# Pearl Millet and other Alternative Hays



## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

A friend of mine got me in touch with a friend of hers who raises meat goats and also does hay. The last few loads of hay we had gotten from other dealers were not the best, the very last being mostly briars with a little grass thrown in.  I was so very happy with this last load from the new grower. Three of the bales were just mixed grass for the horses and three of them were really lovely smelling, sweet and soft, Pearl Millet hay.

I don't know a lot about hay and grass. I have been looking for specific info like average protein and calcium values for the Pearl Millet. I can't really seem to find what I'm looking for, which would be a hay forum or pages comparing different hays. 

My girls and horses adore this hay and it's been a joy to feed it. I buy round bales and unroll what we need twice a day, so not getting stabbed with briars and weeds and embedded sticks and fenceposts has been really nice. To boot, the girls all of a sudden started producing more milk, even after rationing grain somewhat due to the local town feedstore being OUT OF FEED! (Don't know how they stay in business.)

There is more of the pearl millet hay available and I want to make sure there are no drawbacks to feeding it before I order more. Also, I've read that some millets are not okay for horses, but at least once source says that pearl millet is okay. Also, is it readily grazed in pastures by horses and goats? Since it's a warm season grass that grows very fast I'm thinking of over seeding our pastures with it to try and choke out some of the weeds. 

Thanks for any info or links.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I am going to move this to the main board since this is going to be a very timely post. I have never had does eating hay in April (well perhaps a few bites if it's raining out), I will be buying hay next week! Vicki


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## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

Going from memory here, don't have a good source, but IIRC, pearl millet hay is something like 10% CP, .25 Ca, and .14 P. Don't remember the rest of the numbers. On pasture, it's a low protein forage, but if they eat enough, it's decent calories. It has very good digestibility.

I think in this case, it's a situation of amount and balance. If they're going to stuff their rumens with good pearl millet hay and eat twice the amount as they do a stemmy alfalfa, that's a better situation than feeding a marginal hay, even if the numbers look better on the other hay.


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## JamieH (Nov 29, 2010)

I just spent 16.50 for a bale of alfalfa. My girls won't eat the pellets. Hopefully, they will grow out of this picky behavior. If only grass hay was good enough. =/


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