Pellets vs. Chopped vs. Cubes

moonwolf · #1 08/07/05, 11:08 AM

I don't have goats currently, but maybe you good folks might tell me why and when you feed alfalfa cubes and/or pellets?
Would chopped alfalfa also work? and what supplements you add to the chopped alfalfa if you fed the goats that way, and how you would add the supplements?
Thank you.

Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians · #2 08/07/05, 02:45 PM

Alfalfa is the perfect food for all goats, period. It contains the calicum they need to grow, to milk and to grow healthy strong boned kids, the protein they need to grow bodymass and good roughage for their rumens. I use alfalfa in the form of pellets because there is no waste, no storage (I just pick it up weekly from the feed store) no mold, no hauling/stacking/sweating.

Most goats would do well on just alfalfa in any form and pasture/browse and water.

Now I do supplement it with vitamins and minerals in the form of a good loose cattle/horse/goat mineral. I use Bluebonnet Tech Master Complete. Because our area is defficient in copper, alot because we live on an iron ore hill. Without supplementing them (minerals and Bo-se shots) we had retained placentas, kidding problems, higher than normal worm burdens, weak kids (and with our high multiples born we needed tiny kids to be born strong).

The only grain supplementation I use is for the added calories and fat the doe needs the last 50 days of pregnancy and through lactation, bucks will get some grain during or after rut if they start getting thin, but then they are used heavily and collected.

Cubes are wasteful and too much work to break up, I can't soak food here and then keep out free choice because of our humidity which causes mold. Hay is wasteful, nearly 1/4th to 1/3rd of the bale becomes compost. Dehydrated hay is great and I used it for several years, the pellets are cheaper for me to use in the long run, and somewhat eaiser to deal with. Vicki

uri · #3 08/07/05, 08:23 PM

Where do you find the pellets? All I find in the local farm stores is Alfalfa pellets for rabbits. Would this be the same thing? I do find the cubes, but the pellets sound like they would work better. I have no place to store a lot of hay in the winter, and it would certainly be easier to buy bags of feed instead of bales of hay. Also, do you give your goats any hay at all?

suzyhomemaker09 · #4 08/08/05, 08:37 AM

Different farm stores sell it in different forms..I find it hard to believe that alfalfa for rabbits would be the same as pellets...different nutritional requirements. Is there only one farm store in your area? Perhaps you could ask if they can get it for you...
Most all of the places in my area carry pellets..but there is one that only carries chops...they are more targeted to the horse community so it stands to reason that is the way they stock.

Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians · #5 08/08/05, 04:37 PM

I have enough browse that I really don't need to give hay, but I do purchase local coastal that my feed dealer stores, for days like today when it's wet out. All of last year my herd only ate 18 bales of hay and those are two wire bales I can lift easily, so say 40 to 60 pounds.

Alfalfa pellets are defiently a horse product. And always remember that the feed dealers all have books from the different mills that they carry feed with. You can go through the book and add any floor item (and item that is not special order and only needs to be added to the ton or more the feed store normally carries). So if you want say 7 bags of alfalfa pellets per week, have the dealer add this to his bulk purchase. You may initially have to pay up front.

I go off brand for my alfalfa pellets. If I used the alfalfa pellets my feed dealer can get me from my name brand horse feed I use on the milkstand, the cost would be about $2 per 50 more. By going off brand, no expensive label, and why would you it isn't going to contain a great mineral mix or anything, just 17% dehydrated alfalfa meal.

Nope rabbitt pellets are not all alfalfa they are also grain and minerals, so you are right back to feeding too much grain. Vicki

uri · #6 08/08/05, 08:46 PM

Thanks for the information. So I will look in the horse department for pellets.
Right now goats have a lot to choose from. This tree to that tree, great supply of grass and weeds. I was just thinking ahead to winter. (I don't like that thought)

Croenan · #7 08/09/05, 08:22 PM

I use pellets with my alfalfa hay and grain, (yeah, they're spoiled) The one thing you need to watch out for is fast eaters. Fast eaters may choke on the pellets, young goats may do the same. Mine have never died from that, but I have always been there with a goat hymelich when they were choking.