Question about not free choice feeding hay

[dbarjacres]

Ok, I've never had to buy expensive hay, nor had a true hay shortage in my area. Long story short, bad weather lead to very late first cutting hay, and some people are just getting second crop alfalfa off now - and most farmers are keeping it or chopping it, second crop grass not much to be had at all. And buying some of that twice as expensive as normal first crop for the Dexter cattle ate up all the hay allowance, grrr...

Located some extremely nice, fine stemmed quality grass mix hay in 3x3x7.5 bales today, avg 810 lbs. $125/bale. I can only afford 5 bales and that's stretching the budget to the max. Also have 62 50 lb bags of Chaffhaye. I have pasture to get thru till late Sept and will feed 3/4# of Chaffhaye/head until then too. I'm feeding 12 head - 4 2013 doelings, 2 bucklings and 4 adults. All are mini manchas aside from one doeling NuMancha.

I'm planning on feeding 3/4#/head/day of Chaffhaye along with approx. 2.5# of the grass hay. Feeding Chaff in the a.m. and hay in late afternoon/evening for full bellies on cold nights. I normally feed some grain at all times too.

Will this work ok? I've never had to not have full hay feeders for the goats.

[Josie]

Here is a link to an article by Sweetlix that describes how to calculate hay needed...it is meat goat info...http://www.sweetlix.com/media/docume...rYourGoats.pdf
looking for info on dairy goats specifically. Will post it when I can find it.

[o&itw]

If you have a trailer it might be worth traveling down to the midwest. Grass hay like that here is selling for $35-40.

[Josie]

Well...I'm not having much luck. If you are looking to be super specific, here is a ration balancer calculator from Langston University Research http://www.luresext.edu/goats/resear...onbalancer.htm

[Josie]

Here is another good article on feeding dairy goats from the International Dairy Goat Registry: http://idgr.info/index/articles/the-feeding-of-goats/
Specifically the section on rations.

[dbarjacres]

Yes, I knew I'd be feeding enough per goat to meet the minimums, just wondering if anyone has experience giving their herd just that and not free choice feeding hay.

We have a trailer, but for the small amount we need, and gas prices, it isn't cost effective at all to travel 10-14 hrs to get hay. Four hrs was our minimum, but we found out our new trailer wasn't built properly and the axles need to be moved back and built with a bent axle, so we're now limited on as close to home as possible, and our truck has just a small V8 so would grunt and chug the whole way home.

[mygoat]

The best advice I can give you is to have MULTIPLE feeders. The best part of free feeding is that those low on the totem pole always have food left in the feeders when the bullies are done. Unless you have lots of feeders, what you'll end up with is the dominant goats eating most of it and the best of it, and leaving little or crappy leftovers for the lower totem pole animals. multiple double sided hay feeders work great. Space them out quite well so that if dominant doe goes to one, she's less likely to feel the need to go to another one and shove those goats out of the way.

We feed a grass hay, nobody here has died yet. Grass hay is adequately balanced in Ca:P in most cases but that doesn't mean it's very high in Ca. Will work well for bucks/wethers with no additional alfalfa supplementation though. The Chaffhaye will be great for the lactating does/growing kids.

[Doug Hodges]

Hay is cheapest Ive seen it in a few years here. Round bales going for $25. I had 100 bales of orchard grass, red clover, Bermuda mix delivered and loaded into my barn for 4 dollars a bale.

[dozedotz]

I second the idea of having MULTIPLE feeders for the hay. We have a small herd, a couple of smaller shelters available and several of those metal fence hanging feeders
($17. at Hoeggers). We never keep a constant supply of hay out for the goats. Each feeder gets a flake of alfalfa (3 or 4 pounds each flake) and sometimes two friends will eat together but mostly it is singles. There are still fast eaters...but they are together in one area for feeding time...the slower girls are together elsewhere. I took some work and time to figure out who was a fast eater and who wasn't and to create the smaller areas for eating (fenced w/gates), but it was worth it. We find that most of the hay is eaten and not wasted, each one gets their share and we can keep a better idea of how much hay we are using and will need. If we put the flakes out at say 8 am, we go back out and release the girls (all of them) to the pasture about 9:30am and that way they are done and we can clean in peace...the rain has put a damper (lol) on this system a little...but we were still able to separate the REALLY fast eaters due to the smaller shelters inside the fenced areas. We are home (retired) so it is not difficult for us to be here to move the goats...obviously, that makes a difference. The feeders themselves are small and light weight and can be moved very easily from fence to fence or also inside screwed to a 2x4. I'll try to find a photo of one of them....

[dozedotz]

OK. First photo (if I did it right) is of the little girls from this year eating from one of the feeders I described. Second photo is of one of the small shelters with two of those same feeders...the area this shelter is in was originally designed as a breeding pen...but we just put the boys with the girls in totally different pastures with shelters and do not use this area except for separating the greedy, fast eaters from the slower ones.

[dbarjacres]

Last year we got really fine second cut grass (and we try to normally not buy hay with more than 20% legume at MOST because of waste so we add alf pellets or now chaffhaye) and we built some big box feeders as the wall feeders it fell right out of! So for the eight girls we would have that feeder which is 3*4 and we have a corner feeder for horses we can use too. If its nice out I think I'll put out a section of cattle panel for them to stick their heads thru and eat along the fence.

[BlueRose]

dozedotz: is your shelter on the ground or do you have a floor in it?

dbarjacres: Thank you for asking about the free choice hay. I am learning so much from everyone here.

[dozedotz]

BlueRose: No floor...just dirt covered with straw or old hay at that time (a couple of years ago)...plywood walls, painted on the outside...metal roof...two narrow pieces of plywood at top in back can be easily removed in the summer for venting...no doors...mainly just as a shelter from sun or sudden rain when we would not be home to let the goats in. Usually two girls eat there...our two biggest and fastest girls. They race each other, but cannot bother the slower girls and steal all the food. It was meant to shelter a buck and doe who had been placed in the breeding pen for a day or so (never used for that purpose ... yet.)