Alfalfa pellets....how much per goat?

[Milk n' Honey]

We may end up going with grass hay this winter since I don't believe the males and dry does need alfalfa anyway and the pellets are less wasteful. I can also budget that easier. I wasn't planning on spending $1200 or more for hay for the winter. The grass hay is even up to $2.50/bale. I know, I know....that might sound great to some people on here so sorry if I sound like I'm whining. $4-$5/bale of alfalfa mix is just not affordable for us. We can't come up with nearly $2000 all at once, like that. It really hurts when you don't have a kid crop to cover expenses. Ouch!! Do any of you know how much alfalfa pellets to give each pregnant or lactating doe per day as a supplemental feed to the grass hay and goat feed ration that they already get? Just trying to get my ducks in a row, so to speak!! Thanks!!

[allenslabs]

I know it's not fun but once I got mine used to the fact that the alfalfa pellets were going to always be there I left alfalfa pellets out all the time with a large orchard grass round bale. But if I have alfalfa bales then I just put those out and don't worry about the pellets. I know it's a little pricey but with the pellets there isn't any hay cleanup in the barn! HAHA!

[MamaDee]

I was hoping to go to free choice alfalfa myself. We can only get all grass hay alot of the time.

I don't know how much I have to put in the feeder before they figure out they don't have to scarf it all down at once. I'm up to about about 3 of those 7-11 big gulp cups twice a day for the 6 of them. They still act like it's never coming again.

I know hay is expensive, but buying all these bags of alfalfa is killing us, too. What to do?!!

Dee

[DocM]

My lactating does are getting about 2-3 lbs of alfalfa pellets per day. It's fed in a bulk feeder, so some of them are eating more, some less, but at the end of the day, the feeder is empty.

My growing does are getting about 1 - 1 1/2 lbs a day. They're fed with the does above. All the feed it dumped bulk. They have free access to it during the day but spend a majority of time out on browse. Through trial and error, I cut back on the amount until there wasn't any left at the end of 24 hours. I'm feeding 4 mature adults and 5 growing does. I'm dumping about a third of a 50 lb bag in a day, and buying them in bulk for $7.50 a bag. I have to buy a ton to get that price. I have a big barn.

My goats haven't had hay since March. They're on lush browse 12-14 hours a day. The milkers get 1 lb of grain mix when milked. Even in winter I'll have some pasture for them, unless it snows. Snow cover days only average about 20 per season. I will probably feed closer to 20 lbs a day for this herd in winter. I'll probably provide hay too - depending on how much they eat and how much is just played with.

I have to say, the girls have NEVER looked healthier. Switched off the hay and went to pellets, bolusing copper, switched from questionable goat ration to mid level protein horse mix which has a higher turn over rate at my local feed supplier - I am now sure of feeding fresh feed, and I know what's in it - no more by products, and a lot less corn.

I just bought hay and now I'm wondering how much of it I'll use. I am really sold on pellets.

[MamaDee]

I'm dumping about a third of a 50 lb bag in a day, and buying them in bulk for $7.50 a bag. I have to buy a ton to get that price. I have a big barn.>>>

Wow. I wonder how much that is compared to buying good alfalfa hay--that's not cheap either, these days. Our grass hay is $4.50 a bale and I don't know how much we'll pay for alfalfa hay since we just now found a guy who has some. I pay $12.50 a #50 bag for alfalfa pellets. That's a whole lot for us. I'll look into bulk myself since we have a pretty big barn.

Dang. That's alot of alfalfa.

Dee

[Milk n' Honey]

For one thing, I'd imagine places like Rural King and TSC are going to be higher priced on the pellets than a feed mill. I'm going to call mine tomorrow and see. Rural King sells 50# bags for $11.50 here. That is a lot. We are in the process of trying to get a feed ration made up for us by a nutritionalist. It has a lot of good stuff in it. We did find some mostly grass with some alfalfa hay in round bales for $40/bale and it is great hay....no mold and this year's 1st cutting. It looks wonderful. I think we'll go that route this year. It will be about half the cost of square bales. Of course, we'll need some squares too, for the kids' creep feed area. Ugh, all this planning is giving me a headache. We had such a bad kidding season this spring so there is no money to buy hay for winter. The good news is, I have lots of goats with growing bellies out there right now. They are around 3 1/2 months out from when they first went in with the buck so I'd expect to start seeing kids on the ground near the end of August. I'm excited....just not excited to feed so many goats over winter!!

[cmharris6002]

The guys at the feed store told me alfalfa, in my area is going to almost double this year! Around the first of the year I was paying $7.40/50lbs now it is up to $11.20.

I feed pellets free choice to my does, it ends up being 3-6lbs each per day depending on the size/production of the doe. I don't feed much grain though. I have does milking 10-12lbs on 1 1/2lbs per milking... I try to use the 2:1 calhos ratio as directed by Sue Reith (saanendoah.com) to avoid metabolic problems.

Christy