Should I be feeding Alfalfa Cubes/Pellets?

[lupinfarm]

My goats are on grass hay with a bit of clover mixed in (higher quality horse hay). I don't have access to any alfalfa hay this year.

Should I be feeding an alfalfa pellet or alfalfa hay cubes (soaked)?

Currently they get 2 cups each of Rolling Acres Goat Ration, but the weather is getting cooler, should I start increasing their ration? I found a supplier for Purina Goat Chow, which I believe is a pellet, how much of this should they be getting if I decide to switch? (which I think I might).

I have 2 Pygmy/Pygmy X does, 6 mos and 2 yrs

 

[kimmyh]

If you can't get alfalfa hay, I would feed the pellets. Cubes plus water equals heat, which grows bacteria, and I wouldn't want to go that route. Also cubes can choke a goat, so again, I would lean toward pellets.

 

[lupinfarm]

How much should I feed? and Should I feed it with their regular feeding? They share the 2 cups twice a day right now but only because we aren't in a situation where we can easily tie them up (their little barn is not finished being built! Poor things live outside in a dog run right now).

 

[lilhill]

Alfalfa hay is scarce around here, so I feed mine a cup of alfalfa pellets per feeding twice a day, mixed in with their grain. They also have free choice grass hay and pasture.

 

[cmjust0]

Depending on how much clover's in the grass mix, you may not necessarily need the alfalfa. Clover is also a legume, and if you look at the nutritional values (table 5) on it, it's very close to alfalfa. High protein, high calcium, low phosphorus.

Personally, I love clover/grass mix hay. I'll take all of it I can get my grubby little paws on because I know it to be comparable to alfalfa/orchardgrass mix, but it's usually priced like straight grass hay. I can get it for $4/bale, versus the $6.50+/bale I'd be paying for alfalfa/orchard grass...which most of the time is about 80% orchard grass..



Not to mention, pure alfalfa that's fine and green is like $8+/bale here, and as far as I'm concerned, it's unbalanced... The protein in a bale like that could be as high as the lower mid 20s, and the Ca ratio is like 6:1 or something crazy like that.. That's too much of a good thing, IMO..

I guess what I'm getting at is that if you're feeding a high quality legume/grass mix hay, and if you're already adding two full cups of grain each per day for supplementation...I'd leave it at that for now. To me, that sounds like plenty enough for a goat to get along well.

And remember also that even with all the data on nutrional values and availability of bagged feed and so forth, at the end of the day, it's still "the eye of the master that fatteneth the calf."

In other words...just keep an eye on them. If it turns out that legume/grass hay free choice and two cups of grain are causing them to slowly lose weight, you can always start making adjustments.

Just my $0.02.

 

[lupinfarm]

Thanks CM, since we get pretty frigid here and there will be no grass available for them (actually, right now they're just on hay and grain because their field isn't ready, I feel bad but shh). Should I consider a bit of alfalfa pellet in the winter, on those nasty nasty days?

 

[cmjust0]

If you're talking strictly bodyheat, breaking down forage creates more heat than breaking down grain.. I would consider alfalfa pellets to be more akin to grain in that respect, just because it's pelleted...even though it's alfalfa, there's no long fiber to be broken down in the rumen, and that's the process that generates the heat. That said, there's really nothing more to be done than provide plenty of free-choice hay -- the courser the better, in fact! -- so far as keeping a goat's rumen going so it doesn't freeze to death.

Beyond that, what I'd be looking at is overall body condition.. If I noticed that they were starting to lose weight and I couldn't get alfalfa hay to incorporate more protein into the long fiber they must have to generate body heat, I'd basically be left to begin adjusting the protein supplementation strategy..

Protein supplementation could be accomplished through alfalfa pellets, more grain, or even a protein tub...but the key is that those aren't just 'really cold day' precautions, but something I'd begin to incorporate to stop the loss of condition.

 

[lupinfarm]

Okay so I went to my local Co-op because I was in the area and bought my chicken food there that day and I asked for alfalfa pellets because I felt they needed something in their diets and the co-op gave me cubes. This co-op doesn't take returns and frankly I don't have the gas to go back so I'm soaking the cubes in hot water until my orientation tomorrow at Chapters when I can get real pellets from the TSC store. I've alotted 3 cubes each for the girls, and the outcome is kind of like a nice hot mash. They LOVED it.

 

[mully]

I have fed cubes just dry and it gives them something to chew on. I would not add water to soften them. Pellets are easier but cubes are fine.

 

[goat lady]

We give the cubes to our rabbits, but sometimes I crumble them up and put them in hand to give to the goats. I just don't know about giving them the whole cube because of choaking on it. The rabbits chew on it till it is gone. Has anyone ever given a goat the whole cube? Dry. They are the mini Alfaya cubes. Thanks