tonycanevaro
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Ok, I need a definitive answer please. (Not likely I’m sure 
)
We have two non milking goats. Saanen, Nigerian dwarf crosses about 2 years old. One wether and one doe. They are on about an acre of fairly steep “pasture” with some trees but very little grass. We started feeding hay and barley when we got them about 9 months ago. They pretty much just picked the hay apart and wasted most of it. So we went to alfalfa bales. They ate that quite a bit better but alfalfa here is 22$ for a small 40lb square bale.
Then we tried Alfalfa cubes. They both love them. Chew em right up. So for the last 7 months or so they have been getting alfalfa cubes, flatted barley and a few times a week or so I cut some branches of varying types for them.
They get a molasses goat mineral block and clean water and that’s it. They put on good weight and have lots of energy.
Here is my question: I keep reading people saying they need long stem hay and cubes don’t have that. I disagree (I was born and raised on a cattle farm and have a pretty fair understanding of hay and feed quality etc.) Alfalfa cubes have lots of long strand fibre in them. I can’t understand how (chewed) hay is any different from chewed cubes. By the time either hay or cubes reaches the stomach it seems to me that the fibre available for rumen would be very similar.
I’d realy like to hear from someone with a technical background on this.
I *know* that many books state long stem hay, I just believe that cubes do the same job.
)We have two non milking goats. Saanen, Nigerian dwarf crosses about 2 years old. One wether and one doe. They are on about an acre of fairly steep “pasture” with some trees but very little grass. We started feeding hay and barley when we got them about 9 months ago. They pretty much just picked the hay apart and wasted most of it. So we went to alfalfa bales. They ate that quite a bit better but alfalfa here is 22$ for a small 40lb square bale.
Then we tried Alfalfa cubes. They both love them. Chew em right up. So for the last 7 months or so they have been getting alfalfa cubes, flatted barley and a few times a week or so I cut some branches of varying types for them.
They get a molasses goat mineral block and clean water and that’s it. They put on good weight and have lots of energy.
Here is my question: I keep reading people saying they need long stem hay and cubes don’t have that. I disagree (I was born and raised on a cattle farm and have a pretty fair understanding of hay and feed quality etc.) Alfalfa cubes have lots of long strand fibre in them. I can’t understand how (chewed) hay is any different from chewed cubes. By the time either hay or cubes reaches the stomach it seems to me that the fibre available for rumen would be very similar.
I’d realy like to hear from someone with a technical background on this.
I *know* that many books state long stem hay, I just believe that cubes do the same job.
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