Sunbleached hay?

[stgagnon]

Hi,
I'm shopping for my first load of hay for two boer darlings that are soon to join our family. One will kid in Dec, the other is an 8 month-old wether.

Last week there were a lot of ads to choose from, but I didn't call bc our truck wasn't ready to pick them up, and I had no place to put the hay. Now I'm ready but I'm not seeing very many ads.

But here's my question. In one sort of local ad, the guy is telling me this:

"I still have hay. I have some $2.75 bales sun bleached. Or $3.50 greener with lots of timothy. Delivery charge of $35."

Ok now, I think timothy is a good thing. But what is wrong with sun-bleached? (Assuming it is also timothy?)

On a side note, with timothy, I'm assuming that I may want to feed my pregnant girl some alfalfa pellets too.

This is NW Vermont, BTW.

Thanks for your help in interpreting this. It is going to be GREAT when I know what I'm doing someday!!

Suz.

[topside1]

Suz, it's only my best guess. Both bales are of the same grasses; however some of the hay laid longer in the field before bailing. It also may have been rained on and that’s why it has a sun bleached look. Should still feed out reasonably well but will just have a lighter straw looking color. Personally with only two adult goats I'd spend the extra money on the greener looking stuff....depends on what your budget.

[Julia]

Sunbleached hay has lost almost all of its vitamins, and possibly most of its nutrients depending on why it's sunbleached. The producer discounted it because it doesn't have as much feed value as the green stuff (but not enough to make it worthwhile to buy).