Silage for goats?

Can you feed silage to goats? the silage that dairies feed to their cows? The dairy i know has offered some of it to me and told me its only chopped alfalfa and has no animal byproduct in it or anything like that.

[Stacy Adams]

yep!

[marvella]

i asked the same question not long ago. i was told that the silage has to be properly made, and not allowed to mold. the mold will kill? make sick? the goats, while it won't bother cows.

[Jasen]

I worked on the UT extension dairy farm in Knoxville. I did a research paper on various dairy goat needs and silage that we used was never moldy due to the acidity, but I would imagine the goats would not eat it since mine wont eat moldy hay. They do love pickled things though, and switching them to silage was easy and didnt have any problems...just mix with your other feed in small quantities and increase...I cant remember the normal range for alfalfa silage, but I seem to remember the dairy cow and dairy goat had very similar dietary needs and in many places there was no "dairy goat" ration for sale at feed stores so the dairy cow formula was used just fine with minor adjustments. If you can get it cheap or free I would use it.

[susanne]

Originally Posted by marvella

i asked the same question not long ago. i was told that the silage has to be properly made, and not allowed to mold. the mold will kill? make sick? the goats, while it won't bother cows.

if i remember it right you asked about making your on silage from grass clippings? i guess this is a different thing. i would use silage for my goats if i could get it for a good price. it has to be good quality same with hay.
susanne

Hey thanks for the replies! You really helped me on this one!