Spikes and Houles is proud to provide everything you need to keep your livestock healthy, happy and fed. Our experts are always available to answer questions, give advice and help you come up with the best solutions to keep your farm running smooth and successfully.
Feeding is the most important factor in successful farming. Feeding a balanced diet, avoiding overfeeding, and providing abundant supplies of cool, clean, and pure water will help to optimize feed and nutrient use on an animal farm. It requires a great deal of skill, knowledge and practice to be able to feed animals optimally. The first step is to gain a good understanding of the different types of food that can be fed to livestock. Unlike human diets, formulated diets for livestock generally do not provide adequate amounts of vitamins unless they are supplemented with either certain vitamin-rich feedstuffs or purified vitamins. Most likely you will need to be looking into both a feed diet & a supplement routine, depending on the type of animals you are taking care of. Spikes and Houles carries feed and supplements for a broad variety of Livestock; cattle, sheep, goats, pigs... and llamas! And carries treats for goats and mini pigs!
Our health products include milk replacers; species specific and Uni-Milk, which is appropriate for multiple species of livestock...Electrolytes, probiotics, de-warmers and first aid supplies will help keep your heard healthy.
Keeping your Livestock comfortable and clean is another important factor in the success of raising animals. We have a full line of animal care supplies including de-icers, tubing, nets, water softener salt, livestock shampoos and soaps, clippers & more. Our buckets range in size from 2 quarts to 20 quarts in plastic, rubber and galvanized metal. Our heated buckets come in 3 gallons & 5 gallons, and we also carry a 16 gallon heated water tub. We also have many styles of stock of stock tank heaters. A heated 25' hose provides a stress-free tank filling in the winter months. In-Stock bedding includes Pine Products shavings in large, medium or small flakes and straw bales. Standlee Stall Refresher, Sweet PDZ, Ralco Essential Dry and barn lime are available to keep your barn smelling fresh and to keep the bedding dry longer.
Good to Know:
Before you feed, these are some terms you will need to become familiar with when reading packaging, online forums, and handouts. Feed Stuff is a broad and general term that is used when referring to any food or fodder. It includes naturally occurring plant or animal products and by-products (e.g. grass, maize, brewers' grains). It also includes vitamin or mineral supplements which are chemically synthesized, or otherwise manufactured pure nutrients. In other words, you will be quite safe referring to anything that is fed to an animal as a 'feed stuff'. A ration is a 24-hour allowance of feed stuff that is given to an animal. The important thing to note is that the term carries no implications that the allowance is adequate in quantity or kind to meet the nutritional needs of the animal for which it is intended. Some confusion normally arises as to the difference between the words ration and diet. These can be explained as follows: ration: the daily allowance or amount of food for one person (e.g. a soldier) or one animal (e.g. a steer). Remember, the ration may not be enough for optimum production. & Diet: this is what the person or animal usually eats or drinks (e.g. the actual food chosen, not the amounts). A Maintenance Ration is the ration which would allow the animal only enough to stay in the initial condition (i.e. to support life with no product, no gain, no loss of body substance). It is the minimum amount of food required to keep the animal alive. This can be particularly important for maintaining stock when there is a shortage of feed (e.g. drought conditions). A Balanced Maintenance Ration has a two part definition. 'Maintenance Ration' here refers to a feed mixture which is just sufficient to meet the requirements of a specified animal in a 24-hour period. The animal receiving the ration will neither lose nor gain weight. 'Balanced' means that the proportion of carbohydrate, fat and protein in the ration is correct.
Alongside feeding, it is important to keep the land your animals are living on in tip top shape. Most livestock like to graze, so the proper foraging area is essential. Spikes and Houles carries a variety of seed mixes for enhancing your landscape as well as tools to keep everything well groomed.
Stop in to any of our Spikes and Houles locations if you would like more information on starting to care for livestock, want tips on how to improve your already created routine, or to stock up on all things livestock!
