 41Likes
 |
|
11/08/13, 09:58 AM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas
Posts: 2,550
|
|
|
Stupid Hay
As you know, I went and got some Alfalfa. I made the mistake of feeding it to my horses and goats. Now I have over 100 bales of Orchard grass and several bales of the best Bermuda you have ever seen that I will end up using as bedding because nothing will eat it. 
|
11/08/13, 10:01 AM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 24,108
|
|
If it gets cold and they have no choice they will eat it. 
__________________
Teach only Love...for that is what You are 
|
11/08/13, 10:04 AM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas
Posts: 2,550
|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Minelson
If it gets cold and they have no choice they will eat it. |
Im to soft hearted. I already have beds for everything out of the orchard grass. LOL. Of course that only took a few bales. I still have a barn full. I cant even walk through either of my barns for all the different kinds of hay. Im ready for a LOoooooooong winter.
|
11/08/13, 12:08 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 24,108
|
|
|
You are lucky!~ I am not ready. I am getting more hay delivered this weekend because I am so paranoid about running out. I have already spent about 2500 on hay and getting more!! ugh!
__________________
Teach only Love...for that is what You are
|
11/08/13, 12:42 PM
|
 |
Ages Ago Acres Nubians
|
|
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: MO Ozarks
Posts: 2,603
|
|
|
I've always used my feeding hay as my bedding hay too.. (figured that way, if they were being lazy and started to eat the bedding.. it was at least HIGH quality bedding).. I'm with Minelson... I'm always paranoid about running out (tho, I've never actually ran out.. still fearful of it).. calling to order 16 more round bales this week (been waiting for a stretch of dry days to do it.. want to get it delivered and into the barn on the same day).. I have the 30 bales of alfalfa I bought... stacked and tarped.. waiting for kidding season before we bust into it...
susie, mo ozarks
__________________
"My darling girl, when are you going to understand that "normal" is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage."
http://www.agesagoacresnubians.com/
|
11/08/13, 01:27 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 4,377
|
|
|
Mine have luxury bedding too.
__________________
Bob and Nancy Dickey
Laughing Stock Boer Goats
"Seriously Great Bloodlines"
and the meat goes on....
Near Seattle
|
11/08/13, 01:49 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 2,080
|
|
|
There is absolutely nothing a satisfying as a barn full of lovely, sweet smelling hay while the November wet and cold is spreading over the world. I love to walk to the barn on Thanksgiving morning and look back toward the cabin all wreathed in warmth knowing that our goats are cozy and totally overfed...!! lol
|
11/08/13, 03:55 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Idaho
Posts: 2,287
|
|
|
I use barley straw for bedding, but my goats eat some of it. It's okay though, it is nice clean, dry mold-free stuff and it gets reeeeaaaalllly cold here sometimes. I try to put out extra bedding in the below zero weather, so they have extra to munch and keep their internal furnace running, in addition to their excellent quality alfalfa.
__________________
Nancy Boling
Frosted Mini Goats
Alpine and Nigerian Dwarf goats
2 Jersey heifers
1 guard llama
And whatever else shows up... 
http://www.swfarm.net/
|
11/08/13, 07:00 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Northwestern, WI
Posts: 1,792
|
|
|
They have you trained for sure!! Give then some of each and make them clean it up. When we fed whole rounds in a feeder to the horses we made them clean it all up before putting out a new one. They got smart real quick and stopped wasting so much, especially when it got cold out. I still had fat horses and people told me I grained them too much, even though I never did grain them unless it was going to be minus 20.
One thing I'm keeping in mind: We had a drought this year after all the spring rain so any hay is hard to find and at a premium. Old Farmer's Almanac says we are going to have another drought in our area this next summer again. That said, I have secured enough hay to get us thru till first cutting 2014-who knows when that will be, so my critters can bet that what they have is what they get till next feeding while no goat will go without, even if they get picky.
|
11/08/13, 07:28 PM
|
 |
Caprice Acres
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: MI
Posts: 11,230
|
|
Not only do my goats eat meh quality hay... but they have to WALK OUTSIDE to eat it, too. Suprisingly, none have starved to death yet...
__________________
Dona Barski
"Breed the best, eat the rest"
Caprice Acres
French and American Alpines. CAE, Johnes neg herd. Abscess free. LA, DHIR.
|
11/08/13, 07:43 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 2,980
|
|
|
Mine would pick 2nd crop orchard grass over 2nd crop alfalfa any day of the week. Even my cows. But that's the local stemmy alfalfa we have here.
__________________
ADGA Nigerian Dwarf and MDGA Mini Mancha goats for show, home use and pets www.dbarjacres.webs.com Located in North central Wisconsin
|
11/09/13, 09:50 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 24,108
|
|
Thanks Ford Zoo..now I can worry about 2014 too 
__________________
Teach only Love...for that is what You are
|
11/10/13, 04:36 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Washington
Posts: 2,822
|
|
|
Around here, you get what you get, or as we say - no one goes hungry or malnourished, but you might not get handed a menu. If they don't like their hay, they can browse. If neither of those options suit, i guess they ain't that hungry. When they get hungry enough either option brightens quite a bit - and in the four years we've had goats, no one shriveled up and died because they didn't get what they wanted. I wouldn't waste good hay on bedding just because they stuck their noses up.
|
11/10/13, 05:03 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 4,300
|
|
HAY can not be "stupid". It has no brain, it can not think or make decisions. Can't be stupid, might however be brainless.
In the posts here we mention Hay, Goats and people.So hay can not be stupid, and it sounds like the goats are pretty smart (as usual), so the field is getting pretty thin on Stupid. 
|
11/10/13, 06:57 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: IA
Posts: 882
|
|
|
My concern for using nicer, edible hay for bedding is that it can become an area to breed listeriosis if our goat choose to eat it.
|
11/10/13, 07:13 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas
Posts: 2,550
|
|
|
I tried the theories. I first put in just Bermuda. Success!!! They ate it all. Then I put in the Orchard Grass. Hmmmmm. They've been picking through it. Its pretty stemmy(is stemmy not a word). I'm a little disappointed in the quality.
|
11/10/13, 07:19 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 24,108
|
|
Mine don't like stemmy hay either...yes that is a word in my dictionary 
__________________
Teach only Love...for that is what You are
|
11/10/13, 09:04 PM
|
|
Banned
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Home
Posts: 2,315
|
|
You're a big softy Doug. I buy 'horse' quality hay for all of my animals, and use it for bedding as well, but no alf alfa here--- my goats have to browse for their goodies
|
11/11/13, 07:03 PM
|
 |
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Oxford, Ark
Posts: 4,471
|
|
|
Hey! Share the love - where'd you get square bales of Bermuda or Orchard grass?
__________________
A ship in the harbor may be safe, but that's not what ships are built for
|
11/11/13, 10:26 PM
|
|
|
|
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas
Posts: 2,550
|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Otter
Hey! Share the love - where'd you get square bales of Bermuda or Orchard grass?
|
I drove to Russelville and picked up 100 of the best Bermuda I've ever seen. River bottom fertilized and irrigated. The orchard comes off a farm over near you. It's just outside Oxford. I gave $4 per bale for it. It's fertilized and he said they burn the fescue out of it with a torch. It also has red clover and some Bermuda in it. I can get the guys number at the office if you'll remind me. I won't be in tomorrow.
Living the good life
|
| Thread Tools |
|
|
| Rate This Thread |
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:32 PM.
|
|
