Hay for goats

[Teresa R]

I'm new to goats and need to buy hay for my goats for the winter. What kind of hay do goats eat? All the hay I find say horse or cow hay. I bought a bale from a local feed store and the goats won't eat it .

 

[lalabugs]

What are your hay options? Do you know the type of hay you bought?
Where I am at we can get alfalfa, 3 way, and sometimes we can get teff & bermuda. Teff and bermuda are harder to get year round.

 

[Teresa R]

Prarie grass and Bermuda is what I have found . There are a few places I can get alfalfa . I'm not sure of vthe hay I got at the feed store. They weren't very helpful that day. I just bought 1 bale to try luckily. I'm just using it for my chickens nesting boxes so it's not wasted . Lol

 

[lalabugs]

I am not sure what Prarie grass is. I googled it. It looks like most have good reviews about it. Not sure if anyone has experience with it. @Goat Whisperer @Green Acres Farm @Latestarter

If you can find a good quality grass hay I would feed that before alfalfa. Good quality is horse hay. I only buy horse quality hay. Alfalfa is what is most readily available here. The goats LOVE it. However they waste A LOT! They only eat the fine stem and leaf. Leaving the rest, roughly 1/2 the bale. My goats will snub any grass hay and refuse to eat it. They refuse grass hay because they're spoiled to alfalfa.

 

[greybeard]

Prairie grass in North Texas thru Oklahoma can be just about anything.it usually just means a combination of mostly native grasses. Gama, brome, native bluestems, Indian grass, switchgrass etc. Usually lower in nutrition than the improved grasses, but hey, they're 100% natural and organic, GMO free, endophyte free and naturally, 'free ranging' so they can't be too bad.

This is the same grass that once covered all of North central Texas, it's panhandle, all of Oklahoma and most of the US Central Plains.

There is a big difference tho in nutritional value and palatability... Sometimes the best feed or hay just 'tastes' bad to the livestock and they don't want to eat it.

OP is from Eastern Oklahoma, so she isn't too far from goatgurl.

 

[Latestarter]

I've tried generic bermuda, Tifton (a type of bermuda), "grass" hays, alfalfa and am now using an orchard grass/alfalfa mix. My goats don't like the first 3, they like and eat alfalfa but waste more than I can afford to let them waste at the price I have to pay per bale. When I tried the last one, the mix, they like it, eat it well, and very little waste. It costs a little more than the pure alfalfa since it's trucked in from someplace up north like Indiana or someplace up that way. The pure alfalfa was costing me $12-13/small bale. The mix is costing me $13.50-14/small bale. Hope you can find something they'll like with little waste. You can try Craig's list... search for "hay for sale".

 

[goatgurl]

hi Teresa, I live a couple of hours to your east near Ft. Smith and raise dairy goats and hair sheep. I get a good grass hay for my girls and they do fine. they don't like the fine stemmed "horse" type hay, don't care for pure Bermuda nor do they like the coarse weed filled stuff that they sell for cows. alfalfa is to expensive for me to buy and them to waste and if it is baled locally I worry about blister bugs in it. do check craigslist for hay and most people will let you buy a bale or two to see if they like it. it may also take them a day or two to get used to eating it. good luck, I hope you find what you need.

 

[Teresa R]

Thank you everyone for your help . I'll "shop" around and get a some different stuff for them to try.

 

[kdogg331]

I think most hay around here is timothy or a grass/timothy mix, orchard mix, mixed with clover, etc. And ranges from like $4 to $7 a bale

 

[kdogg331]

I've tried generic bermuda, Tifton (a type of bermuda), "grass" hays, alfalfa and am now using an orchard grass/alfalfa mix. My goats don't like the first 3, they like and eat alfalfa but waste more than I can afford to let them waste at the price I have to pay per bale. When I tried the last one, the mix, they like it, eat it well, and very little waste. It costs a little more than the pure alfalfa since it's trucked in from someplace up north like Indiana or someplace up that way. The pure alfalfa was costing me $12-13/small bale. The mix is costing me $13.50-14/small bale. Hope you can find something they'll like with little waste. You can try Craig's list... search for "hay for sale".

Wow that's expensive!