feeding brome grass hay?
 

I just got in 100 bales of brome grass...it will mostly be fed to our plump ponies this winter, but what about goats? Right now our goats are getting straight alfalfa and really turned their noses up at the brome. The bales weigh about 50-70 lbs each and were 5.00/bale which put my tonnage rate at about $180 which was expensive, but at least the hay looks nice for as much late rain as we had (no rain on this stuff). I've read brome is low in calcium and protein. Anyone have experience feeding it?

brome grass hay is excellent for goats

I am so allergic to brome! Anyways, my goats won't eat it. Brome is a high carbohydrate grass. $5.00 a bale is about what we pay for an orchard Timothy grass mix when we buy the small squares. We pay around 140 a ton if we buy 3x3x8 bales.

That's about all we have access to is brome hay. Brome pellets as well. I can't afford to feed alfafa pellets at $20.00 a bag for pellets and $40.00 for a bale. Up here if I run out and end up buying brome hay from the feed store it costs me $17.99 a bale. In the field I can pick up the bales for $7.00 or $8.00 if it is already in the barn. It's been raining for days and we are now under a flood alert. So far only one of our hay fields has been mowed. It's a depressing start to storing hay for our winter.

be very careful if you are giving brome to heavy milkers. i did last year and wound up with a serious case of milk fever. as stated by another, its low in calcium. i do however give it with alf. to the younger stock, and that seems fine. horses too, just not heavy milkers

These prices blow my mind! We started haying right before memorial day, which is early but we had an early spring. Anyway, we sell our squares for $2, they weigh about 50pds. I believe secound crop will be $2.50.

My thought is to keep my pasture feeders full of the brome hay and then top-dress with alfalfa morning and night. That way they'll get a little alfalfa but will have brome as the bulk. As I realize its low in calcium I DO worry about hypocalcemia in my bred does. I thought about bringing them in to the barn each night for a nosh of their own on alfalfa, or bringing them into their own pen for the last four weeks (due August 17th) of pregnancy and upping the alfalfa for them alone.

Hmm did not know this about brome mine is a brome/orchard/clover mix hay which I feed free choice. Alfalfa pellets with grain, my Saanen seems to be doing ok with milking. But gonna do as someone here suggested and feed the alf pellets free choice, maybe...would be kinda hard to keep the chickens out of it.

I am not sure what much of the fuss is about with the brome. In my area it's about all the dairy goats get, then again we homestead only. We really dont take showing serious, it's a fun side dish we treat ourselves to once a year!

We feed free choice grass hay and free choice alfalfa pellets and our goats do fine. We fed our goats brome until our source of quality brome dried up. If I could find quality brome again, I would have no trouble feeding it again.

We get nice brome for $30 a round bale 'round here. They look really nice on it.

Brome is wonderful goat hay if it is cut and baled properly. We used to have our own brome field and made the best goat hay off it.....I miss it still.
I never rely on grass hay for calcium for my goats, so no problem there. They always have free-choice grass hay and then they get alfalfa hay or pellets in the mornings. My does love a good brome hay.

Brome being a low source of calcium can be a problem with does in milk and if the do not get alfalfa hay or pellets, I'd be concerned with milk fever. . . or kidding issues. As long as you're offering a calcium rich alfalfa pellets, I'd happily feed it. If you can't buy alfalfa hay, I've heard of people offer tums to does on the milk stand.
Clover also has high calcium.
I can never get anything much orchard grass mix. . .so I always feed alfalfa pellets, too.

I am in such a weird mood.

Sitting here, reading this thread, I started imagining a bunch of goats at a Grass Tasting. They're milling about, nibbling on some brome here, a nice leafy alfalfa there, a saucy timothy followed by a subtle clover...

Maybe I need to hit the rack...

Well, that's their natural instinct, is to take a nibble here and there...

Yeah, but dressed in evening clothes and commenting on the various grasses and legumes after they spit them out?

Pony, you are my kind of weird :thumb:

Nice... Real nice. Goats are good at spitting. Have you noticed, when they're upset, they snort snot clear across the room, and when they're happy, they burp. So when they find a nice morsel, they just burp it up and say, "Hey Lavonne, taste this one!"
http://www.sassygoatmilksoap.com/SassyGoatMilkSoap.jpg

I know my goat is happy on the stand when she belches and breaks wind simultaneously.

"Oh, Mildred, this clover is simply to die for!"

Where in the world did you get that graphic? R*O*T*F*L*O*L!

Oh, dear.

Sorry about the thread drift, JCran.

Uhm... My goats eat whatever hay I can get my hands on, plus free-choice alfalfa pellets. Good alfalfa hay goes for $4 to $5 a bale here.

I love the low alfalfa prices around here; we get alfalfa squares for $3!:clap:

I can get real nice alfalfa delivered and stacked for $4.00-$5.00 a bale (most of the charge is the delv/stcked) My goats will eat brome grass hay. But EVERYONE would much rather have alfalfa. So I get a lot of grass hay and a little alfalfa every year. Last year I think it was 150 bales of grass and 40 bales of alfalfa. (3 mini goats & 2 horses) :)

Alfalfa here is 225 a ton...before the $40 delivery fee. sigh. The hay will primarily go to the horses.