# wasted hay



## OHMYKIDS (Sep 17, 2009)

What do you all do with all the wasted hay that the goats leave behind?  I tend to have alot because the last batch of hay was really stemmy and they don't like it.  Hopefully my next one won't have too much stems.


----------



## mdoerge (Sep 17, 2009)

I use it as bedding.  I put pine pellets down and whatever hay they pull out and waste ends up on top.  The pellets are very absorbent and the hay makes a comfy bed!


----------



## freemotion (Sep 17, 2009)

Yup!  Bedding!


----------



## redhen (Sep 18, 2009)

LOL.. Yup..stays on the floor as bedding..


----------



## trestlecreek (Sep 18, 2009)

I just rake it up every couple of days and throw it in the compost pile. 
 I don't use as bedding due to encouragement of eating off the ground and mold growing under the hay...


----------



## ohiofarmgirl (Sep 18, 2009)

i'm with the rest - leave it. my goaties usually wont eat off the ground and the chickens pick at it and scratch all around. 

but then i do a big clean out every other week and it all goes into compost. or as i've been doing this summer, side dressing my garden to keep down the weeds. instead of waiting to compost you put it beside, not on or mixed into the soil. so far so good.


----------



## kimmyh (Sep 18, 2009)

I clean it out, and use it for compost. Hay on the ground is the perfect home for growing the listeria bacteria (that is present everywhere), and once you have seen a case of listerosis, you will never want to see another.


----------



## trestlecreek (Sep 18, 2009)

I agree, listeria can grow on old hay in just one week. 
Nothing I want to risk and I agree Listeriosis is an UGLY disease.
That is part of why I love feeding alfalfa, very little waste for me to clean up!


----------



## Mini-M Ranch (Sep 18, 2009)

yup, when I give the girls alfalfa...they LOVE me, and they pretty much hooverize it so only the tiniest little green leaf flakes fall through the feeder to the floor.


----------



## OHMYKIDS (Sep 18, 2009)

Thank you all very much!  I feed alfalfa also but it's very stemmy, so I have lots of waste.  Does the stems compost easily?


----------



## Mini-M Ranch (Sep 18, 2009)

I don't know.  My girls chomp right down on the big stems first.


----------



## cmjust0 (Sep 18, 2009)

Ours are prone make tumbleweeds out of stemmy alfalfa..  Throw them stemmy alfalfa and the next day, the feeder will have three or four beach-ball sized wads of alfalfa stems in it, stripped clean of leaves and smaller branches.  

Now, if you're like me and get aggravated that they're leaving tumbleweeds...and if you refuse to refill the feeder...and then it rains and keeps them off pasture...POOF!...the tumbleweeds magically disappear!

Amazing how that happens...  :/

I can't help but chuckle when I see an empty feeder after a few days of leftover tumbleweeds..  I know it's mean, but I can just picture the goats looking out at the rain...then looking back at the tumbleweeds...then out at the rain again......."Well, crap."


----------



## BDial (Sep 18, 2009)

I used it as bedding before I brought home my horse from the trainer. Now I feed them all in one big pile and the horse finishes off what the goats don't eat. No more wasted hay!!!

Oh ya I should also mention. I don't have to clean up goat poo either. For some reason my horse loves it.


----------



## OHMYKIDS (Sep 18, 2009)

cmjust0 -  I like it although my buck cries big time if I don't feed them the good stuff, I guess he's spoiled.  His cries echos all over here.  I know what you mean of tumbleweeds, yup, I get them.  Sometimes I add the alfalfa leaves in there but they still pick the leaves and leave the rest.  

So if I get a horse they'll eat the rest of the hay?  That would be cool!


----------



## kimmyh (Sep 18, 2009)

Yes, between hay waste and straw from kidding, we usually have a huge pile each spring that is beautiful compost by winter.


----------



## currycomb (Sep 20, 2009)

yes, unfortunately, the horses are not as picky about what they eat and will go thru a pile of goat rejected hay and leave nothing, so, i guess get a horse, pony or donkey(ps the donkey can guard as well)


----------



## kimmyh (Sep 20, 2009)

If your horse is eating goat poop, I would add feed/look for mineral issues. It is abborent behavior.


----------



## freemotion (Sep 20, 2009)

Absolutely.  Start buying supplements, including probiotics.  That shouldn't be happening.....and give it some time, weeks, to correct itself.  You can have a dozen horses on the same diet, and one is suffering from deficiency or insufficiency of something or other but the rest are fine.  In humans, we now know that genetics play a huge role in each individuals' ability to obtain certain things from a normal diet.  So this is no criticism of your horse  care.  He just needs more of something than most horses do, and it will take some sleuthing to figure it out.

A good multivitamin/multimineral supplement is a good place to start, also look at selenium/E (if you are in a selenium-poor area, or if your feed comes from a selenium-poor area.....a lot of areas are!), and probiotics.  I would probably put him on all three at the maximum dose for three to six months, and then reduce them one by one to see what the culprit is.  It takes too long to do it in reverse, give him one supplement for 3-6 months to see if it is the one, then try the next one.  It will be a couple of years before you figure it out that way.


----------



## freemotion (Sep 20, 2009)

Oh, and when I had my horse and her two pet pygmies all together, I would put a pile of hay on the ground for the mare and the goats would rush for the weeds first while the horse ate the grass.  Not a leaf or spear was wasted!  I started asking the farmer for hay from weedy fields!  It worked out just great.

The only problem I ran into was that I always fed the mare her grain from a ground feeder, and the goats soon discovered that they could bonk the poor old gal away from her food.  So I had to raise it up.


----------



## kimmyh (Sep 20, 2009)

Please if you are feeding any animal on the ground make sure their feed is in a tub. Ground feeding is the best way out there to give your animals parasites, and risk Listerosis.


----------



## freemotion (Sep 20, 2009)

I thought that way, too, until the evil feed tub almost killed my doeling....she ended up stuck upside-down in it and couldn't get out, and was there for hours.  Fluke, probably, but I can't stand the site of the tub now....and it is a gorgeous rubber tub!

My ground is very dry, and I raked the feeding area (outside) and had no disease or parasite issues in several years of doing this.  It really depends on the area.  I am on many feet of sand with ridiculously fast drainage.  Even if you don't feed on the ground, they have their little mouths vacuuming up stuff all day long anyways.

I hear ya, but.....each situation is different.  

Hey, how about using a rubber stall mat that you can sweep off every day?  That might keep the horse from taking in sand, too.  And could be left outside.


----------



## kimmyh (Sep 20, 2009)

Yes a stall mat could work, or you might try on of the hundreds of other feeder designs. There is a really nice one that has a lid, which you probably don't need if the horse is eating out of the top of it. It could be made out of wood, and it wouldn't cost a fortune. Or you could mount 2x4's on the bottom of your tub, I doubt it would flip with the added weight.


----------



## kimmyh (Sep 20, 2009)

Sandy soil = good drainage, and an increased risk of sand colic.


----------



## kimmyh (Sep 20, 2009)

Feeder plans http://www.premier1supplies.com/img/instruction/128.pdf


----------



## freemotion (Sep 20, 2009)

Nicest plans I've seen!  Thanks!!!  Wouldn't let a horse near it, though.

The tub isn't what flipped, the doeling flipped into the tub, probably got bonked.  I made a large square free-standing hay rack that, when filled, a goat can be on each side and not see each other, so far, far less bonking at feed time.  I like those plans MUCH better than the ones I used, though.  I will be building that one this winter.  It looks far more efficient than what I built, and I have a lot of hay waste.  No bonking, though!

As for the sand colic, that is what the rubber mat is for.  I never had an issue with colic of any type here.  I did manage a high-end show and breeding stable for ten years, and we had two colics.  One from a reaction to a med and a few mild cases in a mare with a large colt who was sucking all the flesh right off his dam, so we had to wean him early for her sake...she couldn't get enough calories without risking colic.  Not saying that sand colic would not be a risk on other properties, it hasn't been a problem for me, thank goodness.


----------



## Beekissed (Sep 21, 2009)

> I can't help but chuckle when I see an empty feeder after a few days of leftover tumbleweeds..  I know it's mean, but I can just picture the goats looking out at the rain...then looking back at the tumbleweeds...then out at the rain again......."Well, crap."


Soooooo funny!  


I find I have less waste when I let my brats "steal" hay rather than give it to them.  I just leave one edge of my tarp loosened and let them pull hay out of the stack.  Yeah, it's not very neat when the bale finally disintegrates or when they have two bales being eaten at the same time....but I've found they are very picky eaters and will pick alfalfa right out of the other hay and leave it the hay to mold in the feeder.  

When they steal it, they tend to eat anything that hits their mouths first.


----------

