My goats need more food

Wow. I pay about 2.00-2.50 per bale. I hear about people paying 3.00-4.00 and feel that they are being ripped off. But...$10 per bale!! I would be in the hay business full time.

More like 13-15 square bales to a round bale.

$12-$13 a bale (about 80lb bale) for alfalfa here.

To the OP: Have any trees that need to come down? Our goats go crazy for them, but really they can strip one in no time...
Good luck to you

A cheap fodder system is the way to go. I made one out of shelves (8 work best), a submersible pump, hose to split the water, a large bin, and some black plastic trays. I am just using the kind that you start plants in. You buy whole grain barley and sprout it. In 8 days you have green grass that is almost 6 inches tall with healthy roots. No dirt needed. They just sprout in the trays. I put 2 # barley in each tray and get almost 40# of feed for 4 trays. It feeds all my goats, llamas, and chickens. I feed just a little cheap quality hay or even straw as they need to prevent founder. Start them off with just a 1/4 of a serving and increase each day until you give them a full serving. The cost of a bag of whole grain barley (not rolled) is about 14 dollars. You feed them at a rate of 1# per 100# of body weight. I give pregnant and milking does a little more. If you want to see a picture I will send you one.

Wendyloo, I really like that idea. Thinking I might try it and see how it turns out here. Thanks for sharing.

__________________
I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com

While investigating fodder for my rabbits and chickens I came across this website! It's great and gives alot of information on growing fodder for goats!

http://grannysbest.blogspot.com/sear...%28part%201%29

__________________
IMO Without desperate times there won't be change.

Not really a good idea to feed bread to your goats as part of a steady diet. A little bit once in awhile for treats is OK though.

Isn't alot of that 40# just water?

__________________
Insatiably Curious

It isn't water it is the sprouts after it is rinsed off and sits to drain for a few hours. One question I have is what to add to the water to slow fermentation. I wonder if vinegar would work. I may have to try that.

But as a plant grows it absorbs water. The whole grain is basically pretty 'dry', if you dried the sprouted plant and then compare weights, you'd have a more realistic comparison than 2# of grain to 40# of feed. Now comparing digestable nutrients between the grain and sprouts would be much more complex, but still important.

Sorry, I don't mean to sound snarky or argumentative, I just tend to look very closely at the details rather than just think 'Wow 2# turns into 40#!'

__________________
Insatiably Curious

We pay $13 per 60# bale

ETA- That's not even true. Dh just told me we pay $13/bale for alfalfa, but our Timothy grass bales are $16 per 65# bale.

We get 20 when we do it. The round bales we get are about 1200 lbs (4x6 of bermuda mix) and our square baler spits out about 60 lb bales. 60 lbs/bale is about the average for bermuda here in Alabama. Maybe they average closer to 80 pounds where you are located or the round bales are smaller? Anyways, the number doesn't matter...it's all about the overall weight. I'm able to get 1200 lbs of hay for $20 plus the hour of labor baling it and then stacking it. I can then easily haul it all to my house and stack it in the barn. It's a much more affordable than buying a tractor or square bales from individuals.

HaleyBugs,

I am in South Lyon, MI so am close enough that you could use some of the same feed sources. I feel your pain. Hay prices have really hurt this year. :-(

The TSC off of the N Territorial exit has hay for $9.49 a bale. Call before you go tho because they go through truck loads quickly.

There is a Chaffhaye dealer in White Lake and a brand new one in Manchester, $14.79 a bag but there is almost no waste. If you go to the Chaffhaye website you will find her address and contact info. http://www.chaffhaye.com/dealer-locator/

The Standlee brand pelleted beet pulp that TSC sells is a great way to add roughage and weight to your goats. The pellets expand 1 cup to 5 cups when you soak them. I feed them to my goats and they are fat as pigs. They especially like the beet pulp when I expand it with boiling hot water because it is still warm when I feed it to them. They gobble it up. Horses like this too. $14.99 a bag.

Good luck!!!
Tracy

http://lansing.craigslist.org/grd/3631038599.html

7.50/bale in Durand

I'm in the same boat. I calculated very carefully, then bought 20% over. I slyly thought I could sell the overage around this time of year at a small markup. I'm on my last bale. I'll be calling these folks tomorrow to get 5 bales (all I can haul in my van, and really about all I have the budget for), but came her to ask the same question. What can I feed to extend the 5 bales for at least another month. I like the alfalfa and beet pellets. I'll give those a try. I too am tired of hearing them scream at me all day long because I've rationed the 3 mini goats to 3 flakes a day, plus grain. You'd think I'm starving them to death (they are fatter than my pigs, and only half-way through their pregnancies).

__________________
Jessica
Sweet Peas Farm
Facebook Page

There is a thread on fodder systems in the cattle forum. Read that before you try it. There are university studies that show there is no significant gain from sprouted barley vs just feeding the seed. So you put a lot of effort and $$$ into building the fodder system, lots of labor into running it, and you produce no verifiable increase in feed.

I was absolutely gaga over the idea and was sure to try it just as soon as I have running water on the farm. But having read those studies, I've given up on the idea.

We only pay 7.00 per bale for alfalfa here, 90 lb. square bales, very pure fourth cutting. So we're really fortunate, but we did give away our two hay burner horses last summer to the local 4H club and that's helped immensely. That said, we did a local small herd buy out of nigies from a friend late last year and thought we had enough hay purchased for a year. Not from the looks of the stack right now. We're most likely going to have to buy some first cutting in June, to get us through until October.

We did a test patch of mangel beets in the garden last year, which did wonderfully well, so we bought more seed and also left some in the ground, mulched them and hopefully they'll produce seed this year. We haven't tried it for the goats yet.

My suggestion, off the cuff, let the horses go and keep the goats. We're not sorry we did that at all.

__________________

Right now my goats are doing better. I've got them on more hay because I realized I had more than I thought. They also get grain, beet pulp, hay stretcher, and two scoops of hay cubes a day. They absolutely LOVE those and it keeps them busy chewing for a few hours. They are not so thin anymore and not screaming nearly as much either!

Grain is not cheap either though, you would still have to shell out cash.