# Why is Molasses bad for goats



## Keeperofmany

I know that I read on here that molasses is bad for goats and I did not write down what it was and now I can't remember. Would someone please refresh my aged memory. :blush


----------



## NubianSoaps.com

Bad is a realtive term of course. Too much molassas allows mills to candy coat any product that no self respecting goat would ever eat if not drowned in molassas. It is also really high in iorn, something most people do not need to be boosting in the diet of their goat, iron will bind the copper in your goats diet, like calcium also. It also ferments in the rumen and cuases acidosis. So molassas in your grain mix around 10% isn't likely to cause many issues, but chows and sweet feeds that are up into the 20's, simply are of very questionable quality, are switched in oils from spring to winter (with really poor quality cheap oils used in the winter because they don't go rancid as quickly...... or the liquid molassas feed is switched to granular or your feed would be a frozen brick, wievels in the summer down here...not alot of redeming factors for this overly used, high energy, with the usual plument of blood sugar, from using a refined sugar as an energy source. Vicki


----------



## Keeperofmany

Thanks Vickie. That was it, the binding of the copper that I was wanting to know. So are you saying that the iron in molasses also binds the calcium from their bodies to. 

Wendy


----------



## Patty13637

Plus I can taste it in my milk . Honest I can tell you if my goats eats anything with any amount in it.


Patty


----------



## NubianSoaps.com

I really have some more work to do on this, but yes I do think the key to the binding of calcium is going to be directly related to either the molassas or protein in protein blocks fed to goats....which then will explain the bowed leg problems in young does bred their first year kidding in herds with the best of everything, the best alfalfa, the best minerals.....including protein blocks  Vicki


----------



## Patty13637

Do you know of any protein blocks that do not have a ton of molasses ?


----------



## Sondra

and what abt the urea in the protein blocks??


----------



## goatkid

You need to be really careful if you use protein blocks/tubs that they are made for goats and do not contain urea. I don't use them here. A friend bought beet pulp pellets from a feed store in eastern Montana and lost a few of her best goats. Turned out they had not cleaned out their machine after processing a urea product and it got in the beet pulp. The mill wound up having to reimburse her for the loss of her goats.


----------



## NubianSoaps.com

Because my alfalfa pellets will be lower protein at least through this winter, I am using an all natural protein block, soy beans, oils and hulls...but yes they also carry urea ones, so read the label each and everytime you purchase them, because the labels look identical. Vicki


----------



## rojen

Here in the Phils, they are encouraging us to make our own, Urea, Medicated, Protein blocks. What is wrong with Urea?

I sure am glad for this forum!

Ron


----------



## Patty13637

What brand Vicki ? I am fighting with my TSC to get blue bonnet minerals I am sure I can bug them some more.

They keep wanting me to work for them ...got offering 10.00 an hour today ..I told them no way its still not enough.


Patty


----------



## Sondra

Hi Ron was wondering where you were.
just reading this I don't want to feed it to anyone or any thing.

Synthetic urea is created from synthetic ammonia and carbon dioxide and can be produced as a liquid or a solid. The process of dehydrating ammonium carbamate under conditions of high heat and pressure to produce urea was first used in 1870 and is still in use today. Uses of synthetic urea are numerous and therefore production of it is high. In fact, approximately one million pounds of urea is manufactured in the United States alone each year, most of it used in fertilizers. Because the nitrogen in urea makes it water soluble, it is highly desired in this application. Urea is also used commercially and industrially to produce some types of plastics, animal feed, glues, toilet bowl cleaners, dish washing machine detergents, hair coloring products, pesticides, and fungicides. Medicinally, it is used in barbiturates, dermatological products that re-hydrate the skin, and diuretics

Naturally, urea is produced when the liver breaks down protein or amino acids, and ammonia. The kidneys then transfer the urea from the blood to the urine. Extra nitrogen is expelled from the body through urea, and because it is extremely soluble, it is a very efficient process. The average person excretes about 30 grams of urea a day, mostly through urine, but a small amount is also secreted in perspiration.


----------



## NubianSoaps.com

I have used Sweet Lix and now after the last fiasco with the urea blocks showing up, I am using Pilgrims. I am at the mercy of what the boer goat guys are feeding, and YES they feed the urea blocks because they are cheaper. I give them a good whack with an axe (the blocks not the guys feeding the urea blocks  and put half into each pen in the little oblong feeders that hang over a 2by4 I screw them in so the feeders don't get bumped off, the does love them, but they do not eat them like i thought they would. They don't devour them which I was worried about since they don't get much in the way of molassas.

Oh but funny story, they do have a sweet tooth. I recently decided to use my old maternity pen for my 3 elder does, they were simply getting too fat even just on alfalfa pellets. They aren't due until March so they were going into a pen with their grass hay, pasture, no woods in that pen, and maybe 2 pounds of alfalfa pellets each. My brother just moved her this summer from San Diego and is raising hens we got from Katie and family for eggs for sale ($3 a dozen...told him he was still in San Diego crazy if he though he was getting that much, he has sold my milk customers every single egg!) Anyway he is going to the bread store in the local yuppy town and getting feed bread, the bed of my truck full for $5. Seems he picks apart the bread for his hens and he feeds my goats donuts! I came home one day to find him at the fence with all the girls and GE standing on the fence looking at him. He was going down the row feeding them powdered donuts! No wonder they were getting fat! So they now get a treat each morning of pastry's or danish, when he gives them coffee with it, I will have to put a stop to it! Vicki


----------



## Sondra

:rofl :rofl


----------



## leslieh

Can't you just see it now!!! I'm NOT going on that milk stand without my morning coffee!!! I'm NOT, NOT, NOT!!!!! :biggrin

Vicki will have a huge pot brewing in the barn!!

Leslie


----------



## DostThouHaveMilk

Speaking of Protein blocks...
I was using SweetLix All Natural 20% Protein blocks for the past couple of years. I ended up getting some other local goat breeders hooked aparently with it being available at the Co-op.
I bought two blocks a few weeks ago(I offer them through the winter). Because of the discussion about Urea I checked the label. It has animal fat and fishmeal in it. :down No urea though.
I was so disappointed. I can't use them now. Just cannot get my head around that concept. They used to be great.


----------



## NubianSoaps.com

Yep fish and feather meal  It's how most feed tags who say they are a all natural protein, or who use protein that in non ruminant...use. I know the urea one is pretty and has cotton seed meal in it, bummer. I would rather pay a few dollars more and use the soy ones. Vicki


----------



## Patty13637

I use to pick up dicarded produce and bakery items for the pigs . The chickens got a bunch and so did the goats. the love donuts and cakes even bannanas.

patty


----------

