rachels.haven
Herd Master
Alright guys, it's a drought/off weather year where I live. My hay guy advised me to gather as much hay as I can even if it's not from him because come March he thinks it's going to be a bloodbath in New England and second cutting goat/horse hay is already getting short. How do I make hay stretch and waste as little as possible?
Our first cutting was fairly nice this year, and is now all sold and gone. Sub freezing temps have already come to the area so the prime growing/drying time is almost done if not all done.
Next load of hay to put up will probably be round bales under one of the barn wings, btw, but even those are limited right now.
So far we're feeding a #10 can scoop of alfalfa pellets to each pen with a little grain in addition to normal haying to take a bit of weight off the stuff I'm going to run out of as it's something that tends to not (and it is normal to run out of hay over the winter here, and this is an abnormally bad year for us and the surrounding area as far as drought goes). What else can I do? Anyone have any good tricks? Is hay stretcher something that works for goats and can keep them in good shape as a dietary supplement in moderation? Any other feed additions? We will have several dwarf and lamancha does in milk, bucks, and kids as they come as far as life stages/dietary needs go.
Edited to add: To clarify hay man is out of the hay he has available for sale for the year, so getting more from him is not an option. The round bales would come from elsewhere.
Our first cutting was fairly nice this year, and is now all sold and gone. Sub freezing temps have already come to the area so the prime growing/drying time is almost done if not all done.
Next load of hay to put up will probably be round bales under one of the barn wings, btw, but even those are limited right now.
So far we're feeding a #10 can scoop of alfalfa pellets to each pen with a little grain in addition to normal haying to take a bit of weight off the stuff I'm going to run out of as it's something that tends to not (and it is normal to run out of hay over the winter here, and this is an abnormally bad year for us and the surrounding area as far as drought goes). What else can I do? Anyone have any good tricks? Is hay stretcher something that works for goats and can keep them in good shape as a dietary supplement in moderation? Any other feed additions? We will have several dwarf and lamancha does in milk, bucks, and kids as they come as far as life stages/dietary needs go.
Edited to add: To clarify hay man is out of the hay he has available for sale for the year, so getting more from him is not an option. The round bales would come from elsewhere.
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