grain, hay, rumen activity....

[madness]

We've got a little debate going on around the farm. We've been working on getting a feeding routine down and of course, we've all got different opinions!

Tonight, the girls didn't finish their allotment of grain during milking. We just switched storage containers for the grain to a plastic one. I thought maybe it out gassed and made the grain smell funny. The competing theory is that the girls have to have alfalfa before their grain to get their rumen going. Right now we are trying to figure out how to give the girls free access to hay but restrict it from the guard donkey. The girls have access to alfalfa for an hour in the morning before milking and then all night after milking. There's coastal hay all day long but they usually munch in the morning and don't seem so interested as the day goes on. The browse in the pasture is getting pretty scarce these days.

Sooo...why didn't they scarf down the grain? Rumens dormant because of no alfalfa? Funny smell from new plastic? Or random goat oddness? I just want to make sure we aren't screwing up by not having free choice alfalfa all day long.

I think that might be my last question...for today...!

Thanks!

[DairyGoatSlave]

well i dont know your awnser on that, but i can tell you not giveing free choice all day is no bigie, my does get alf in morning and night, grain with the night meal-i do not feed it on the stand because they get spoiled and WILL spill the milk if not satisifed with the ammount or get all fidgity when out...eh hem any way they get pasture durring the day with a few flakes of oat hey tossed in, if it was free alfalfa they would all have the runs forever and be bloating like the lil pigs they are....anyway i hope someone can help ya with the other stuff

[pookshollow]

I feed hay twice a day - I couldn't afford to let them free feed! They get it before milking, so they have a chance to eat it before their grain. I usually do a few other chores in between, feed rabbits, etc. to give them time to eat hay. They're now starting to get out on pasture a bit, not that there is much out there yet!

As for turning up their noses at the grain - recently I've had the same thing, and it seems to be when I start a new bag. I went through one entire bag with the girls on the milkstand not wanting to eat it. I just give it to the ones that get grain in a group - late pregnant and nursing does. They eat anything! So, it's a distinct possibility that the change in container has made it different - and goats are notoriously fussy.

[prairiedog]

We free feed alfalfa pellets all day and grass hay. Sometimes they just don't seem to be quite as hungry at milk time and leave a little grain other times they scarf it down and look for more. Guess just like us

[Qvrfullmidwife]

If they are getting coastal hay I am not sure why you think their rumens are 'dormant'?

is this alfalfa that you are talking about pellets or hay?

Perhaps they were full from any alfalfa fed prior to milking? We wait to feed alfalfa until they are done being milked or they wont eat their grain because they are full.

Also, if you are feeding pellets it isnt the alfalfa pellets that wil serve to keep a healthy rumen but the coastal hay that provides the mat in teh rumen to facilitate pellet digestion. Alfalfa pellets may have the nutrients of alfalfa hay but they act like a concentrate in the body, not like hay.

[madness]

They get alfalfa hay, not pellets. In the morning, the get alfalfa hay before milking (which means before grain) and in the evening they get it after.

They don't seem to eat the coastal in the afternoon. We put enough out for the donkey and for the goats to steal some too but it's mostly gone by evening and the girls are too fussy to eat scraps.

Perhaps we should keep a constant supply of coastal around so they can munch on it in the evening if they want. We usually feed the donkey after the girls get milked in the evening, but it wouldn't be a big deal to put coastal out beforehand just in case anyone has a sleeping rumen.

Ok, so free choice alfalfa hay is not a necessity. But free choice some-kind-of hay is if there is no real pasture/browse to speak of, right?

[DairyGoatSlave]

Id say thats a good idea, Just think of it as yourself, youd want something to eat durring the day right? plus they need to have something in thier stomach to keep thier rumen going

[Qvrfullmidwife]

We feel that some variety of free choice hay is a necessity if there is no access to forage.