Amount of hay

Rescuechick76

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How do I know how much hay to get for the winter? Right now I have two Nigerian dwarf kids, thinking of adding a third. Have no clue how much to get to last through the winter :/
 

Ferguson K

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Round bales or square? Do you free feed or toss a little in at a time? We have 30ish and go through a round bale every 3 weeks or so.
 

Southern by choice

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With 3 goats I wouldn't worry too much LOL You can pick up hay from your feedstore easily. You quite possibly could run more of a risk trying to store too much and it get moldy.

Right now we have grass and forage. The goats get feed and Chaffhaye and we still go through about 1 ton every 2 1/2 weeks. Winter we will probably do one ton every 10 days. (2 weeks hopefully)

We cannot store what we need which stinks... but we just don't have the space. :(

Look at 6-10 lbs per day and what your bales weigh multiply and you should get what you need.
Based on 3 Nigerians.

Gosh - I am depressed thinking about this.
 

babsbag

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Look at 6-10 lbs per day and what your bales weigh multiply and you should get what you need.
Based on 3 Nigerians.

Gosh - I am depressed thinking about this.

Is that 6-10 lbs per day per Nigi? Or per 3 nigis?

I have 40 standard sized goats and I go through a BIG bale (1200-1400 lbs) of alfalfa in 8 days. They get no other feed other than grain on the milk stand and not all of them are being milked.
 

OneFineAcre

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I don't try to buy enough hay to last all winter.
Wouldn't have the space to adequately store it.
 

Rescuechick76

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We have the space to store it. And it won't be too much of a problem if we run out and have to buy from the feed store, but I'm hoping to buy a big chunk now cause the feed store charged us $6.75 for one square bale and right now farmers are selling for $2.50 per bale :/
So this may be a dumb question, but how much does a square bale weigh? If I should expect to feed 6-10 pounds per day...how many days would one bale last? Lol!!
 

OneFineAcre

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Square bales run from 50-75 lbs.
You might want to check yours and how consistent they are.

I don't buy all of mine at once, but I also don't pay feed store prices. I have a couple of "hay guys" that I can get from all winter long.
 
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