Early in 2018, my husband and daughter began talking about a new type of self feeder they had seen in a farm ad. That feeder was an Advantage Feeder. They seemed very excited about the feeders and wanted to give one a try. At the time we were a bit hesitant because we used a texturized feed for our 80 plus herd of Boer goats, and we refused to stop using a feed that had been working so well for us. We shelved the idea for a while until we saw on Facebook that a fellow goat producer had switched from a pelleted feed to the same feed we used. I immediately got in contact with that individual and found that the texturized feed worked very well in the Advantage Feeder. Needless to say we were very excited at the prospect of adding a time and labor saving feeder to our farm. I was referred to Marty Overholt, a 3 in 1 Feeder dealer from Ohio, who quickly returned my message. After a few phone conversations, my daughter and I met Marty to pick up our new 1200 HD feeder which will hold 800 pounds. We had the feeder in the pasture with the brood does before the next day was over. Before placing this feeder in the pasture, feeding was a nightmare! As any Boer goat breeder knows, those does have the innate ability to find the most tender part of a leg and can always seem to rake a horn across the back of a thigh. My daughter and I were constantly covered in bruises from the twice a day feeding. To make matters worse, there were those “bully” does who were constantly running from one feeder to another just to keep the less dominant does from eating. We always had the “fatties” who took all the feed, and the “skinny minis” who never managed to get enough to eat regardless of how much we fed. We were feeding over 50 pounds of feed to this group each day, and while some does looked outstanding, others looked like our Midwest winds would blow them into the next county. To make matters worse, we battled pregnancy toxemia and ketosis since we had no way to separate the dominant does who always ate too much from the does who could not get enough to eat. Everything changed when we installed the Advantage Feeder! All of our brood does now are at an ideal weight. We do not have does who are too fat or too skinny. We are well into our kidding season, and, unlike other years, we have had no kidding problems; the majority of the does who have kidded thus far this year have done so completely unassisted! This kids were vigorous and up within 7-10 minutes, ready to eat! We certainly attribute this to the change in eating habits the 3 in 1 Feeder has enforced in our herd! And have I mentioned ease? The Advamtage Feeder has cut the chore time in half! Instead of slogging through all weather, we simply check the feeder to be sure it is flowing freely and go on about the day. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WASTE with this feeder! Previously, we used feeders that hung on the fence. When the does begin to jostle for position, inevitably one would hit a feeder and spill the feed. Sometimes more than one feeder would be spilled during the course of one meal! This excess waste did have a monetary effect on our feed budget. Now, we put several bags of feed in the feeder, and those does will stand out in any weather (rain, snow, sun, whatever!) so they can eat. They almost seem to have a time schedule, and there are goats at that feeder 24 hours a day! They cannot spill the feed, and they cannot flip it out with their noses. It has saved us a lot of money! We loved our big feeder so much, we recently purchased a 200 HD to use with our weanlings. We had been using a homemade feeder, and they could stand in it and rake it out with their noses…but not anymore! The goats learned to use the feeders very quickly. We could not be happier with the purchase, and for the size and efficiency of the product, the price is VERY reasonable! If you are in the market for a more efficient feeder or have simply been toying with the idea of making your feeding day easier, we would certainly recommend talking to Marty Overholt to get your own Advantage Feeder!!