Sheep & Goat Creep Feeders
Creep gates for lambs and kids are available for all our feeder sizes. Creep Gates come in foldable sections that clip fast to the feeder. The creep gates have adjustable pins with rollers. The pins are adjustable for varying animal sizes.
Creep feeding, sometimes called restricted feeding, is the practice of providing supplemental feed to suckling young ruminants – including lambs, kids, and calves – while restricting older animals from accessing this high-protein food source. This is intended to not only improve efficiency and use of your feed, but creep feeding done properly can provide incredible benefits for your animals’ health and farm’s productivity too.
Creep Feeders For Calves
Creep feeders work by restricting the access of full grown cattle to the feeder, allowing only calves to have a higher protein feed. Our cattle creep feeders utilize a creep panel design very similar to traditional cattle creep feeders. Creep panels attach to the side of the feeder and can be hinged up for transport.
At Lost Creek Wholesale, our specialized saliva lick feeders are recognized as some of the most efficient creep feeders in the industry, designed and honed among the expansive ruminant farming communities of Australia.
Our saliva lick feeders take a unique approach to creep feeding and limiting consumption by relying on the animal’s own salivary process. Stock can only get feed or pellets from the feeder when their tongue is wet with saliva, a natural biological indicator that the animal’s body is truly ready to eat. As they eat, saliva production naturally tapers off as they are satiated, and the animal can no longer get feed to stick to its tongue. The animal gives up and walks away, returning to forage.
The animal eats only what it truly needs and relies on pasture for nourishment.
Only in recent years have researchers globally begun to understand the incredible benefits of saliva lick feeding.
By controlling the amount of supplemental grain or pellets that your young stock can access, farmers using our saliva lick feeders as creep feeders can improve nutrition, reduce feed waste, improve weaning speed, and more. With a restrictor gate, only calves or smaller animals can access the feeder, leading to quality rumen development and growth.
The benefits of creep feeding with a saliva lick feeder include:
Creep feeding with supplementation of protein and grain sources helps young stock develop their rumen more quickly, allowing them to transition to forage and pasture earlier in life.
Animals that wean quickly put less milk-production burden on mothers, allowing mother animals to recover from lactation faster.
Livestock given the opportunity to supplement their early milk diet with protein, grains, and the right nutrients put on weight and develop a strong rumen more quickly, leading to stronger “frames” and the potential for larger animals.
Livestock who develop a healthy rumen earlier in life tend to grow larger and heavier in the long-run, for sturdier stock and greater finished weight.
Our saliva lick feeders are specially designed to only allow animals to eat when they need it – when their saliva allows feed to stick to the tongue. Animals cannot gorge themselves on feed above-and-beyond what their body actually needs, leading to more efficient use of feed and less feed waste than through normal routine feedings.
As stock are weaned faster and mother animals have more recovery time, they’re also ready to birth more frequently throughout the year, improving progeny rates. Lambing percentages have been shown to increase when ewes have access to lick feeders during the pre-joining and gestation period.
Stock that can eat when they want or need, as opposed to time-restricted feeding, tend to get better nutrition. With traditional routine feedings, “bully” animals eat their fill first, meaning select animals get the right nutrition while “stealing” nutrition from others in the herd. A restrictor gate on our feeders makes creep feeding easy.
Faster rumen development means your stock moves to pasture more quickly, relying on grazing instead of higher-cost grain supplementation.
Rather than relying on feeding times throughout the day, our saliva lick feeders allow animals to eat at any time that they need throughout the day. This frees manpower for other projects and needs on the farm.
Studies have shown that creep feeding ultimately leads to higher profits for farmers. Creep feeding is an effective, efficient, and economical way to improve your herd and make life easier for your family and employees!
Because the feed ration can be controlled, cereal grains can be fed through the feeder with a reduced risk of acidosis.
Universal Feeder Creep and Lick Feeders From Lost Creek Wholesale
We are the exclusive United States’ wholesale distributor of Universal Feeders, an Australian manufacturer of durable feeding equipment for ruminants.
Our creep feeders with a restrictor gate can be adjusted to accommodate animals of all sizes including goats, sheep, cattle, and even pigs. They can accommodate a variety of feeds and nutritional supplements, and Universal Feeders are adjustable to prepare for all life-stages of the animal, from creep feeding for young animals to lick feeders for older adults.
Our Feeders
The Original Feeder
The Universal Feeders’ Original feeder lets farmers control their livestock’s daily intake of grain and pellets. Easy to adjust and built to last, this Australian feeder can be used as a saliva lick feeder for precise nutritional needs or as an ad-lib feeder allowing animals to feed at any time. The creep gate option can be attached to the feeder while both saliva lick feeding or ad-lib feeding.
The Ultimate Feeder
The newest Universal Feeders’ feeder, this optimized feeder is faster and easier to adjust without tools, with the ability to achieve more accurate feed rates. All of the adjustments for the saliva lick feeder are done outside of the feed area and reduce possible corrosion points compared to competing feeders. The only moving part in the feed area is suspended from the base.
Feeder Accessories
Accessories to make livestock feeding easier than ever.
Creep Gates
Creep gates allow only smaller animals to enter the feeding area and access the lick feeder. The gates can be stored on the side of the feeder for transport.
Ad-Lib Attachment
The Ad-Lib attachment allows feed to flow freely into the trough and is ideal for feedlots. It is designed to increase the trough height to minimize feed waste. The spill has two height options to make it low enough for smaller animals.
Get Started With a Universal Feeder Today
If you’re interested in the benefits of creep feeding with a lick feeder, or becoming a distributor yourself, get in touch and learn more today by calling Lost Creek Wholesale.