Ground Alfafa Hay

GrannyG · #1 10/09/07, 11:00 AM

DH bought feed and was in a discussion with one
of the workers at the feed store. He was talking about Ground Alfalfa Hay.
I have not heard of it. Anyway, he told DH that nothing would eat it....said he "even mixed it
with sugar and ****(dung) and it ruined the sugar, and did nothing for
the ****(dung)", that made me laugh !!!! I told DH to go buy a bag of
it or however it is sold and we would try it, my goats will eat anything !
I figure they will eat it,
I got my 10 bales of hay this week and have them stacked up, so that will
be good when cold winter winds blow around here. Bought 4 big
round bales for Hombre, plus still have some hay in the barn from last year.

I bought a bag (square plastic wrapped bundle) of
this today, was a little over $10 for a 45 Lb. bundle.
We took it out to the big feeding trough and opened it up,
reminds me of grass clippings, and the goats took a looooong
time to even go sniff it. They eventually took a few bites and
walked off, guess they are not hungry enough. Obama the Llama
seemed to like it best, he had his nose in there and was chewing
some. Said on the bag it has 17 percent protein.It also has molasses
in it, and is a high grade alfalfa. Really,
they prefer a bale of hay over this, but I just had to try it.
Would work in a pinch I suppose.
This morning I went out to feed and checked to see how much they
had eaten....very little....most was still in the bottom of the feeder trough.Guess my critters do not like it either or they are just picky.

Scrounger · #2 10/09/07, 11:03 AM

People around here used to grind their own alfalfa and mix it into ground corn or milo. Animals would scarf it up. Plain it probably isn't real appealing.

smwon · #3 10/09/07, 11:36 AM

Oh that's an idea... mix it with grain... but then it wouldn't be practical to use as a replacement for bailed hay and I think that is the purpose for the ground (chops) hay. I think perhaps if an animal was raised on this stuff they would probably do fine on it and enjoy it. I really can’t see much difference between the bailed hay and chopped hay. It is the same product if nothing is added to it. Of course if the goat or whatever are used to eating the leaves and leaving the stems they probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much.

Jim S. · #4 10/09/07, 01:26 PM

Why pay for the grinding and packaging? Mid-grade (mid-bloom) alfalfa hay is 17% protein, unprocessed. Early bloom alfalfa hay is 19%.

Then you're gonna mix it with grain having a lower protein percentage, just for palatability? That just doesn't pencil out.

Alice In TX/MO · #5 10/09/07, 05:09 PM

We have trouble getting alfalfa hay, especially this year due to the drought. Also, if you have storage challenges and just a few critters, it might be a solution.

We get bagged Alfalfa Chops at Orscheln feed store. It's $9 for 40 pounds. Yes it has a bit of molasses, which I wish it didn't.

The goats love it.

knight88 · #6 10/09/07, 05:58 PM

Tried some last year, horses refused to eat it soooo to the goats and sheep it went. Well they went looking for twigs in the pen rather than eat the ground alfalfa. All the animals will eat alfalfa pellets....

Topaz Farm · #7 10/09/07, 06:01 PM

My horses love chop.

rambler · #8 10/09/07, 08:58 PM

Ground alfalfa is a very common part of a total mixed ration for cattle - dairy esp. One mixes high moisture corn, silage, minerals, and alfalfa in a big grinder/ mixer.

It allows one to use all available feed supplies & make a very uniform, well balanced feed for the critters.

For a small herd, I bet the ground bagged alfalfa is too dry for them to like it. I'm guessing it has to be dried down some to be sold that way.

Wonder if wetting it a bit would help? I don't know, just speculating.

My dairy neighobr had to add 200 - 300 # of water to his batch of 4 tons of feed to make the cows like it more & clean it up.

--->Paul

smwon · #9 10/09/07, 09:12 PM

It is so strange all the different reactions to the chop...

When I lived in Ohio we used to get, darn don't remember what it was called, but it was the shaff and stuff that fell out of the corn haulers when they put the corn in storage... corn shaff mixed with broken pieces of corn leaves and stuff. It was pretty fine and my goats loved the stuff. (Ok, it was a long time ago! lol)

smwon · #10 10/09/07, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim S.

Why pay for the grinding and packaging? Mid-grade (mid-bloom) alfalfa hay is 17% protein, unprocessed. Early bloom alfalfa hay is 19%.

Then you're gonna mix it with grain having a lower protein percentage, just for palatability? That just doesn't pencil out.

Well I was thinking of using it because it takes up less space and would be easier to store.

PlowGirl · #11 10/09/07, 10:34 PM

My horses love the bagged chopped alfalfa, too expensive though. The goats will eat it if there's nothing else. OTOH, with baled alfalfa, the goats won't clean up the leaves, they just want the stems. And this is some fine leafy hay that I bought. The horses won't eat the stems, but love the leaf leftovers. Solution for me is to give the hay to the goats first and then let the horses lick up the rest so that none goes to waste. Still have to supplement the horses, but at nearly $7/bale, I don't want to see any of that hay in the manure pile.

Up North · #12 10/09/07, 11:42 PM

Grinding and packaging alfalfa hay is done because they can put more quantity into small tidy packages which can be trucked to areas where baled hay is very expensive due to scarcity.
I am a bit surprised that folks find some of their animals don't like it. I suspect this could be that hay, just like corn or coffee beans, starts to lose it's fresh flavor and become stale anytime you break the natural plant cells.
When a dairy farm grinds a bale of alfalfa into it's Total Mixed Ration, the cows eat it within 12-30 hours, and then a new batch is prepared.
This is very different than the Ground Alfalfa sold in bags or packages, which may have been ground and packaged months or even years before it is sold and fed to a farm animal.