would you want Lespedeza hay?

[Alice In TX/MO]

I'm in south central Missouri, and I have a field that is primarily Lespedeza. This spring, I've been accumulating hay equipment for baling the other fields, but this afternoon, we were test running the equipment on the Lespedeza field. I need to know if there is any interest in having bales of this.

Lespedeza is known for its worm suppressing characteristics.

[wintrrwolf]

the place I was getting it from is like an hour from me and they said they had another goat lady that was coming from south over an hour to get it for her goats. My goats really did like it and so did my horses.

[coso]

Lespedeza is the poor mans alfalfa. I would use it if I had it. We had quite a bit in our hayfield this time. People with horses love it also !!! Dad always said that was the best horse hay !! I would be feeding it to my goats Alice !!

[Alice In TX/MO]

OK. This is good to know. Will talk to my hay baling guys.

[southerngurl]

I would love some. May be too far though.

[GreenMomma]

I would definitely buy it. I like to buy clover when I can, or non-gmo alfalfa (but that is really hard to find). We try to feed non-gmo hay to all of our meat animals... I have read about the parasite limiting qualities of Lespedeza and would LOVE to try it for a year. If you can get a truck load to Ca. let me know- I can probably sell the whole thing.

[Alice In TX/MO]

I won't have a truck load. Plus, the shipping would be astronomical.

[wintrrwolf]

Hay Alice you probable already read this but thought just in case...
http://extension.missouri.edu/p/g4515
in particular read under section Managing for best results...

[April]

Our hay guy gave us a big round bale of Lespedeza last year to try. The goats liked it ok, but it was crazy stemmy and waste-y. They didn't eat the stems like they do the alfalfa stems. I'm not sure if he just baled it late, or if that's the way it is normally. I wasn't incredibly fond of it. They did well on it, though.

[Alice In TX/MO]

It really should be baled early. My goats will eat it in the field now, and the stems are 18" long! They look like they are slurping spaghetti.

HOWEVER, I don't know if they will love it so much after it is dry.

[motdaugrnds]

The type of lespedeza growing with grass is great dry and quite nutritious. (It does take longer to dry than many grasses; so watch your bales for moisture.)

The "bush-type" lespedeza is also nutritious and if planted close and mowed to the ground after 5 years, it will create a living fence to help keep in your animals. My goats love it; so I have to keep them away from it until fall when the plant will not be damaged by all its leaves being eaten. (Plant it inside a small fence inside your pasture and it will throw its seeds all over that pasture to come up each year for goats to enjoy.)

[Pony]

I'd love to try some lespedeza. We just picked up 45 bales of nice second cutting non-GMO alfalfa/clover, but our ultimate goal is to establish a pasture with lespedeza/ white dutch and alsike clover/alfalfa/rye/orchard grass.

Eventually. It's on the to-do list.

[coso]

You are talking common lespedeza not sericea I hope !! Sericea IMO is not worth anything, except to scratch you to death if you have to haul it!!

[Alice In TX/MO]

It was in the field before I bought the place. Don't know it's genealogy or history. Will have to google to see if I can identify it precisely.