# Bucks & Alfalfa Hay



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

I'm curious, how many here give your bucks some alfalfa hay along with some grass hay? 
I've heard both good and bad over the years.


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## goatblessings (Jan 6, 2015)

Me - alfalfa pellets supplementing a grass hay. Never had any UC issues.


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## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

I do alfalfa pellets, cubes, and hay for everyone. On the bucks I give a lot of guava leaves and make sure they also get coconut (which becomes very similar nutritionally to alfalfa).


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

Alfalfa hay around me tends to have mold, so I feed Summit brand Alfalfa pellets (this is a non-GMO Canadian brand. I feed it to everyone when they come home from browsing every evening.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thanks Everyone! That makes me feel better about giving alfalfa. We have a neighbor that offered to sell us alfalfa hay a while back and the goats love it. We just ran out, waiting to clear out an area of grass hay so I have a place to put a new round bale. I usually give the buck what is probably equal to 1/2 a flake a day. We have buck/wether kids that eat on it as well when we have it available.

We were feeding goat pellets and a custom sweet mix, but switching everyone over to regular goat pellets & weaning pellets so I have a better idea of calcium/phosphorous from the feed.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

My bucks get fed just alfalfa. Right now they have some grass too but half the year we are dry and that’s all they get. Sometimes after breeding they do get some grain but just till they don’t look like a bag of bones any more lol but I would say 95% or their diet during the year is alfalfa and everyone is doing good!


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thanks Jessica! Would it make a difference to you if your buck was on full feed? My son is going to show his buck, so we've slowly been increasing his feed. Just made some changes to it today, going from a pellet & custom sweet mix to just pellets and a supplement with a little corn oil.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

No I would still feed alfalfa no matter what. From what I’m understanding on posts on here is the most common issue with UC is because of too much phosphorus, it can happen with too much calcium but phosphorus seems to be the main issue. So since grain and grass is more on the phosphorus side (probably usually) then the calcium should even it out. I thought about putting my bucks on oat/alfalfa Hay but figured with the grass they are getting I better just leave it be. 
There’s a breeder that I kinda follow and she feeds her whole her permanent pasture and grain. She is pretty big into showing so I’m going to assume with that diet a good amount of grain. It seems that poor lady is always loosing bucks to UC. 
If your nervous though a few things you could do. 1. Add in some ammonia chloride into his grain. I’m not sure what the prevention dose is but if I remember right it’s a very small amount. I want to say a teaspoon but get a for sure answer. Or 2. Add a salt lick, Apple cider vinegar, or electrolytes to his water (not salt lick in water lol) to make encourage him to consume a good amount of water. I learned this one last year at the fair! Last year 2 wethers died and the year before that 1 wether died and I was like poison water?! Well they didn’t like the water since it had chlorine in it so we’re not drinking like they should, and since 99% of their diet is grain they got stones and died. 
But honestly I would think he would be just fine adding alfalfa to his diet.


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

for my boys, just alfalfa two! last year I had a buckling that got to many tumble weeds and got stones, he did alright, so now I limit the brows and only feed alfalfa, they seem to do very well on it. I have fed that way for years, (that 1 year I had tumble weeds coming out of my ears so I let the boys have it, not a good idea)


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I feed Alfalfa hay and make sure they get ammonium chloride in some grain. No issues.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

One reason people give me for feeding the subpar mineral mix from Manna Pro is that it has Ammonium Chloride already in it. However, the Animed brand of ammonium chloride, found here https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&k...argid=kwd-311781481188&ref=pd_sl_1nugfwtds4_e and here https://www.google.com/search?q=Ani...ome..69i57.18943j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 says you can mix 1 1/2 lbs of AC to 25 lbs of your favourite mineral mix. A better option imo.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

At one point, when I was kinda confused on the whole alfalfa is or is not bad thing, I put it in their water. Looking back though I don’t think that was a overly great idea because it is nasty and would probably keep them from drinking as much (I would assume) I think minerals or grain would be a much better idea. Both seem to have more flavor to hide it


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)




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## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

I give mine free choice alfalfa hay.


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## TCOLVIN (Sep 22, 2014)

Suzanne_Tyler said:


> I give mine free choice alfalfa hay.


I wish I could get Alfalfa hay here.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

I use pellets, because the alfalfa hay is almost always moldy.

Can you get peanut hay?


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## TCOLVIN (Sep 22, 2014)

mariarose said:


> I use pellets, because the alfalfa hay is almost always moldy.
> 
> Can you get peanut hay?


I think so, but it might be last years hay. they are just now planting the peanut here.


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Sorry I've been trying to get on, but couldn't get the website to load correctly, I think it's the ads and background perhaps as only 1/2 the posts will load and then it locks up. Working now, hopefully!

We have a person on a horse farm behind us that sells us the alfalfa hay. Right now all he has is round bales. We've used a couple. The last one was a bit dusty, but no mold. Planning to get more just waiting for things to dry out so we can get it and put it up. 
Once we do I'll offer it to all our goats, and make sure they have the grass hay available as well.
We'll be weaning some of the boys in the next few days so I can make sure they are getting a mix and not eating just alfalfa.


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## TCOLVIN (Sep 22, 2014)

HoosierShadow said:


> Sorry I've been trying to get on, but couldn't get the website to load correctly, I think it's the ads and background perhaps as only 1/2 the posts will load and then it locks up. Working now, hopefully!
> 
> We have a person on a horse farm behind us that sells us the alfalfa hay. Right now all he has is round bales. We've used a couple. The last one was a bit dusty, but no mold. Planning to get more just waiting for things to dry out so we can get it and put it up.
> Once we do I'll offer it to all our goats, and make sure they have the grass hay available as well.
> We'll be weaning some of the boys in the next few days so I can make sure they are getting a mix and not eating just alfalfa.


I Wish i could get Alfalfa hay. Also they are planting peanuts this year on our farm so maybe some peanut hay will be good,


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Farms grow alfalfa around here, but it can be costly, and our biggest problem is, we don't have a place to store hay. The grass mix round bales/square bales we use we buy as we need them from a farmer down the road, thankfully. So being offered alfalfa hay at a reasonable price as needed was nice. Although they are out of the square bales, our goats love the round bales. Hopefully we can get more Fri or this weekend. It's breeding season for the horse farms, so whenever the man has time to bring us a bale when it's not raining and we don't have something going on.


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## CrazyDogLady (Aug 9, 2014)

Alfalfa is the most affordable hay for me where I live. Everyone gets free choice alfalfa.


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

CrazyDogLady said:


> Alfalfa is the most affordable hay for me where I live.


same here


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

It varies here, $6 a bale and up usually I see good alfalfa for about $8 a bale. This is horse farm country, so a lot of the farms bale for the horse farms, or price it as horse hay. It's best to get it out of the field, which we'd certainly do if we had a good place to store it. 
We were getting good square bales for $3 from the farm behind us until he ran out. All he has now is round bales and we still haven't gotten around to ordering one! Just been super busy. I need to get one ordered as we are getting ready for summer show season, and also starting to wean kids.


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## Audrey LeRoux (Apr 3, 2018)

I give mine grass hay in the morning and alfalfa at night. They seem to do well on that. They also get the grain left-overs from my does but not every day. I am making so many changes to my feeding program this year, that it's hard to find the absolute perfect feeding solution for each and every goat.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

You are so lucky to have low alfalfa hay prices. We pay $11 to $15 a bale.


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