How much hay do I need?

[WannaBeFarmR]

How much hay would 4 full sized dairy goat does eat in a year in a state with long cold snowy winters. They would also be fed grain ration 2x a day and have some browse for a few months of the year. Lets say they are either pregnant or milking since that is when they should be needing the most hay. I'm allergic to hay I didn't know that when I got goats and am unable to lift a lot do to other conditions. I'm trying to figure out a way to minimize hay exposure and excess lifting so I can keep my girls. So how much hay would they go through in a year? And is there any safe way/ healthy way to cut back on actual hay like another bagged product or something? It has really been a bad couple of years, and I love my goats I've already downsized by rehoming some of my goats and it was hard, I have 4 does I can't imagine parting with so I'm trying to work this out. Having an idea of the amount of hay they would eat would be a great start though. Thanks all.

 

[SheepGirl]

Take their weight and multiply it by 3% (goats require 3% of their body weight in DM daily). So if you have four 100 lb does, you are feeding 400 lbs. So 400 lbs x 3% = 12 lbs. Your goats will require 12 lbs of DM. Most hay is about 90% DM, so you would do 12 lbs divided by 90% and you get 13-1/3 lbs of hay. Then you need to account for about 10% of waste (hay pulled out of feeder and stomped on), so you would do 13.33 x 110% = 14-2/3 lbs. So each day to feed four 100 lb goats for maintenance level (not breeding, pregnant, lactating, or growing) you would need to put out 14-2/3 lbs of hay each day for them to eat. They will require more (either roughage or grain) if they are productive or weigh more.

As a general rule of thumb, you can replace 1 lb of hay with 1/2 lb of grain.

 

[WannaBeFarmR]

Wow! math ugh... thanks for doing my homework, I'm awful with numbers, lol. But seriously thanks that helps a lot SheepGirl.

 

[Catahoula]

Have you heard of Chaffhaye? It could be an alternative for your hay allergy.
http://www.chaffhaye.com/

 

[Jered Norris]

I usually use brome and alfalfa and then if I run out I have tons of chaffhaye packages which I feed them.

 

[alsea1]

I get as much as I can afford. You never have enough it seems

 

[kstaven]

We always figure 5lbs per dairy goat when buying for the winter. Hay loses moisture content and protein over the winter.

 

[Jered Norris]

Ain't that he truth!

 

[kinder]

Thanks!!! I've been wondering that myself.

 

[Petty]

Love this thread. Especially that answer by sheepgirl.