Chaffhaye anyone?!

[babsbag]

I have never seen silage or haylage in CA. All of the big dairies that know of feed alfalfa from the field. There may be silage for cattle but not in a million years would I get that stuff near my goats. Even if it was made from good alfalfa if it isn't made and stored correctly mold would certainly be an issue and goats don't tolerate mold at all.

My friends here that have used Chaffhaye love it, but it does come out a little more expensive than alfalfa. But they say that their goats look amazing on it and no waste. My goats don't waste much of their alfalfa either, I have found feeders that work. One BIG advantage if you don't have a truck is the ability to bring Chaff home in the trunk or back seat of your car.

 

[misfitmorgan]

I've not seen any silage that was made and stored correctly mold...

chaffhaye is haylage.....haylage is a type of silage.....chaffhaye is silage it is just an example of made and stored correctly.

 

[Queen Mum]

I use chaffhay and the goats love it. I also used compressed bales of alfafa. The goats love that too. BOTH last well and keep well. I do not use alfalfa pellets because the content is questionable. I use round bales of hay when I can get quality stuff. My goats hate to eat grass. For some reason the boar goats around here like grass but my dairy does won't or don't. As for storage of chaffhay. One bale lasts about a week. I keep it in the barn and it stays pretty dry.

I don't usually see mold and I have a goat that can smell mold from a mile a way and rejects the stuff if it's moldy so I don't have to worry much about it. She tells me if I have any mold in the feed before I even put it in the tray. (She blows raspberries at it and head butts it out of my hands.)

 

[misfitmorgan]

I use chaffhay and the goats love it. I also used compressed bales of alfafa. The goats love that too. BOTH last well and keep well. I do not use alfalfa pellets because the content is questionable. I use round bales of hay when I can get quality stuff. My goats hate to eat grass. For some reason the boar goats around here like grass but my dairy does won't or don't. As for storage of chaffhay. One bale lasts about a week. I keep it in the barn and it stays pretty dry.

I don't usually see mold and I have a goat that can smell mold from a mile a way and rejects the stuff if it's moldy so I don't have to worry much about it. She tells me if I have any mold in the feed before I even put it in the tray. (She blows raspberries at it and head butts it out of my hands.)

Thats why we dont us alfalfa pellets most generally. There is a mill up here and farmers take their junk alfalfa hay there and get $1/bale for it. They dont care if it was rained on or anything as long as it isnt black they will take it. Full of weeds they dont care. It all gets sent thru mills and mixed up the good with the bad. Then it is dyed and made into pellets. The bright green color of those pellets is a dye. DH used to work at a feed mill in Iowa and said if we knew what went into feed we wouldnt use any of it period.

All that being said not all alfalfa pellets are created equal. If you look at the tag it should only have 1 ingredient "alfalfa" and it should be 17% protein. I know TSC sells one brand of "alfalfa pellets" which has the ingredients listed as "mixed forage" and is 14% protein and a alfalfa timothy pellet that is 100% timothy only and they actually charge more for then the same brands straight alfalfa pellet. So yeah make sure you read your labels for ingredients too.

Anyhow back on topic. We have haylage here that looks exactly the same as chaffe and i wouldnt have a problem feeding it. If you can keep the air out of chaffe and keep it cool you shouldnt have a mold problem, properly made haylage here does not mold. From what i can tell the Chaffee hay is green chopped into trucks then taken to the factory dumped in the chaff bags with 2T molasses and some yeast added, then sealed up stacked on pallets plastic wrapped and set outside in the sun to ferment before being shipped out. Least thats what i gather from their website and aerial/ground photos off google earth/mapquest of the place they make it.

 

[NH homesteader]

I buy Green Mountain Organic alfalfa
pellets. Or did when I was buying them regularly anyway. They're not bright green. Then again they're $22 for a 50 lb bag...

 

[Green Acres Farm]

Thats why we dont us alfalfa pellets most generally. There is a mill up here and farmers take their junk alfalfa hay there and get $1/bale for it. They dont care if it was rained on or anything as long as it isnt black they will take it. Full of weeds they dont care. It all gets sent thru mills and mixed up the good with the bad. Then it is dyed and made into pellets. The bright green color of those pellets is a dye. DH used to work at a feed mill in Iowa and said if we knew what went into feed we wouldnt use any of it period.

Wow! I had no idea! I haven't fed alfalfa pellets in awhile, but I used to...

 

[misfitmorgan]

I buy Green Mountain Organic alfalfa
pellets. Or did when I was buying them regularly anyway. They're not bright green. Then again they're $22 for a 50 lb bag...

Yeah at $22/bag i would assume it is very likely to be nothing but pure quality alfalfa but its just like dog food some "fancy" brands are junk and cost tons and some "fancy" brands are really good. We looked thru all of them and choose to feed diamond naturals after trying others and checking ingredient lists etc. Just gotta do the same with livestock feed.

 

[NH homesteader]

Absolutely. I trust this particular company, they're local and have a super reputation. Also they break the bank lol! So I'm looking for a cheaper alternative since I'm not milking this winter.

Dog food... Oh man that's killing me too. We buy Taste of the Wild. My dogs much prefer the Rachel Ray dog food but my husband says it's bad for them... Oy, animals!

 

[OneFineAcre]

I think this is the first time I've heard that alfalfa pellets are bad.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

Same. Never really thought of it before. I feed very little alfalfa pellets daily, maybe 2, 3-quart scoops. I'll look into it but I'm not hugely concerned about it.
I've tasted them and they still taste much like alfalfa

The Chaffhaye is definitely alfalfa, its chopped but you can still tell what it is.