# Goats eating straw



## Jane

The two does I just bought today have been being fed straw instead of hay. Are there any health related problems I need to watch for because of that? Do I need to worry about taking it easy on the grass and good hay at first? They are both very skinny, but otherwise look good.


----------



## KW Farms

Oh gosh...that is a terrible diet. Yeah...I woud just take it slow with the feedings. Try and feed the lowest quality hay you have at first and then gradually move up to better quality. You could probably be feeding good quality hay in a weeks time. If you don't have any lower end hay then just feed the good hay in small amounts.

If you switch them right onto good hay, they're bodies will have a hard time adjusting. Just a gradual switch will work best. I'm glad they're in a new home. They should fatten right up on quality feed. Poor girls.


----------



## Randi

When we are stuck with lesser hay, we mix good and not so good together. I think the same applies here.


----------



## Jane

I should add that she was feeding each doe a pound of 20% (protein) dairy cow feed at each milking. Not sure if that makes a difference in what I can offer them here. My goat grain is 17%.


----------



## freedomstarfarm

Glad you saved them! :thumb:


----------



## Saanens N Alpines

Feeding them straw??? I have never heard of such a thing:-( Did they think it was hay?


----------



## Dodge 'Em

Maybe it was oat hay.....it is the whole stem and seed head, its cut right before it matures. People around here use it a little for their cows and horses.


----------



## Jane

It wasn't oat hay. It was all stems and as gold as gold can be. They were new goat owners and were told by their hay/straw supplier to feed the goats straw.


----------



## Dodge 'Em

Wow! Wonder where THEY got their info????


----------



## comingsummers

Oh those poor goats. I hope you told the people they had been lied to. I'm glad they are in a healthy home now! I'm sure they will be fat and happy soon!


----------



## freedomstarfarm

I had someone offer me a bunch of old hay for cheep. It was stored inside and wasn't moldy but I knew it had lost a lot of nutrition by the looks. He said "goats eat anything this would be great for them" glad I knew better!


----------



## Itchysmom

Straw and a 20% cow feed?? OMG! I am so glad you got these goats! I hope she doesn't have any others.

I only know what straw can do to horses if that is all they get fed. It dehydrates them. Make sure these guys get alot of fresh water! I agree with KW Farms. Try and find a low grade hay to start, then mix a good quality hay with it. Eventually feed the good hay. I would think a bale of poor hay would be enough to switch them over. Maybe get a good quality grass hay at first as alfalfa may be too rich for them right now.


----------



## Steve

I feed my goats straw,of course it didnt have time to ripen and was cut for hay.If wheat is cut at the right time it has more protein in it than alfalfa.If this was after the wheat had ripened i would not feed it to them unless they wanted to eat it.If it was gold it was most likely after harvest.

My goats were eating it up yesterday and was standing in a field full of fresh grass.

You said they were skinny,but they are dairy goats right?I guess the 20% cattle feed was keeping them in milk.You should be ok with 17% feed and a higher hay protein content.Are they still in milk?


----------



## Jane

Steve- Yes, they are still in milk. The Togg is very nice to milk. The Nubian is a little devil! She flipped the milk pail on me twice last night. Going to use the bucket milker today. I have heard of making oat hay. On our land oats grow MUCH better than alfalfa, so we may try to make oat hay eventually. This is the first year with the farm in our name, but I still think we are going to have to wait for my father-in-law to pass away before we can try anything he thinks is "different" (like making hay with the oats instead of loosing money having it combined). 

They were only with their previous owner for a little less than two months, so they are not too thin, just thinner than I like. I am guilty of having a Nubian doe that I can only get weight on after I have dried her off. She just puts everything in the milk pail, and none on herself.


----------



## PznIvyFarm

I'm surprised they would eat it. Whenever I get hay they don't like, poorer quality stuff, they don't touch it, just make lots of noise. (yeah, b/c they are hungry) but I had to experiment when i first got them, b/c i didn't know any better about different qualities - i knew they weren't supposed to get third cutting, that first or second was good, but until my neighbor (that I now buy hay from) gave me a lesson on hay quality and detecting good from bad, i didn't know, the goats knew though! I bought some cheap hay from this one guy partway thru the winter when i ran out, it looked green in his barn (it was next to straw) and was under cover so i thought it was okay. Instead of buying just a couple bales to start, i bought a dozen, got it home and compared it to the half bale i had left and it looked more yellow than green. Goats wouldn't touch it. Started digging thru the bale and found some dusty mold. Decided to use it for mulch in the garden and got better hay, from now on I am going to buy from my neighbor (i didnt even know he sold hay, one of my egg customers told me that he is one of the best around here)


----------



## Itchysmom

Hay can be a bit confusing! I used to feed oat hay along with alfalfa to my horses back in CA. if the oat hay was green they wouldn't touch it. It had to be more dried out...golden, before they would touch it.

Most hay needs to be cured properly. Meaning dried before baled. Sweet smelling with no mold. I had a big problem with the round bales this year for the horses. I will never buy rounds again! There was mold in strange places in the bales...we roll them out. Guess the hay guy rolled them when the grass was still wet and the hay got moldy in places.


----------



## Steve

With round bales,it is good to bale with some green hay in,i say green meaning not dried completely.This generates heat in the bale,and kind of cooks the hay,giving it a molasses type smell when opened up.It does something to the sugars in the grass.Goats or cattle will eat this typr hay instead of fresh grass.Too much moisture will cause mold.

The yellow hay you refer to was most likely over ripe when cut or got wet after it was cut and dried.

When i buy hay i tear some out of a few bales and smell it,i never buy hay by its looks.

I hope you can get the nubian settled down soon Jane.


----------



## Itchysmom

Yeah well, these round bales were moldy! Even the hay said he wasn't going to do rounds this year as he had way too many problems! I like feeding squares anyway!


----------



## Jane

My husband's horse loves round bales. He thinks they are big play toys! We had to get a round bale feeder because he would roll the bale into the fence. 

My neighbor is a dairy farmer (we will get ours going someday) and bales his the day after mowing. It really ferments good when it is just wilted then baled and wrapped. I am not sure if that is something the goats could eat though. His protein content is in the mid 20's for that stuff. (He mows when it is not very tall, maybe 8-12 inches)

The new Nubian did great on the stand this morning. She liked the bucket milker much more than milking by hand. Yeah!

I hope it quits raining long enough that we can get hay in this year! We are way behind...


----------



## Steve

good news on the nubian.

On the hay that is what i was trying to say,catch it just right and it "ferments".My goats love it when it does that,especially clover.


----------



## tozel

I felt that I just had to add something to this conversation. I raise Nigerian Dwarfs and Damascus goats. I feed them a good quality goat ration (minimal) along with high quality hay. My Nigerian dwarf does had become so fat that you would think they were pregnant to at least 3 kids. I talked to my vet. (who is a professor and very knowledgable with goats by the way) and she said to cut back on the hay and give them straw. My point with this story is that straw is not such a horrendous meal for goats. I have been feeding my goats only one measuring cup of goat feed and one measuring cup of hay per day along with free choice hay for a week and they are still fat! So, if anyone has any ideas as to how to make goats slim, I'm listening!

P.S. I do not milk my does, I let the kid(s) have all the milk unless they are only nursing from one teat, in which case I milk the other teat to avoid swelling. Also, my goats graze for only 2-3 hours a day because goat raising is only a hobby for me and I do not have time to watch over them the whole day while they graze. Could this be why my does are fat? The problem is not as serious with my bucks.


----------



## StaceyRosado

well they obviously dont need free choice hay along with grassing and you can cut back on their grain too


----------



## Itchysmom

I know people here will feed straw to cows especially as a filler. That does not mean to feed straw as their only diet. I know if fed to horses as a filler you better make sure they are drinking lots of water as it will cause impaction colic. Not sure about the cows! 

I agree, start them off with a lower quality hay and work them up to good hay. If all you have is godd hay, then mix some staw in with it. The grain you have should be fine.


----------



## KW Farms

Straw basically has no nutritional value. Fed alone, that is severely depriving the animal of basic nutritional requirements. I don't see a point in feeding straw along with hay, grass, and grain. If they are overconditioned, there is no need to grain at all, in my opinion. Just reduce their hay or pull them out of the pasture. Put them on grass for an hour a day then pull out and feed the hay or something. If your goats are to fat...I most definately wouldn't recommend adding straw to their diet. Just my opinion. Why free choice the hay if they're to fat?

Another problem with offering straw as a filler is there are usually heads of wheat here and there in the bales. These wheat heads can get stuck in the teeth of livestock pretty easily, causing issues later on down the road. I have straw as bedding only and would not want them to use this as a filler at all.


----------



## MAW

Ranchers will sometimes throw straw out to cattle when temps drop very low. Because their system works harder to digest the straw it actually helps to keep them warm. I've had calves born in the barn in cold weather and their moms will eat some of the clean straw when it is first put down. If this person didn't have shelter maybe she thought it would work the same way for these goats. I personally wouldn't choose to feed staw to goats but roughage is roughage, as long as the straw was tender enough and combined with the dairy mixture in correct amounts to meet their nutritional needs I don't see a problem. I've never had a problem feeding oat hay to horses or cattle.


----------



## RMADairyGoats

I'm glad you saved them! They will be fat and healthy in no time! :thumb:


----------



## memwmj

When i lay out straw for my goat, not matter if she has food or not, she finds the straw tasty and eats it. she only does it when i first lay it down, not after she has walked on it. i found this odd. she seems to find it tasty.


----------



## keren

Steve, the rounds you are referring to silage or haylage, NOT hay. A good round roll of hay should NOT ferment at all, because if you dont know what you are doing and not intentionally creating haylage/silage, it can be toxic. 

Also you say you feed 'straw' that was cut for hay ... nope you feed hay. Hay is a crop (wheat, oat etc) cut before it is harvested. Straw is after.


----------



## FarmerJen

I just found out that mine also like straw. This past weekend I cleaned out the chicken coop and brought out a couple flakes of straw to bed the coop with. Both my girls were by my side in a flash, munching on the fresh straw (by fresh, I just mean clean. It's been in the garage for probably 2yrs!). Crazy girls! 

Of course I'd never feed this as their diet. I just found it odd that they liked it at all!


----------

