Lick Feeders: Are they right for you?

by Barbie Casey-Booth, M.S. Owner & Nutritionist at Small Ruminant Consulting LLC.

What is a “lick feeder”? This is a feeder similar to what cattle producer’s for years have referred to as “steer stuffers”. It is essentially a small bin to hold grain that drops feed via gravity while the animals eat out of the bottom.  Typically the feeders hold anywhere from 500lbs. to several tons of grain. The licking action used to obtain the feed from the feeder causes saliva to be produced.  An animal can only create so much saliva. Once their mouth gets dry from licking, they will stop eating and come back at another time for another small meal.

What makes a lick feeder different from the typical free-choice grain feeder?

There are mechanical adjustments that can be made to limit how easy or difficult it is to get more grain dropped. By tightening the system, you limit the space that allows gravity to drop more grain. More importantly, the amount of saliva limits how much the animal will consume in a single meal. The combination that leads to the animal eating more smaller meals more frequently than your typical 1-2 times per day feeding system. This allows their body to have smaller more frequent pH fluctuations rather than one or two very large fluctuations in pH daily. I like to think about this as preventing heartburn when you go to bed. It results in more consistent pH, improved balance of the gut microbiome, and results in better feed efficiency! The “LICK FEEDER” style can be adjusted to allow an average amount of feed intake per animal daily. This may take some time to tweak at first depending on your feed composition and animal size. Once you have that setting dialed in, you don’t need to change it and can expect a consistent intake. You would need to adjust again if you change the grain type going into the feeder, as various mixes or pellets will result in varied amounts at each setting.

Why use this feeding system versus daily feed delivery?

The most obvious and first reason that comes to mind is lower labor cost and time saved feeding. You can fill a feeder every 1-4 weeks versus daily. However, this does not mean fill and forget it! It’s important to check feeders often to make sure they are working correctly. Sometimes animals will have saliva that mixes with grain and isn’t eaten causing mushy and wet feed that has potential to mold and cake. This can also happen if you have a rainy period and the feeders are outside with wind blowing the rain into the feeders. This can block fresh feed from getting released. If you have too big of a feeder and not enough animals, this tends to happen more quickly due to lack of flowing feed.

Another thing to consider is bunk space and feeding behavior.  If you are limited on bunk space, you will often see less consistency across the flock or herd in body condition scores within that group. The lick feeders allow for less bullying. The amount of time spent at the bunk is spread out across the entire day rather than a half hour or less daily. This doesn’t allow the bullies to push out the more timid animals during feeding.  However, it does not remove the bullies from guarding the feeder.

Some farmers prefer to use them in creep feeding situations where only the lambs or kids can get to that feeder while the dams are fed a forage only or grain once or twice a day style diet.

The combination of balancing the gut microflora and pH fluctuations along with reducing bullying leads to more satisfied animals and a quieter farm! There is no set feeding time, so they can’t get noisy due to hunger unless they are out of feed!

What size feeder fits my operation?

This depends on number of animals per feeder and the amount of grain you expect them to consume. It’s best to contact the manufacturer for their recommendations. I prefer to completely replace the feed by letting it run close to empty at minimum every 2 weeks in a humid climate. If you have a drier environment, then once a month is adequate. The main thing to remember here is that bigger isn’t always better, especially when you are feeding sheep or goats. We all know sheep and goats don’t like stale feed! More importantly, how long will your feed stay fresh without molding? Keep in mind that if you have the feeder inside, out of the sun, that may change the dynamics. It’s important to consider the humidity level at various times of the year. Moldy feed is the last thing you want, as it can create gut health and respiratory issues and lead to animals off feed!

The feeders are often easily moved, so if you are supplementing on pasture then they can be an easy way to feed a larger number of animals while rotating paddocks.

Can animals with horns use these feeders? 

Absolutely! Just make sure to add a couple inches per head into your feeding space requirements to account for this when feeding anything that has horns over a few inches long.

If you have more questions on using these feeders on your farm, feel free to reach out for a consult at smallruminantconsulting.com or call me at 513-205-7992. Follow our Facebook page for more management and feeding tips!

Barbie Casey-Booth grew up on a small farm in Southwest Ohio where she fell in love with agriculture at a young age. That love grew into raising sheep with her family for the past 31 years. She received a B.S. in Animal Science from Wilmington College and a M.S. in Ruminant Nutrition from Michigan State University. She lives on her family farm where they raise and show Southdown sheep and run a freezer meat business.  She has been able to combine her passion, education and 12 years of animal nutrition experience to consult as a Small Ruminant Nutritionist.  She works with sheep and goat farms of all types throughout the United States to help them combine management and nutrition in order to maximize their productivity.  She focuses on applying advanced nutrition concepts to help the most productive farms excel to meet their goals for production and reproduction. Her passion is helping to troubleshoot issues and watching each farm reach their full potential.

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