Chaffhaye anyone?!

[MaggieSims]

i WILL be trying this. I have a recovering milk goat who is suuuuper skinny and having teeth issues. I'm thinking this will be easier for her to consume. I have only one local supplier, who is actually new on the feed store scene. they sell it for 16 bucks for 50lbs. i should be getting some today. i will report back!

 

[Alexz7272]

@MaggieSims Yes please! Thank you!

 

[WantonWoodsman]

Chaffhaye? Pardon me for doing my utmost best in sounding stupid, but is it silage or similar?

 

[Alexz7272]

@WantonWoodsman From my limited knowledge, and you do not sound stupid at all!, it is like silage but not exactly? It retains more moisture and is made from Alfalfa. But I'm no expert, haha

 

[frustratedearthmother]

http://chaffhaye.com/

You can probably find answers here.

 

[WantonWoodsman]

Thank you. So it's alfalfa silage. The silage we buy here gets moldy within 4 days and buying smaller quantities is a no-no.

 

[Southern by choice]

On lunch break so I have to be quick

We were asked about Chaffhaye over the years but I had never used it had no experience with it and my biggest concern was it had molasses in it.
I am a NO MOLASSES in feed kinda gal!
I guess this was a big concern for others as well and the company must have had many inquiries about it. They have since updated their site in regards to this.

Short end of it is there is only 2 Tablespoons in the bag and it is there so the good bacteria can survive. It is basically "haylage".

We were teaching udder care at a workshop for a regional event. One of the classes we had hoped to go to was the one on dairy goat nutrition. We ended up doing double classes so we couldn't attend nut many people we talked to realized their goats probably weren't getting all they needed. Alfalfa can be found here but a) it is expensive b) consistent quality is an issue.

After that we had so many calls about it we thought we'd investigate further. Talked with different people, the company, and our local distributor.

We decided to give it a go. This was winter 2016 We started this (I think) February may have been early March.

It took the "herd mentality" for some to even try it ... once they all decided they liked it then it became part of our daily routine.

There a a few things to consider-

Terminology may play a role in this but several people I know that say "it is all I feed" may not mean the same thing to me as it does to them. I hear ' ALL I feed'... but what some mean is they give no grain/pelleted feed but do have regular hay access.

The feeding amount is a general suggestion NOT a hard rule.
This is important. Recently we were asked to evaluate a few kids. Two kids were fine, one kid was not. The small kid was less than half the size as the others, skinny, you could feel the spine and ribs easily and was clearly not as robust. After getting detail on the feeding schedule it became pretty evident what the problem was.
The owner fed Chaffhaye 2x day and put a small amount of hay out in the morning. Unfortunately the chaff was being given according to weight of the animal. The problem... NOT ENOUGH. It was only enough to sustain. The kids needed MORE in order to grow. The two kids were eating all the hay up and the one was clearly getting nothing.

The other factor is the hay was gone fast. The goats were basically having empty rumins all day. This is not good for the developing rumin. It also allow greater risk for bloat. Empty then suddenly full can cause bloat and twisting of the stomach.

Same case- the milking does really were not giving to their potential. If lactating then MORE is needed.

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As far as mold/bacteria

You do want to use this in a timely manner. Keeping bags cool is a must. When in doubt throw it out!

While we used this we went through a bag every 2 days so no real worries for us. Others we know take 2 weeks, they just keep it sealed, and in a cooler location.

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How we used it-
As a supplement
Our goats still had hay, feed on milkstand, and they have lots of forage/grass once spring/summer jit so from May on they did not want as much of the Chaffe.

We discontinued the Chaff mid summer. We will return in fall.

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Observations-
Because we started in winter we saw a great increase in coat condition and overall condition within 1 month

Production IMO was not significantly changed so I don't buy into the increase in production aspect. We had 10 goats in milk- different breeds- different lines. No effect.

Our one goat (the fussy Lamancha) DID do far better with keeping her condition when on the chaffe... she prefers it over feed.

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Feeding Chaffhaye DOES NOT mean your goat will not need minerals or supplements.
I have herd a few times that "you shouldn't copper, selenium etc because the Chaff has it all"
WRONG
It may be true for some but not for all. Know your region, your deficiencies.

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We did have one bad lot and had a few goats get sick- I can expand on that later if anyone is interested... I have to get back- lunch is over.

Personally I think this a gret supplemental "hay". NO WASTE! But I would never used this as my sole source of diet in my goats.

 

[Bossroo]

A couple years ago I baught a few bags to feed my as well as client horses (32 head ). None would touch it , not even after I held back all feed for 2 days on my horses. I gave the opened bags to my meighbor to feed sheep ... nope , not one sheep would touch it. I took the rest of the bags back and got a refund. The feed store owner said he will not carry it anymore as he got too many returns.

 

[NH homesteader]

It sounds to me like it isn't worth the hour drive for me, personally. I'll just stick with adding alfalfa pellets to the grain and my grass hay. Unless I end up with a goat that's not doing well on the feed I'm using. Right now everyone looks great so I won't complicate matters! I don't like complications!

 

[Southern by choice]

I really like it in the barn. NO WASTE HAY TO PICK UP!

I do like that nutritionally it is consistent.
That was a big reason we started with it.

Our one goat that has her "issues" does really well on this.

I also think this is very beneficial for those that may be going through a "season" of parasite issues. Needing to put some weight on without dumping grain into the goat, and for supplementing where people cannot find good quality hay.

We have to change our feeding regimen with the seasons. Summer our goats really like "all naturelle" grass, leaves, whatever is growing. Winter everything goes dormant so we need to change things up a bit.

One thing we don't want is for our goats to sit around all day waiting for feed. If they aren't out eating off the land in the seasons they can then we are definitely feeding them too much.