# Alfalfa Pellets



## TRF (Jul 1, 2014)

Hi All,

I have raised goats for a long while and just this past Winter switched to no hay, Alfalfa Pellets only, for many reasons. 

My questions are not about feeding no hay. They do have woodlot browse free choice and trimmings in Winter. My goats are doing better than ever but am curious for those that may have done the same. It is adding up but there is zero waste. I pay $15 per 50 lb bag of Semican. They are the large pellets which they like best. Have tried Bue seal but they are the small rabbit sized pellets and $17.50 per 50 lb bag. 

How much do you find each goat on average will eat per day in your herd? My goats are full sized and large and they seem to eat 6-8 lbs per day each.

Are you able to buy in bulk? price per bag? brand?

I also tried pelleted Timothy hay, not as good. Was 14% Protein. The Alfalfa is guaranteed 17% +.

Thanks


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## Rose (Oct 26, 2007)

Too much protein can cause other problems. They need some grass hay, too.


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## mountaingoats12 (Dec 31, 2013)

You can feed alfalfa pellets up to 50% of their diet, more than that and there will be ruminal/protein problems. 

I feed 2lbs of alfalfa pellets to my milker daily. I buy a 50lb bag of *pfau feeds* large pellets, and I'm pretty certain you can buy it in bulk. It costs $17.00 in my area. 

I also use beet pulp, it's a great filler made up mostly of carbs and easily digested fiber. Someone recommended mixing a ration of half beet pulp/ half alfalfa pellets for the best results.


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## KJFarm (Oct 26, 2007)

I second what Rose said, they need some grass hay of some kind. Pellets are great, but goats need long fibers for proper rumen function.


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## TRF (Jul 1, 2014)

I understand and know that most that will comment will say the above. They are not dry-lotted and have free access to many acres of high density wooded browse. Along with Sweetlix meat maker mineral.

My question is just what the pellet prices around the country are and how much your goats will consume in your specific situation. Sorry for any potential confusion.

It can be done without poor quality, scarce and over priced hay. 

I'm extremely small scale now so workable. Down to 1/8th what I used to have. The benefit now is that I have more time for each individual.


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

As someone who fed like this for a long time, I will say that the fact that there was no waste was nice and mine got some browse but not much. The problem I ran into was hard udders at freshening and urine scald and huge kids at birth, which I attributed to too much protein. But it doesn't really sound like you are asking for advice as to whether this is a good feed program or not...
We pay anywhere from $12-15 for 17% and when that is all they get, they will eat up to 8lbs a day per head
.


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## KJFarm (Oct 26, 2007)

Here in North Texas, I currently pay $12.00 for a 50# bag of Alfalfa Pellets (17%).


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## LittleBits (Aug 6, 2013)

It's anywhere from $14 to $18 for a 50lb bag here. Mine hate alfalfa pellets though, so I can't really help you there. But I would think that one would eat a heck of a lot more than 6-8lbs each per day with no hay at all? :huh My milkers get that much in grain, granted they do milk between 17 and 22lbs each per a day, and they need it to keep themselves in prime condition.
There's no way I could feed alfalfa pellets only, it'd cost me almost $60 a day if they all ate 6lbs each , when one bale of hay will stuff their feeders for a day and I can get it for $15.
But whatever works best for your herd. I would personally keep a couple flakes of hay in there, just for the roughage.
As far as price goes, have you considered ordering by the pallet?


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

She did say that they get browse daily, which will help take the place of the hay and cut back the protein%.

I can't afford to feed out alfalfa pellets now, not even a couple of pounds a day because the price has skyrocketed! $18.00 a bag. My hay is $55.00 for 2 big round bales delivered. Anything the goats don't eat, the horses will. I was feeding Chaffhaye for a while. They did well on it, but the price was even higher for that!

I feed mine soaked beet pulp with their grain and top dress with a calcium supplement. I am hoping the alfalfa pellets will come down a little in price so i can give them some daily. Mine love the Blue Seal alfalfa pellets, the ones around here are large, twice the size of the rabbit pellets. I wonder why the size difference?


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## cvalley (Apr 15, 2009)

DragonLair, our horse also is fed the stems left by our goats -- she just loves that! We take ours our daily for browse of blackberries, willow -- milkers fed alfalfa hay with a flake of grass hay. Mix in alfalfa pellets, rolled barley, 16 % dairy goat chow (1 pt of each) top dress in milk stand with kelp(1tsp) BOSS 1 tsp at night milking. Half the does don't eat the alf pellets but it works out for those that follow milking after those. Heavy milker gets top dress of Calf Manna. We hand milk so the alfalfa pellets mixed in help with does not getting too much grain. Hay here is $19 alf/ $17 grass/ $11 per 50 lbs of alfalfa pellets -- and heard prices will be going up.


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## EmyAcres (Jul 3, 2013)

Here in Georgia I pay $23 per 50lb alfalfa pellets and $28 per bale of alfalfa hay I just couldn't afford that so I switched them to Chaffhaye which I can get for $15 a bag!! I think my feed guy may have his prices inflated just a wee bit!!!!


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

Holy cow, Crystal, that's highway (or barnyard) robbery! I thought prices were horrid up here. We can't get alfalfa hay, it just doesn't cure as hay up here. Even if it did, they would sell it to Ct, Ma and NY as horse hay.


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## TRF (Jul 1, 2014)

Really high prices in some places. Makes $15 per bag not sound horrible. Hay where I am is not good. Wrapped haylage bales are $60 to $80 each and I would never risk feeding that. Rounds are $80 each if you can find them and transport them. Squares are $6-$9 and weigh about 25 lbs, heavy stems and low caloric value. Good for roughage if needed but not for putting weight on.

I can't even find Alfalfa hay in rounds or squares so the pellets work for me for now. If we were to move to another state maybe that would change. I did ask about bulk purchase discount a while back but it was not available and the most it would have saved was $1 per bag. Loose bulk delivery is not available either.


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## mountaingoats12 (Dec 31, 2013)

People in m area like using Hay Extender. As the name says, it helps you go through less hay.


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

I am lucky enough to live in alfalfa land. I can get super nice quality 18-21% pellets for $12.50 a hundred weight. That would be $6.25 for a 50 lb bag!! These are nice, smell great, little dust to them, green pellets.


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## TRF (Jul 1, 2014)

Still no luck finding bulk Alfalfa pellets anywhere near me.

Does anyone feed their goats free choice Alfalfa pellets with or without other feeds/browse? I know some mentioned feeding some each day but not free choice in an automatic feeder.

Thanks


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

I have fed free choice alfalfa pellets in a gravity feeder in the past, both with and without added hay or browse. I felt like the protein might be too high without added hay or browse. Lots of hard udders at freshening and urine scald and huge babies. Once I started limiting the amount of alf pellets provided for each animal to 1-3lbs, these problems got much better.


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## LittleBits (Aug 6, 2013)

http://ajud.com/feedingpellets.htm

I found this very interesting....


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## TRF (Jul 1, 2014)

LittleBits said:


> http://ajud.com/feedingpellets.htm
> 
> I found this very interesting....


I came across that a long while back as well. They are the only place I found in my searches that was documented. I'm basically doing that myself now as well. Just haven't built the automatic feeders. Prices on pellets have risen dramatically since they were free feeding.

Thanks for posting the link.


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

That is very similar to my gravity feeder that I used. Mine held 250lbs of pellets and was in the barn so that it was not exposed to weather at all and the pellets stayed fresh and clean for as long as two weeks.


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