Composting wasted animal hay

We no longer have goats who waste hay! After designing and building several hay mangers my husband made one in a way the goats can't pull their heads back with hay in their mouth and drop it by their feet. Our goats won't eat anything after it drops on the barn floor or ground. They are very particular. Any hay left in the crib we remove and feed to the horse.

We put up hay the old fashioned way with horse and mower and hand turning and raking. To buy hay to supplement what we produce cost $ 5.50 a square bale here so we don't buy much hay! No way will we let any get wasted either as it is hard work whether we make it or buy it.

As soon as I can I will post pictures on my blog of our goats hay cribs. I have no idea how to put pictures here.

We were hoping to implement the same strategy when we move the mule & mini-horse into the same area as the goats.

I just made a post on my blog with a picture of our goat manger if anyone is interested.

www.krazoacres.blogspot.com

Would love to see pics lmrose! Can anyone help with posting pics so we can see? (I'm still not quite sure how I even do it or I'd tell ya!)

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I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. - Thomas Jefferson

I have a 1/2 V feeder on the wall just outside my hay storage stall. The front is rabbit cage wire. The goats can't pull much hay through a 1"x2" hole. I make 4 cuttings of 50-50 mix grass and clover hay, It is short and fine. Cut with a 2 wheeled 4' cycle mower, raked with Grandpa's wood peg hay rake, hand carried with a 2 bushel basket and packed in the hay stall. I feed it to chickens, rabbits and the goats....James

When I had goats I built what's known as a keyhole manger . I bought good second cutting alfalfa hay & using the keyhole manger I had very little waste .

I used straw for bedding .

When we used keyhole feeders, a goat might be peacefully eating hay then be blindsided by a more dominant animal, unable to escape because it couldn't withdraw its head from the keyhole. Kids would climb into the feeders to sleep, soiling the hay. I'm glad you had better luck with them, WVHillbilly.

Hi to everyone from a sunny Nova Scotia this morning! All snow storms missed us again in the south Monday so we are happy! I posted on my blog just now about "How To Keep Goats From Wasting Hay". There are pictures of our hay crib and goat barn there also if anyone wants to see them. Have a nice day! http://lindarose-afrugalabundantlife.blogspot.com

Linda, would you please start a new thread about feeding the cabbages, mangels and such? I've wanted to try it but can't find seed for the mangels and didn't know how to best store them without a root cellar. Thanks!
MOgal

Start with a better feeder - I use cattle panels and then I'm only cleaning out the bottom of the feeder, not an entire area. They waste very little because they don't pull it out. Doesn't work with horned goats, but does work great with sheep. With a cattle panel the less dominate animals see the charge coming and withdraw in time.The other thing we have gone to is alfalfa pellets and way less grass hay. They don't waste any of the pellets. We just toss the little bit of wasted hay into the bedding and clean it out once in the spring. The lower levels are already composting. We use the pallet forks on our tractor to break it up and then the front end loader to pull it out, pile it up, and what we don't use we give away to gardeners via craigslist. The composting bedding keeps the sleeping stall toasty warm all winter.

Ok, maybe I'm not paying enough attention to how my goats eat, or I'm just ignornat (maybe both!!), but for those of you that us a keyhole feeder, or the one like lmrose so kindly posted on her blog, the theory goes that they cant pull their heads out & pull hay out, right?

Then if they can't pull their heads out, how do they get them in? Or is it they just stick their head inside & then keep it in there & munch away? What is stopping them from sticking their head in, grabbing some & then twisting their head again to get out, pulling hay out each time?

I hope I worded this so somebody understands. Or somebody smack some sense into me.

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I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. - Thomas Jefferson

Hi CarolynRenee, I guess I didn't explain plainly how the goats eat! As you can see from the pictures on my blog our goats can put their heads through the openings and eat hay. They can also remove their heads no problem.
But what we observed , before making this hay crib, was when the goats had a mouth full of hay they would toss their heads in an upward motion and back while pulling hay from the manger. Backing up away from where their heads went through the slats to get hay; they would eat what they could of hay they snatched and the rest fell at their feet.They would return and put their heads through the opening and back out again with more hay in their mouth and dragging some out too.

Now they can only put their heads in and eat the hay.The slats are are narrower at the bottom and a little wider further up. The wider part is where they put their heads through and the lower part of the slats are only wide enough for their necks.

The nature of our goats remember was to snatch hay, toss their heads up and back while backing up. With the board across the top of the manger they won't do it. The narrower opening at the bottom of the slats makes it harder to back out with hay because they still have to raise their heads up to the wider opening to get out. The board across the top prevents them from tossing their head back or moving quicky backing up.

The goats learned quickly how to eat in the new manger. Sometimes one will get pushy
but there are enough openings for them all to put their heads through and eat. Even slow eaters speed up when they realize the goat next to them has a long reach and get more hay unless they eat faster.

It would also be awkward to turn their head side ways and pull hay out of the crib because they still have to raise their head up to the wider opening to back out. Goats are not complicated. They do what is easiest and what is natural. Natural was backing away with a mouthful of hay. Easiest now is to just put their heads through the opening and eat!

Hi MOgal; I will do that soon. I don't always have internet at home as it goes off. When I am back to the library in town I will post about how we feed our goats. We have raised our own mangel seed for years but don'r know where to buy any. I need to research that some more too. More about this later. Have a nice day.

Imrose, I really like your feeder. Ours is similar and this type does, indeed, keep a lot of hay from being wasted.

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

Ah! (the little light bulb goes on)

Now that you've explained it for me I understand AND know what you're talking about as I've been watching the goats & they do just "grab, yank & toss".

Will have to discuss a new manger design with DH today! Another project for him (little evil laugh)!

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I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. - Thomas Jefferson

Shumway has mangel seeds
http://www.rhshumway.com/dc.asp?c=268

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