bred, but she would never settle (get pregnant).
We were able to get some BoSe again and began dosing the herd 2x yearly, babies were much healthier, stronger, but we continued to have lots of issues with kidding. The year before we started the buffet system, I had to assist with EVERY does birth, and with EVERY kid being born. We had a set of triplets that were so tangled up, and even after getting them untangled 2 came butt first and all 3 needed my help pulling them out, and each doe that gave birth that year was that way.
It was exhausting, I was tired, people mention farmer burn out: it’s very real.
We got our mineral buffet set up October of 2022. So been using it just over 2 years now.
At first, a big perk, was just not having to copper bolus or give injections of BoSe. Definitely saves a lot of time, planning, and effort just there.
Kidding season came, and it was a breeze! We had maybe 1 doe that needed a little help due to a big kid, but nothing major at all. Several does gave birth 100% unassisted. Much less stressful than the previous year. Kids were strong, vigorous, hardy.
At this point we had a doe returned to us because at a year old she was showing carpal hyperextension (bending in at the knee). It was pretty severe too. She was born the year before we started the mineral buffet so figured why not take the opportunity to experiment with it a bit.
Summer went on, and we found we didn’t need to worry so much about parasites, the animals just seemed much more resistant to the parasites since starting the buffet.
breeding season arrived and the does were coming into heat, the bucks got stinky as always, and the breeding began. No extra shots, no wormings needed, everyone looked great!
Winter was uneventful. Then kidding season came again, we had so many great births, so many new lives born! A doe that only gave us single bucklings 3 years in a row finally gave us triplets, and 2 of them were DOES! We had 1 doe that needed help with a large buckling, but that was it really.
The doe that came back to us with back bending knees? She did great! She gave us a large baby boy to grow out for freezer camp, and she gave us milk for a while too. She came back to us at 1 year old in July 2023, May of 2024 her legs were SO bad I was sure we were gonna need to call the butcher soon, then all of a sudden August 2024 her legs were straight! I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadnt seen it with my own eyes, really, but I had photos to show for it! She’s still not the biggest milk producer, or the heftiest girl, but she makes nice kids for the freezer and is easy to work with, so she does earn her keep for now. Here’s some before and after photos of her legs!
1st two photos were right before she came back to us, the last 2 were after a year ok the buffet! Her legs are even straighter now, 6 months later.
And now we’ve added sheep to the farm. Everyone will tell you sheep can’t have copper and you need to keep goat minerals away from sheep so they don’t die.
But, since the buffet system has all the minerals separated out, you don’t have to change anything for sheep! Our goats and sheep enjoy the buffet simultaneously, because they only eat what they know they need.
And yes, we have seen the sheep eat some copper, but again, they only eat what they need. We’ve had 1 ewe since May 2024, and added some lambs this year, and they all love the buffet!
We have a lot more peace of mind with the buffet, knowing they’re able to get exactly what’s needed. Their needs change for various reasons too. Late pregnancy and early lactation the go heavy on the iodine and boron, mid-winter more molybdenom and A/D/E, summer is mainly selenium, and then they have the co-factor minerals they eat to help them utilize the big ones better. It depends on time of year, lactation or pregnancy stage, and quality of forage. If you have really excellent forage available they’ll require less from the buffet.
We’ve been getting our minerals the last 2 years from Little Avalon Farm, here’s a referral link (we do get a small store credit if you make a purchase from this link, and YOU get a discount too!):
https://referral.appstle.com/pmlm4ubzbiimrngm
Have you ever tried the buffet system? How did it work for you? Or if you havent tried it yet, have you heard of it? Feel free to leave us any questions or comments! We’d love the discussion!