[fffarmergirl]

Hey! Long time no see - I haven't been getting on Homesteading much lately.

We have to leave to go pick up hay within 45 minutes and I need to know if I should get 100 bales of trefoil/alfalfa mix or 50 bales of the trefoil/alfalfa and 50 bales of grass hay. Do the goats need grass hay or can I just feed them the mix?

Dairy goats, by the way.

 

[fffarmergirl]

We just heard it's ready and we have to pick it up before it gets wet.

 

[marusempai]

I would feed some grass hay and some alfalfa - because it is cheaper. How I feed mine, and they are doing great on it, probably 75% grass and clover (or pasture), 25% alfalfa. That being said, if you can afford all alfalfa, they will probably milk more on it.

 

[fffarmergirl]

Thanks. I'll just get the alfalfa/trefoil clover mix then. For some reason she's charging the same for both.

 

[fffarmergirl]

Oh - and do they eat a whole lot more hay in the winter than they do in the summer? They're eating about a bale of grass hay per week now plus free feed alfalfa pellets and dairy mix grain on the milk stand. They also have all the graze they want, and tree branches frequently. They don't seem to like the graze. I hope I'm feeding them right - but those pellets are expensive. I'm hoping we won't have to feed the pellets if we give them free feed hay. We're planning to get 100 bales, can get more if that's not enough.

 

[Donna1982]

How many goats do you have? I can't find alfalfa here to save my life. The closet they have it to me is 5 hours away So I am forced to feed it from the it from the store which is an arm and a leg btw.

 

[wintrrwolf]

yes they should eat more hay during winter.

 

[fffarmergirl]

How many goats do you have? I can't find alfalfa here to save my life. The closet they have it to me is 5 hours away So I am forced to feed it from the it from the store which is an arm and a leg btw.

We have 3 oberhaslis in milk, 2 nigerians in milk, and one oberhasli/nigerian mix doeling. I guess they're currently eating 2 bales per week of the grass hay, not one as I said before.

I feel very fortunate to have found the hay. It's going to save us so much on what we're spending on alfalfa pellets and cubes. You're not kidding about it costing an arm and a leg! The six of them go through a 50 lb bag of the pellets per week at $16/bag and some cubes. We couldn't find alfalfa hay even at the feed stores.

 

[marusempai]

You feed alfalfa cubes? I was under the impression that those are too big and hard for a goat to eat (since they're designed for horses). How are you feeding it, are you breaking it up or anything?

 

[fffarmergirl]

We soak them in water first. Sometimes DH breaks them up into little flakes because the goats really seem to enjoy chewing on them, but mostly they eat them soaked. I notice them chewing their cud a lot more since we started feeding the cubes.