gorms

So we've got a pair of pet goats (wife had to have them ) and now they are about 16 months old. Been buying bales of hay for about $8-10 each, and they waste a good 1/3 of that at least. But they've stayed very healty so far.

Our neighbor has the wrapped rolls of hay for $40, about 4' all around. I never thought of that as more that just wrapped up bales of hay, so we grabbed one (heavy suckers) and I cut it partially open yesterday to pull some out, and they love it with little to waste. But now I just went reading online about introducing air can promote listeria (sp?) if it doesn't get eaten quickly. The two of them go through about 2 open bales a week, so it would take them a while to eat the whole new roll. And it's a little warm/muggy up here this time of year.

Am I better off saving the "haylage" rolls for winter and stick to bales right now? What should I do with the wrap I opened up? We aren't exactly farmers, and I never really looked into it/heard anything about it either. Thanks for any help!

Lary Ellis (Top)

I read that the Dept of Agriculture has outlawed those round bales for goat feed........seems the goats have not been getting a square meal

Sorry I have no info on your question, but I could not resist the opportunity for the joke

chaikwa

I don't know a whole lot about goats, but our barn manager has a whole fleet of them. She tries to find bales that have a high percentage of alfalfa in them because she says they eat it all and there's little to no waste. I guess they like leafy things as opposed to stalks of grass. In fact, she says they won't eat plain old grass. She puts them out in our pastures once a year to eat all the weedy junk that grows and the horses won't touch, and from what I've seen, they WON'T eat the grass, just the stuff with leaves on it.

gorms

Yup she helped out with some basics when we first got them, made it all a bit easier. But maybe we've got different breeds or something because I haven't mowed my back yard all year! They to leave some pesky stalks here and there (there is alot of alfalfa back there) but for the most part all nice and clean.

I guess I'm just looking to see if it's ok to leave that roll half open or to open it all up, cause it will take a while for just 2 of them to eat it all.

chaikwa

Give her a call! I don't really know. I know if you feed horses that kind of thing, they'll colic on you, but I dunno about goats.

cincydiesel

Go ahead and turn them into pepperoni and be done with it.. J/K


Check out this place. Some pretty good info in there

http://www.sweetlix.com/media/docume...yBestGoats.pdf

JKM

You won't want to leave a large round bale of silage exposed to air for more than 3-4 days, it will start to spoil, in the summer heat, depending on temperature, moisture content of the bale, etc, it might take less time. As stated earlier, goats love leafy stuff, regular grass, they will eat it, but they will eat everything else first.

gorms

I've been trying to fill the freezer chest up with them for a while! But I can't make decisions like that.

Maybe I'll stick to bales for now, grab a roll for winter as this past winter it was hard finding something that didn't resemble straw on the curbside.

Thanks for the help, we're sorta new to this stuff.

And chaikwa I think I still have her saved as "goat lady" in my phone.

NE frmhnd

The silage bales will spoil quickly in the heat. Once it freezes they won't spoil very fast, but you may not like chipping the hay out of them for the goats. May end up cutting the wrap off and letting the goats at it directly.

Bark

Now if you were talking sheep you came to the right place.

Ok, you won the worst best joke of the day.

SIXSLUG

I like goat meat best in hot tamales, really hot tamales like Gil's wife used to make, but that is another story........

Maybe a neighbor will sell you a portion of one so you can test it out??

wyododge

I would stick with bailed Alfalfa. Large round bales is what we feed with. We roll them out like carpet for the cows. Goats aren't really designed to eat straight haylage. It is great for cows though, but only as a part of a feed ration. Haylage, whole corn, barley, baled hay, cotton seed, mineral supplement, that sort of thing. Haylage can get very strong after sitting awhile, which is ok in a cows stomach as they are essentially very large fermenters and the haylage gives them sort of a kick start. But you always feed it as a portion of a diet, never just straight. Goats are much smaller, and therefor would be given a very small percentage of pre-fermented feed.

If you are having a problem with the goats leaving a significant portion, don't feed them for a day or two and they should clean it up. They are grazers and so a day or two without feed can actually be beneficial (as in the wild when they would be traveling between greener pastures) They will tend to leave the stalks behind, no matter what you do though.

gorms

Ya right now we just wanted to try it out, wanted to make sure it wouldn't turn to poison in a few days. I opened up the bale totally and it's been staying well. They graze during the day (almost 2 acres for 2 goats) so they don't really need much.

Maybe I feed them too much but they get equivalent of 2 flakes a day, then whatever they get grazing.

Straight alfalfa is hard to find around here but it grows like crazy in the back yard. In the winter we plan on adding some grain in their diet once in a while, cause grassy hay is all that's around otherwise.

THanks for the help fellas. My neighbor is from portugal and has been prepping the rotisserie since we got them, I'm on his side too!