Planning my hay purchase in advance: Goat people!

[freemotion]

I have always fed my horse, and the goats helped her eat. I never planned for hay for them. Last winter, I had leftover hay....grass hay for horses....great for the chubbies, but when Mya showed up in late December, I just could not find good alfalfa or mixed hay for her. I was able to talk a couple of people into selling me a bale while massaging their horses, but.....I mostly supplemented her with alfalfa pellets, far from my ideal.

So, if I start looking now and order at least a pick-up truck load, I may succeed in finding the ideal hay for next winter.

We get 40-60 lb rectangular bales here.

What type of hay should I get....I am thinking second-cut alfalfa hay and second-cut grass hay and mix it myself so the preggers and lactating and such can have more than the chubbies.....and how many bales to last until spring. We often feed hay steadily from November through April, sometimes a bit longer. So 6-7 months of hay with no pasture, then a month of both, then just pasture with a little hay in the stalls for a shut-in.

How many per goat.....loafing hay-burners, pregnant and/or lactating, growing youngsters, etc?

Thanks for your input and ideas and suggestions! I'm open to them!

 

[TanksHill]

Wow, I did not know hay was so complicated. Where is Farmer Chick when you need her?????

 

[Carolyn]

we found that 10 goats--half are minis--but 2nd gen, so the size of a yearling Nubian, free fed on a 1500lb big round bale grass hay a month, usually longer. We had a long, hard winter here. thats what I plan for. I bought for 18 months, thinking we could get more, but the person we bought it from was killed in a car accident, couldnt' get alfalfa last year, but we had enough hay to last us, still have some left. Hopefully we will be able to get alfalfa this year. We fed a portion of alfalfa cubes and pellets, but I am sure that the alfalfa hay would have been a lot cheaper, in my area anyway. I jsut found a few 1500 lb alfalfa bales for $100 each, which I think is a bargain for this year, it is good hay-- I know people think they waste if free fed, but we found that they actually went though less hay. this year it should be cheaper, because we have good moisture this year. Now this is in -25 to -35 F with 25 to 40 mph winds all winter and snow deep enough to cover fences. Maybe others can give you more ideas. Carolyn

 

[Carolyn]

Look for someone in your area for advice--different areas and climates have different needs. You will need alfalfa for them about 100 days before kidding when you start grain. For good milking you will want alfalfa--personally if I can get alfalfa, that is all I will get--but there again, we usually have bitter bitter cold and wind. Mixing is a pain--never really know how much they get. JMO.

 

[freemotion]

I can't get the big round bales in alfalfa....I would rather feed indoors, anyways, with the Nor'easters we can get here.

Carolyn, how many bales/pounds per goat? I would rather plan on a harsher winter and have leftovers, than the other way around. MA is likely milder than ND.

 

[Beekissed]

I am buying my hay early this year also, free. I want second cut brome and alfafa mix if I can get it. There is a fellow here that owns a good deal of horses that puts up and sells square bails. Horse hay seems to be the nutritive value of hay that I desire for my sheep and cow.

I don't know how much to purchase either and was going to play it by ear, as I will still be doing rotational grazing, if I can, past the time most folks are already supplementing with hay.

I'm going to try to catch the good deals and get in more than I think I will need, just in case.

Anyone got a good rule of thumb for this....like how many regular square bales per month per cow/sheep/goat?

 

[freemotion]

Wow, I did not know hay was so complicated. Where is Farmer Chick when you need her?????

Planting and farming and such....hope she sees this....and a call to all you lurkers, join up and get those fingers a'tappin' on that keyboard! I know you're out there ....I sure lurked for a while, until I had a question that I couldn't find the answer to.

 

[SheriM]

"How much feed do I need?" That seems to be the eternal question for any livestock owner and with all the variables of weather, waste, etc. it can leave you pulling your hair out. In an effort to get at least a bit of a handle on it, I spoke to our provincial Agriculture Knowledge Center (something like county extention agents in the US). Here's what they gave me.

An "Animal Unit" (AU) is defined as one cow/calf pair. (Agriculture has always been biased toward cattle, but that's a rant for another post! )

One AU will eat 50 lbs of hay per day.

Now here's the critical part:

Weanlings = .062 of an AU
Does = .125 AU
Bucks = .25 AU

So, weanlings will eat 3.10 lbs per day, does, 6.25 and bucks, 12.5 lbs. Personally, I think these figures are high (esp. for bucks) , but I use these numbers to allow for waste, both what the goats waste and what I feel isn't good enough to feed and end up throwing out.

So, Free, if you're feeding for 7 months, that's approx. 217 days. If you're feeding mostly does, then 217 x 6.25 = 1356.25 lbs of hay. At 40 lbs per bale, that's approx. 40 bales. Now, as scientific as this all seems, I always like to leave a pretty big margin of error, so if it were me, I'd probably try to get 60 bales or so.

So, there ya go...probably WAY more than you ever wanted to know about feeding critters. Oh, BTW, did I mention I'm a little anal about this sort of thing?

 

[freemotion]

Ah, it all makes sense now. Mya was getting 4 cans or so a day of alfalfa pellets, and pumpkin and squash from my cellar and any veggie scraps, (dead of winter and she was preggers and underweight) thus a 60 lb bale of alfalfa hay lasted her about a month. So that is right in line with your figures. If I account for a couple cans of alfalfa pellets per day to keep her busy while milking, it will be easy to figure out how much hay to get.

What is your opinion on alfalfa v grass hay, and first second cut?

Buying mixed bales, or offering some of each and feeding free choice? I have fat pet goats as well as ones who will be expected to produce. I may get a buck eventually.

I like math, too!

 

[SheriM]

Alfalfa vs. grass is the other eternal question!

Remember, I'm raising mostly meat goats so as long as they have enough milk for the kids, I'm happy. I'm not feeding for maximum milk production. I prefer a grass alfalfa mix, leaning more toward grass. I feed round bales in metal feeders and find that they waste too much alfalfa, pulling it apart to get to the good stuff. All the leaves fall to the ground and get wasted. You also have to watch the calcium/phosporus ratio if feeding bucks, and alfalfa hay has a lot of calcuim in it. On the flip side, that calcium is good for milkers. If the pellets you mentioned are alfalfa pellets, they're probably getting plenty of alfalfa that way and you can go with a good grass hay and be fine.

Here, at least, grass hay is put up for horses, and is therefore usually a little better quality than "cow hay", especially with small square bales.