# Hay for goats



## Teresa R (Oct 15, 2018)

I'm new to goats and need to buy hay for my goats for the winter. What kind of hay do goats eat? All the hay I find say horse or cow hay. I bought a bale from a local feed store and the goats won't eat it .


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## lalabugs (Oct 15, 2018)

What are your hay options? Do you know the type of hay you bought? 
Where I am at we can get alfalfa, 3 way, and sometimes we can get teff & bermuda. Teff and bermuda are harder to get year round.


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## Teresa R (Oct 15, 2018)

Prarie grass and Bermuda is what I have found . There are a few places I can get alfalfa . I'm not sure of vthe hay I got at the feed store. They weren't very helpful that day. I just bought 1 bale to try luckily. I'm just using it for my chickens nesting boxes so it's not wasted . Lol


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## lalabugs (Oct 15, 2018)

I am not sure what Prarie grass is. I googled it. It looks like most have good reviews about it. Not sure if anyone has experience with it. @Goat Whisperer @Green Acres Farm @Latestarter

If you can find a good quality grass hay I would feed that before alfalfa. Good quality is horse hay. I only buy horse quality hay. Alfalfa is what is most readily available here. The goats LOVE it. However they waste A LOT! They only eat the fine stem and leaf. Leaving the rest, roughly 1/2 the bale. My goats will snub any grass hay and refuse to eat it. They refuse grass hay because they're spoiled to alfalfa.


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## greybeard (Oct 15, 2018)

Prairie grass in North Texas thru Oklahoma can be just about anything.it usually just means a combination of mostly native grasses. Gama, brome, native bluestems, Indian grass, switchgrass etc. Usually lower in nutrition than the improved grasses, but hey, they're 100% natural and organic, GMO free, endophyte free and naturally, 'free ranging' so they can't be too bad. 

This is the same grass that once covered all of North central Texas, it's panhandle,  all of Oklahoma and most of the US Central Plains. 

There is a big difference tho in nutritional value and palatability... Sometimes the best feed or hay just 'tastes' bad to the livestock and they don't want to eat it. 

OP is from Eastern Oklahoma, so she isn't too far from goatgurl.


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## Latestarter (Oct 15, 2018)

I've tried generic bermuda, Tifton (a type of bermuda), "grass" hays, alfalfa and am now using an orchard grass/alfalfa mix. My goats don't like the first 3, they like and eat alfalfa but waste more than I can afford to let them waste at the price I have to pay per bale. When I tried the last one, the mix, they like it, eat it well, and very little waste. It costs a little more than the pure alfalfa since it's trucked in from someplace up north like Indiana or someplace up that way. The pure alfalfa was costing me $12-13/small bale. The mix is costing me $13.50-14/small bale. Hope you can find something they'll like with little waste. You can try Craig's list... search for "hay for sale".


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## goatgurl (Oct 15, 2018)

hi Teresa, I live a couple of hours to your east near Ft. Smith and raise dairy goats and hair sheep.  I get a good grass hay for my girls and they do fine.  they don't like the fine stemmed "horse" type hay, don't care for pure Bermuda nor do they like the coarse weed filled stuff that they sell for cows.  alfalfa is to expensive for me to buy and them to waste and if it is baled locally I worry about blister bugs in it.  do check craigslist for hay and most people will let you buy a bale or two to see if they like it.  it may also take them a day or two to get used to eating it.  good luck, I hope you find what you need.


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## Teresa R (Oct 15, 2018)

Thank you everyone for your help . I'll "shop" around and get a some different stuff for them to try.


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## kdogg331 (Oct 16, 2018)

I think most hay around here is timothy or a grass/timothy mix, orchard mix, mixed with clover, etc. And ranges from like $4 to $7 a bale


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## kdogg331 (Oct 16, 2018)

Latestarter said:


> I've tried generic bermuda, Tifton (a type of bermuda), "grass" hays, alfalfa and am now using an orchard grass/alfalfa mix. My goats don't like the first 3, they like and eat alfalfa but waste more than I can afford to let them waste at the price I have to pay per bale. When I tried the last one, the mix, they like it, eat it well, and very little waste. It costs a little more than the pure alfalfa since it's trucked in from someplace up north like Indiana or someplace up that way. The pure alfalfa was costing me $12-13/small bale. The mix is costing me $13.50-14/small bale. Hope you can find something they'll like with little waste. You can try Craig's list... search for "hay for sale".



Wow that's expensive!


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## lalabugs (Oct 17, 2018)

I wish I could get those prices. Right now we are paying $20 a bale for alfalfa. They are 100-115lbs each. That price will jump as soon as winter hits. Grass hays are more expensive. If we purchased a squeeze, we could get it for $13 a bale. That would be 88 bales. We do not have a way to store that much.


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## Teresa R (Oct 17, 2018)

This might be a dumb question lol but what about feeding goats alfalfa cubes if I break them up. Do you guys feed your goats feed as well?  I have 3 young goats from around 3 months to 7 months and an older goat that I think might be pregnant but not sure because my husband bought her from a sale barn . I want to make sure everyone is happy and healthy . I have lost a couple of babies that just suddenly died on me


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## OneFineAcre (Oct 17, 2018)

I sure am glad my goats aren't picky about hay.  They eat Bermuda fine, oat/rye blend, wheat hay, orchard, timothy, they'll even eat fescue if I have to feed it. 
They will basically eat anything I put in front of them.
I pay $40 for a 800 lb round bale of Bermuda.


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## lalabugs (Oct 17, 2018)

Some people do use cubes or pellets. It's been asked on here a lot. You could try it and see if they will eat it. 

How old were the babies when they passed away? Do you have minerals out for the goats?


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## lalabugs (Oct 17, 2018)

I do feed my pregnant goats grain in the last 8 weeks of pregnancy. Everyone does things differently.


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## Teresa R (Oct 17, 2018)

lalabugs said:


> Some people do use cubes or pellets. It's been asked on here a lot. You could try it and see if they will eat it.
> 
> How old were the babies when they passed away? Do you have minerals out for the goats?




They ranged in ages of a month to 4 months. The most recent was around 4 months .  He was fine then he wasn't. He was laying down so I brought him in and he died within a few hours. I had minerals out But it just got wasted because everyone sniffed it and walked away . So I stopped.


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## Green Acres Farm (Oct 17, 2018)

I live in FL and feed the south’s version of alfalfa- Perrenial Peanut hay. It is $11-14 a small bale, but we found someone who makes 800# round bales for $100 apiece. About 1/3 of it is grass hay mixed in and the goats don’t eat it. I can’t get them to eat anything but peanut.


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## Latestarter (Oct 17, 2018)

lalabugs said:


> I wish I could get those prices. Right now we are paying $20 a bale for alfalfa. They are 100-115lbs each. That price will jump as soon as winter hits. Grass hays are more expensive. If we purchased a squeeze, we could get it for $13 a bale. That would be 88 bales. We do not have a way to store that much.



I have purchased the 100-110# bales of alfalfa here before and they run ~$21-26 depending on time of year and availability. Haven't see any advertised on CL recently. Did find some at a feed store and they were $28/110# bale. Pricing & availability are completely dependent on where you are, what the harvest was like (supply/demand), and if you can buy in bulk. I can by round bales here for very cheap, but the quality isn't what I want/need. I can buy cheaper stuff, but it doesn't get eaten and just goes to waste. So no sense in importing all kinds of additional weed seed into my pastures. I have enough already. I've finally found something they like, will eat, with very little waste. It's worth it to me to spend a little more to get it and use it. It actually works out to be less expensive over time.

I wish there were hay farms nearby that had a mix my goats would eat, that baled small (60#) or even the larger (110#) square bales, and would allow me to buy the bales right from the field. I'd be more than happy to drive my truck and trailer out into their field and load my own hay when I'd be charged $4-6 or even $10 a bale! Right now here, pure alfalfa trucked in from NM, CO, OK, NB, etc are running anywhere from $12-13/60# bale. I'm using an orchard grass/alfalfa blend and hope I can continue to find it. It's what they like and eat best and it's trucked in from I believe Indiana or some north mid west state.



Green Acres Farm said:


> I can’t get them to eat anything but peanut.



Boy can I identify with spoiled goats!  Read my last above...


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## goatboy1973 (Oct 20, 2018)

Our goats will eat hay baled right off our farm which is fescue, clover mix, crown vetch, crab grass, iron weed, orchard grass, lespedeza, and Timothy. This is what they graze on year round and so basically we stockpile what they have in the main growing season for winter. The only hay I find they will not eat is Coastal Bermuda. Our Farmer's CO-OP had some one time and I bought a few bales just to see if they'd eat it, and they wouldn't touch the stuff. Our hay off the farm is way higher in protein than that stuff anyway. If our goats had a choice of only the Bermuda, they would just eat more browse on the mountain.


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## The Old Ram-Australia (Oct 25, 2018)

G'day, do you up there have access to what we call chaff?Down here its usually alfalfa or oaten with the head in.The way I can best explain it is if you put baled hay through a mulcher you get "chaff" .

You also need a feeder that they cannot jump or climb into.To begin with you may need to add some stud mix and maybe a little dried Molasses(some of the stud mixes for horses have quite a lot in it) for energy and to lift the protein value.When we were milking years ago (and I mean a lot of years ago )it is really good for milk production.

Has anybody gone down the path?...T.O.R.


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## Teresa R (Oct 25, 2018)

The Old Ram-Australia said:


> G'day, do you up there have access to what we call chaff?Down here its usually alfalfa or oaten with the head in.The way I can best explain it is if you put baled hay through a mulcher you get "chaff" .
> 
> You also need a feeder that they cannot jump or climb into.To begin with you may need to add some stud mix and maybe a little dried Molasses(some of the stud mixes for horses have quite a lot in it) for energy and to lift the protein value.When we were milking years ago (and I mean a lot of years ago )it is really good for milk production.
> 
> Has anybody gone down the path?...T.O.R.



I have never seen anything like that advertised. What is stud mix? 
I'll have a hay feeder that hangs on the wall.


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## Baymule (Oct 25, 2018)

The Old Ram-Australia said:


> G'day, do you up there have access to what we call chaff?Down here its usually alfalfa or oaten with the head in.The way I can best explain it is if you put baled hay through a mulcher you get "chaff" .



Now that's an idea, get a chipper and run the alfalfa bales through it, mix with a little molasses and it would be harder for the picky little snots to eat all the leafy part and leave the stems. @Latestarter do you have a chipper? 

Glad I have sheep.


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## OneFineAcre (Oct 25, 2018)

The Old Ram-Australia said:


> G'day, do you up there have access to what we call chaff?Down here its usually alfalfa or oaten with the head in.The way I can best explain it is if you put baled hay through a mulcher you get "chaff" .
> 
> You also need a feeder that they cannot jump or climb into.To begin with you may need to add some stud mix and maybe a little dried Molasses(some of the stud mixes for horses have quite a lot in it) for energy and to lift the protein value.When we were milking years ago (and I mean a lot of years ago )it is really good for milk production.
> 
> Has anybody gone down the path?...T.O.R.



There is a company that sells a product called Chaffhaye.
It is mulched up alfalfa with a little molasses that is then fermented.
It is pasteurized and sold in sealed 50lb bags.
My goats absolutely love the stuff and there is very little waste when you give it.
We don't really feed it much though, wife is afraid of mold.  We were giving some one time and had a goat die, Coleus.  It was totally unrelated to the chaffhaye, but when she was sick her symptoms were like listeriosis which could have been caused by mold.  But, like I said it turned out to be totally unrelated.
We know some people that feed this exclusively.  It is about $15 for the 50lb bags.


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## The Old Ram-Australia (Oct 25, 2018)

G'day,you are on the right track BM,but the trick is to contain it and "bag it".T.R.When you are next in the produce store have a look around,there are all sorts of grain type mixes for all classes of livestock,but needs to be added to bulk at a low rate say 10%...O F A.It has been my experience that "wet" Molasses can always be a risk,that's why I prefer "dried" plus it is so much easier to handle.
T.O.R.


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