CA Drought and Feeding Goats

[meme]

Unfortunately, California is currently in an "extreme drought" and it is already starting to affect hay prices and availability. We went to three hay suppliers, all of them out, before finally finding a feed store with ten 75 pound bales of alfalfa left. We bought four for $19 a piece and finally headed home. Now we are seriously starting to worry about how we will be feeding our 5 goats (three of them currently pregnant) this year. They usually all eat alfalfa exclusively, except our one small doe also gets grain. I am starting to look into alfalfa cubes since I think that would pretty much eliminate waste- even if they are more expensive initially. I also could increase grain, but only if we absolutely need to ration hay because grain is still more expensive. There isn't much grass here, and I am sure it will all be dead soon. Any ideas for stretching hay this year? I feel sorry for people with large herds of goats, cattle, horses, etc. It is going to be a hard year for sure.

 

[Rocco]

Welcome to the drought club, with its growing membership. The drought maps may indicate improvement in some parts of my world (western north TX), but the maps haven't visited my property or cleaned the bugs and cobwebs out of my unused rain gauge (0.20" of whoop-di-doo rain so far this year, off to another dismal start).

OK, so we had the same situation 2 summers ago, last summer wasn't as extreme and their was local hay. Hay growers in other areas will find you and start hauling more hay into your area. AZ hay should be available, I would think. I can still buy good AZ alfalfa here. They hauled hay into TX from all over. First at pretty fair prices, then increasingly higher prices...but it became available at least.

Another way to get hay is to go in with some other folks and purchase an entire truck load from areas that have hay.

We did feed a decent amount of alfalfa cubes, and one the goats liked even more was a mixed alfalfa-timothy or alfalfa-bermuda cubes. I like the idea of the cubes for lack of waste, and the price here actually works out as good or better than small square bales.

If you have any areas you can cut brush from, that is another way. Our county road fences are always covered in brush. I would occasionally go along the road and do the county a favor and cut a truck load and haul it back to our herd and the (absentee owner) neighbor's herd. Free food even if I had to sweat a little.

Good luck, and I hope some rain finds you soon.

 

[babsbag]

Meme, where are you in Nor CA? I am in Redding and I don't have a problem buying hay. The prices range from 15-17 a bale for alfalfa and the bales are at least 100lbs. The last ones I bought are probably closer to 130. My suppliers here say that they will not be running out. I feed a bale a day to my herd.

I am seriously considering growing fodder though if the prices keep going up and the rain doesn't come down.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Right now, the prices will be that high, just because the time of year.....here in california, what we are buying is the last of the stored hay from last year. It always rises for us around this time of year until the fields are ready for the first harvest......

 

[BrownSheep]

Any sugar beet plants in your area? Ours will occasionally sell the pulp.
If you do go the pellet route ask if they have bulk discounts. We occasionally by feed ( mainly cat) by the pallet since it is cheaper and we will feed it all eventually.

We spent $100 a week last spring when we ran out of feed. Ran out again this year but had a neighbor who sold us some beautiful 1/2 ton bales.

 

[meme]

Thanks for the replies. Maybe I should do some calling around and see if I can find some for a better price. I found some leads on CL as well. I don't know about sugar beet pulp around here, I will have to see about that too. Is that the same as the bagged beet pulp from the feed store? I am definitely going to try alfalfa cubes, but do they have to be broken apart for goats?

It seems like we might be getting a little rain later this week, so that's a good sign! I took them out to the unfenced area of our pasture yesterday, and they were really enjoying the leftover acorns and even nibbling on some grass.

 

[BrownSheep]

We actually bought pellets not cubes so I don't know

 

[Rocco]

I am definitely going to try alfalfa cubes, but do they have to be broken apart for goats?

In short, yes it helps to break them. There are mini-cubes available that are better sized for goats, but even some of those are kind of large for them to handle. We keep a small dull knife in the feed shed and just split them into smaller pieces as needed.

 

[treeclimber233]

after several years of drought here I started feeding beet pulp pellets and hay stretcher to my goats and horse. Along with a little hay too to give them something to munch on during the day. They are all doing fine except one doe but she is a really hard keeper anyway. I can never keep any weight on her.