Milk Crate hay feeders

[Ridgetop]

We have used milk crates, but they are pretty wasteful. At first we thought they would be pretty good but even wiring them to the fences, the goats would scatter the hay. Once the hay has touched the floor they won't eat it. You can use them to carry the hay to the pen but if your hay is loose, you will still loose a lot.If you want a cheap movable feeder that will prevent waste, why not make a keyhole panel? A keyhold has been around forever and is designed to stop waste. You only need a jigsaw and a piece of plywood. Since your goats are dwarf or pygmy size, size it down. Decide how high you want the head opening. It should be at least head height on the goat and slightly higher than the hay level. That way they have to move their necks down into the slot to eat. When they want to take their heads out of the feeder slots they have to move their heads up to the hole to back out of the feeder, dropping the loose hay they would have normally pulled out onto the barn floor. Put as many openings as you want but since you only have 2 goats and want to put it in a corner, 2 shoi;d be enoigh. You can always make 2 boards and mount them in different corners if they don't get along. (Goats will often choose a favorite opening and fight over it.) Space the openings just wide enough that goats standing side by side have room to eat. You can find directions for keyhole feeders on line, or in any goat book. Just remember that the directions are sized for standard dairy goats and minimize the pattern accordingly. My children and I built several using a pie plate as the hole pattern and then making the slot about 6" wide and 10" long. For Pygmy size goats you will have to do some measuring and adjustments. Put eyebolts in each corner and tie or wire it to the wall on either side of a corner in your pen. We used to have many of these keyhole boards. We used them when we went to fairs, shows, and when we set up individual kidding pens. they were easy to store since they were just sheets of plywood. I used 5/8" since that is what I had a lot of scrap from but with pygmy or dwarf goats you could use something lighter.
If you want to use the milk crates for something and have laying hens, turn it on the side, put a board about 3-4" high across the bottom of the opening and use them for nest boxes.

 

[chrisarvor]

i live in Bulgaria ,when you say Hay is that Lucerne(or as you call it Alfalfa)
because i can only buy straw for bedding or Lucerne
if i put a box of alfalfa,lucerne out they would not sop eating it ??? and i am told not to over do the lucerne feed
what do you think ,, i have 6 mini goats

 

[Ridgetop]

Here in the USA hay can be either Alfalfa (Lucerne is a variety), oat hay, grass hay, or several other types of feed hay which is different from straw. Straw is bedding material and is the waste stem left after the oats, wheat or other grains are harvested. It is baled and sold here as straw for bedding. If your goats or sheep are on a special restricted feeding schedule like some show animals are, you can't bed with straw because they will eat it and get a "hay belly" which you don't want in the show ring. That usually just applies to market animals.

If you are feeding goats, which kind? If they are milkers, we always fed 1st cut Lucerne alfalfa because milkers need the high protein levels to produce milk. Alfalfa grows andcan be cut as much as 3 or 4 times a year in certain areas of the world depending on the length of your growing season. The level of protein decreases with each subsequent cutting during the harvest year. First is the highest, then 2nd, etc. By the 3rd cutting the protein level is more suitable for horses, etc. We fed free choice which means keep the feeders full. We grained according to their production of milk so much grain per opound of milk produced. That is for milking dairy animals.

If you are feeding a full feed pellet ration to your goats, and the hay (Lucerne) is only for rumen health, you will have to weigh or measure your alfalfa (Lucerne). It depends on what your breed of goats needs for nutrition. If your Lucerne is very rich in protein that may be why you are told not to feed too much of it to your goats.

 

[chrisarvor]

Hi Ridgetop
great answer thanks very much
I have 6 mini goats which i have for my grandchildren when they come to see us ,i dont milk them,
they are just for fun ,i will breed them later

and they keep the mind ticking over with things to do

We have a large plot with plenty of grass for them to graze on ,
i give them a cup of pellets each every night and a small amount of Lucerne in the morning ,they all seem to be fit and have a good run around
thanks again keep well

 

[Ridgetop]

Grandchildren and goats - life can't get any sweeter!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

X a gazillion!

 

[Latestarter]

Grandchildren and goats - life can't get any sweeter!

Sure it can! Do what I did and get a couple of bee hives! Then you can be talking SWEET!

 

[chrisarvor]

Latestarter have you ever seen this

http://www.honeyflow.com/gallery-videos/videos/p/60

 

[Latestarter]

Yes. Saw it when it was first published when they were looking for funding. It seems they did quite well.

 

[Pmtervo]

Please be very, very careful with hay bags. When I first started with goats I thought the bags were wonderful until I found one of my favorite does hanging in one. She had stuck her head through a hole and somehow got the hay bag twisted around her neck. I found her the next morning very, very dead.

Some folks think it's only horned goats who have a problem with the bags, but my goat was de-horned.

Sorry for your loss! The other thing is to make sure that your goats don't chew them. I made the mistake of tieing them inside their shelter overnight and the next morning half of the bag was gone and I was finding chunks of nylon rope all over their house for days.