Thoughts on Alfalfa?

If in balance, the males are OK. BUT YOU MUST BALANCE calcium and phosphorous, or they get urinary stones. <----for newbies who don't yet know what calculi are.

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

I think alfalfa is hands down the BEST feed for goats. The problem folks run into is when they feed good alfalfa hay or pellets along with a 16-18% protein concentrate--that is overdoing it...you'll end up with edema, clumpy poops, and other complications due to the toxic waste created from processing all of that extra/unused protein. I base my goat's diet around good alfalfa hay and feed a 12% protein whole grain mix for concentrate to my milkers as needed. Dry does get alfalfa/grass mix hay and no grain.

Keep in mind, there is a big difference of management if you dry lot or have plenty of pasture and brows available. I have a very small suburban home stead (1 acre), every thing is brought in. My goats need alfalfa pellets. Or some other source. I can assure you they are not getting it from the back fourty!

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Samantha,
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

FWIW, this has more to do with raising kids. Seven years ago I bought 4 nubian goats from one breeder---3 kids (2 wethers, 1 doe) about 10wks old, and a 1yo doe. All this breeder's adult nubians looked about the same size to me. They had so many goats I'm sure they couldn't afford alfalfa pellets for them. Anyway I started them all on free choice alfalfa pellets soon after I got them and kept them on it for at least a year, and orchard/alfalfa hay and browse after that.

Now everyone says I have the biggest tallest nubians they've ever seen. The 3 kids are a good 6" taller than the 1 yo today, and the female kid is just as tall as the two wethers. Maybe I'm wrong, but I blame it on the alfalfa pellets. Although maybe bigger is not always better, IDK.

My goats diet is made up of plenty of free choice quality forages (Standlee alfalfa pellets and good brome grass hay and a little beet pulp). Around here, concentrates are icing on the cake, not part of the cake itself. Its when people start feeding concentrates as one of the main ingredients in the cake that it becomes a problem. Our goats maintain condition and put out plenty of milk (one FF that gave birth to a single is giving almost a full gallon a day, another FF who also had a single is giving 3/4 of a gallon a day). They only get 2 1/2 cups of grain a day each. 1 1/4 in the morning and the same again in the evening.

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