why are goats stupid?

deetu · #1 11/13/09, 09:12 AM

I mean, you would think they would realize that the food is the same throughout the feeder.

I just started to give the goats hay after having a fruitful summer of them eating pasture. This was the first year I didn't feed hay along with them eating brouse.
I took 1/2 a flake and spread it around to start getting them used to the hay.
The older does were eating mouthfuls, the kids weren't sure what it was and kept looking at me for the grain. Suddenly, the one does comes out of the feeder dragging out a mouthful to go to another spot, wasting the new hay!! Then the other doe chases the first doe with her mouthful of hay hanging with more wasted hay!!
Arrgh... then because there was no hay in their pen, I become aware of how much these animals actually waste. I know it's not alot but still, I wonder how many bales end up being on the floor at the end of a season.

All well, I guess I can look at it as less bedding costs.

**gone-a-milkin** · #2 11/13/09, 09:26 AM

Yes, they are like that. Why? I wish I knew!

The best set up I ever had was to let the horse into the goat feeding area every few days. He would vaccuum up every bit of their wasted hay.

Now, w/o a horse, I rake a lot of it up to use as nesting material in the chicken coop.

southerngurl · #3 11/13/09, 09:43 AM

Ah yes, they can be pretty dumb at times. Mine crack me up when they are staring at the door into the barn where I milk hoping their name will be called for milking... while I am outside WITH them.

deetu · #4 11/13/09, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by southerngurl

Ah yes, they can be pretty dumb at times. Mine crack me up when they are staring at the door into the barn where I milk hoping their name will be called for milking... while I am outside WITH them.

that is funny!

ozark_jewels · #5 11/13/09, 07:34 PM

Because they are a lot like many of us humans......if someone else has it, it must be more desirable than what we have.

Painted Pony · #6 11/13/09, 08:00 PM

I think the goats are wasteful because they do not realize how much things cost. They certainly aren't stupid. LOL! I always ask my goats if they realize that the alfalfa stems make for very expensive bedding. I've started feeding most of them alfalfa pellets and then cheaper brome hay. I do have several bales of alfalfa I bought this summer that I feed a flake or so to each pen of goats just because they enjoy it, and I'll keep doing that until it runs out. It doesn't hurt as much to see part of a $6.oo bale of hay being used as bedding as it does to see half a $9.00 bale of alfalfa as bedding.

deetu · #7 11/13/09, 11:24 PM

Wow, $6 a bale. Did you guys get any rain down there? We had some trouble because we had too much rain. They couldn't get it cut and baled.

My regular guy wanted $6 a bale so I went to the auction and saw that around $4 was the going price. I made a deal with a farmer (he wanted $4.50 but I talked him down to $4) but never showed up so I went back to the auction and before it started, they made sure to announce that what you are buying is what you are getting. The prices were under $3, which really surprised me at first but then I realized that people probably found a lot of mold in the hay. One looked gorgeous but when I tried to pick it up, it was really, really heavy... too heavy. Another looked too green, almost fake and smelled too fresh... not dry.

Anyway, found another farmer that brought me a bale to try first. I'm getting 50 bales at $3.50 delivered next week. And like you said, feeding alfalfa pellets is less waste. When my horse was alive, I would feed her the stems the goats wouldn't eat. Wasn't worth it.

Painted Pony · #8 11/15/09, 12:08 AM

My problem is that there isn't much rain here and I live in the middle of cattle/feedlot country. It is easier and cheaper for the farmers to bale round bales of yuck hay than small bales or good stuff for people like me.

There is some hay for $5 a bale about 100 miles south of me but by the time I pay the gas and stuff it evens out to buying it local unless I can get 100 bales at a time. If I asked DS to help me load and unload that many bales he'd think I'd lost my mind...or maybe know for sure that I had. The brome is the only locally grown hay. Costal comes from KS, alfalfa is from NM, CO and KS I think.