Hay

dbarjacres · #1 06/16/08, 01:24 PM

I'm just wondering if anyone on here feeds their goats 1st cutting hay. We went and bought 8 tons of 1st cut rounds yesterday and it's really nice orchard grass (altho it is headed out - been very wet up here - so there are some long stemmy pieces with the seed heads on) and alfalfa mix along with some other fine grasses and very few weeds. It's very nice looking, properly cured hay. I'd purchased it for the mammoth donkeys, but wondering if if this would make good goat hay. It would be for Nigerians and Mini Lamanchas, all of which are easy keepers for the most part.

I know there will be a little waste with some of the stemmy stuff, but last year we bought them REALLY nice 2nd crop mostly grass hay that was so fine, probably 1/3 of it was wasted anyway from falling out of the feeders.

I can get more of this hay easily for the donks and the best part is it's only $90/ton! I'm gonna take a sample in Tuesday to run a protein level on it to make sure it be at least 12% for the goats.

So, what would you do? Test it, see if it's okay there and then use that for winter feed, or wait, hope second crop is okay and pay more for it and have higher protein than what I really need (I feed 19% protein alfa. hay 2 winters ago and the girls were huge).

Thanks for your opinions! Jenny

Sweet Goats · #2 06/16/08, 02:36 PM

I feed it last year and I am buying it again this year. Mine is wonderful grass hay. My goats just love it.

LomahAcres · #3 06/16/08, 02:42 PM

I'll feed 1st cutting to my girls in late spring and through summer, when it's the only thing I can get. At this time the girls are mostly grazing and eat very little hay. But in the fall, and throughout winter when the grass is gone and girls are milking and bred, I prefer to feed 3rd cuttings. It seems there is less waste and girls get more of what they need.

KSALguy · #4 06/16/08, 03:04 PM

that actually sounds like a pretty good mix, the seed heads wont be a problem, and the alfalfa will be great, if its nice and green then you shouldnt have a problem.

dbarjacres · #5 06/16/08, 03:14 PM

Yes, it's beautifully green hay. And it's not tough like Timothy gets - even the donkeys waste that tough timothy as it sprouts up so fast in spring and is way past headed out before it's ever dry enough to get in the fields.

And with this having 1st crop alf in it, it's actually very fine stemmed, which is kinda odd.

Thanks so far!

Scrounger · #6 06/16/08, 04:23 PM

I'm lucky and produce my own hay. I feed what I have, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd cuttings. It all tastes good in January.....

dbarjacres · #7 06/16/08, 04:37 PM

That's what I think too Scrounger, beggars can't be choosers when there's a foot of snow on the ground and it 10 degrees!

I'm sure they'll pout, but I've seen some people feed their goats hay I wouldn't even feed the donks and they look good and eat it.

pookshollow · #8 06/16/08, 05:45 PM

I buy round bales of 1st cut for the horses and the goats. I also get small squares of 2nd cut alfalfa, just for the goats.

I feed a few flakes of 2nd cut and once they've eaten that, they get the 1st cut hay. They chow down quite happily.

Starsmom · #9 06/17/08, 05:52 AM

My boys will eat anything, 1st, 2nd or 3rd, not muss no fuss and NO LEFTOVERS. Now the girls on the other hand, they leave the stems from the 1st cuttings...no problems with 2nd or 3rd.

crazygoatgal · #10 06/17/08, 10:09 AM

Hi there, first cut is fine for nd's and mine sometimes prefer it over the second. Go figure. Let me know what happened to poor Twix.

BethW · #11 06/17/08, 10:23 AM

I'm headed out tonight to load up on 1st cutting orchard grass hay for the goats. With the drought we've been having in the southeast, I'm not willing to gamble that we'll have a decent 2nd or 3rd cutting this year.

The hay I'm getting is lovely, leafy and green. I'll feel better knowing we have a barn full of hay.

yarrow · #12 06/17/08, 10:30 AM

I usually like to wait for 2nd cutting, but the hay from the 1st cutting in this area looks GOOD. I went ahead and bought 500 small bales of orchard (with some alfalfa in it) 1st cutting... and ordered 300 more small bales from the same guy, when he does the 2nd cut..After last year's drought, it's a comforting feeling to walk out and see half of the barn, already stacked to the rafters with lovely looking hay. I paid $3.75 a bale.. delivered & stacked in the barn. I'm a happy camper.. (I use the same guy every year for my hay.. he kept telling me how sorry he was to have had to raise his prices so much! it was 3.25 delivered & stacked last year.. I had NO PROBLEM with him having to charge more)
susie, mo ozarks

dbarjacres · #13 06/17/08, 05:14 PM

Okay, got my hay test back today and it's testing at 10.5% and what I pulled out didn't look to have much alf in it, so it could spike a bit on different bales. I think this should be okay for these small girls and boys. I'll have to keep an eye on my full lamancha doe, but can always feed her pellets separatly.

So, I guess I'll experiment this winter, they'll get free choice on these big rounds and then I'll also put out alfalfa pellets so they get about a pound each a day. Figure one ton of those should last me 8 months that way. I'm not pushing mine for production and I'll only (hopefully) going to be milking two thru winter.