Alfalfa hay to pellets comparison?

[longhorngal]

I'm planning on stocking up on Alfalfa hay this summer as pellets are hard for me to find locally. How does 1 bale of hay compare to a 50lb bag of pellets?
I've been feeding the pellets free choice and they go through about 3-4 bags/week.
Thanks
Cara

[Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians]

Will you also be feeding the alfalfa hay free choice? For myself it wasn't the money initially because when I switched we could still get alfalfa pretty reasonably. What we didn't have was keeping quality. I also do this by myself so although I had someone bring me the hay I had to stack it, feed it, pickup and compost the waste. Plus you will store this hay in your barn until your milkers need it next spring for their lactation, and what is the protien and mineral content of the hay then? Leaf shattered or molded? Ours was iffy at best we are so far south, no freeze, I have ran the airconditioner for Christmas Eve dinner before. The quality of the alfalfa pellets I get are excellent, and I can get them everyday, because I purchase so many and have others using them plus the horse farm near me we are not even up to $9 per 50 yet, alfalfa hay is $12 to 15$ for a small 40 pound bale, untested for protein, if you figure even 1/4 of the bale will be wasted and fed to the pigs or the chickens or composted, it doesn't equal feeding alfalfa pellets. Labor to stack, and clean up and you are feeding much cheaper pellets. 51 years old and they are priceless Plus if you limited your alfalfa pellets to 3 pounds per full size goat per day, and fed some good grass hay which is also where your bicarb and heat for the rumen for the winter comes from, I would bet it would be cheaper. Even up in the frozen north gals with top ten does are not only feeding alfalfa hay I can only dream of having down here, but also feeding alfalfa pellets, it makes milk. vicki

[DQ]

I'm also in ne oklahoma and haven't had much trouble finding alfalfa pellets. where are you located? I haven't found a feed store that doesn't carry it. I agree with vicki. pellets can't compare to the hay. with the increased waste (and I mean alot, I bet mine wasted 50% of the bale when I used baled alfalfa and I was feeding it in hay bags not just dumped in a trough) lowered or unknown (at best) quality it is cheaper to feed pellets. I don't know about bales elsewhere but I haven't bought a bale of alfalfa that didn't leave a trail of money, er, I mean "leaves" while I was carrying it to the truck. than your truck rains that expensive alfalfa all over the guy behind you while you are driving down the road and then the goats dig it all out of the bag to get the leaves and then stomp on the rest and won't eat it. grrr. ok I'm done now

[Minelson]

I was wondering the same thing except in a different direction. I was wondering how much to feed in pellets instead of alfalfa hay. I was feeding Gretta a flake a day while she was pregos and it was real good alfalfa with hardly any waste. The last batch I got was not good at all. mostly stems...lots of waste so I was just guessing on how much to give. I would like their diet to be more consistent so I'm wondering too...How does 1 bale of hay compare to a 50lb bag of pellets? or better yet...how much pellets equal 1 flake of alfalfa?

[fishhead]

50 pounds of hay should equal 50 pounds of pellets.

I found that my goats wasted a LOT of hay. If I ran the pellets over a 1/8" screen to take out the fines they wasted very little. Without the screening they wasted a lot of pellets. I saved the fines with the intention of making alfalfa soup for my ducks and geese but later when I stopped feeding alfalfa I was able to get the goats to eat just the fines.

Our alfalfa hay runs about $5 a nicely packed bale. Pellets ran $10.50/50 lbs.

[longhorngal]

Thanks for the help. It would be a lot cheaper for me to feed the 3 lbs per goat plus grass hay. I was feeding free choice plus grass hay. I did figure I would feed the stems they didn't eat to horses or pigs if they would eat it.
DQ, I'm in Locust Grove, the feed store I was using closed its doors today. The other one in town carries some type of alfalfa pellet mixed with other stuff. I just want alfalfa.
I guess I will look around Tulsa or Tahlequah but they have been higher for other feeds unless I'm just not calling the right places. Someone out this way had alfalfa for $5/bale last year but I'm not sure how good it was. I was paying $8.50 for the pellets.

[DQ]

I buy from atwoods, I'm sure there is one in claremore. if you wait for a sale (pretty regular" you can buy 50lbs for about $8.50. they are higher than most feed stores on everything but that (well.... they think they are pulling one over on everyone because everything else is sold in 40lb bags not 50lb for about the same price). at the local co-op 50lbs is about 12$. go figure. I think stillwater milling has a store in claremore also, or at least they used to. I know they sold alfafla pellets because I would price check them regularly and they could get them for you if they didn't stock it now. I have been trying to finagle a way to buy them in bulk at the stillwater store. good luck!