Shredded Alfalfa

[Alan]

I posted this on everthing else board but may get a better response here even if it's a goat feed question.

My wife feeds her Boar goats alfalfa, but they only eat the leaves and are leaving a mountain of stems. She won't let me turn a couple of calves in with them to clean up the waste. Out of millions of $ spent on alfalfa for her goats, we have $950 thousand left in stems ( just kidding but hopfully you get the idea). I have looked on the internet and called feed stores with no luck. Can you buy bagged shredded alfalfa or do you have to shred what you need at the place?

Thanks,
Alan

 

[Monica]

I am in the Northwest and around here you can purchase alfalfa that is shreded and bagged. The sell it in 50lb bags with molasses. You can even purchase shredded orchard grass hay. I think they both costs around $11 a bag.

 

[farmer4620]

i know of a company out of texas that sales backed haylage its like 8 bucks a bag 50 lbs it seems like a pretty good deal if i can figure out the name of the website i will add it on here

 

[Chuck]

Alan, have you tried not putting out more alfalfa as soon as they eat the leaves? If they get a little hungry they might not be so picky. I don't know much about goats, but it seems like the ones I've seen will eat a tin can if they take a notion to. Bagged hay sounds expensive to me, even to keep peace in the house. I don't know how many goats you have, but if she's determined to do it, I would probably rent or borrow one of those little chippers with the gas engine on it just to try. I've seen dairymen use them to chop bedding with, though I'm not sure what size the chop will be. If it works, great, if not you aren't out anything more than a half days rental.

 

[farmer4620]

http://www.chaffhaye.com see what you can figure out

 

[trin]

does anyone mix alfalfa pellets in there feed and if so what do you mix it with and at what %

 

[Bez!]

I posted this on everthing else board but may get a better response here even if it's a goat feed question.

My wife feeds her Boar goats alfalfa, but they only eat the leaves and are leaving a mountain of stems. She won't let me turn a couple of calves in with them to clean up the waste. Out of millions of $ spent on alfalfa for her goats, we have $950 thousand left in stems ( just kidding but hopfully you get the idea). I have looked on the internet and called feed stores with no luck. Can you buy bagged shredded alfalfa or do you have to shred what you need at the place?

Thanks,
Alan

Alan

I have never heard of buying shredded feed - but it is probably out there if the wallet is big enough. :lol:

Do not know the size of your operation - so this may / may not be an option.

We used to feed from a Bale Buster - it tore everything up into small pieces and the cows ate everything. It really paid for itself when we were feeding hay that was over 5 years old (drought struck - everything became feed) and had an added bonus - it cleans out the dust and mould from crappy feed. Especially on a windy day.

Used to put one in the tub and then picked up another with the forks on the back of the feeder to dump in when the first was fed out.

We also had a grain feeding attachment that laid the grain right on top of the windrow as we drove along.
There are many types and I wish the name of the one we liked best was at hand - we were priced out on it - the Bale Buster was ok for the price so it became our feeder for the next few years.

Almost no waste and it made it real nice to spread the fertilizer by moving the feed rows slowly across the field.

We fed our cows every second day through the winter and it worked fine - other than having to cut out the twines that wrapped on the auger every week or so.

I figure if there is enough expense on this special feed purchase it may pay for itself over time - back to you.

Bez!