# Oat Hay?



## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

Do goaties like oat hay?? We've never tried it and the gal at the local feed store said that goats don't like it so much, but I don't think she owns goats. . . . anyone here feed oat hay to goats? Also, (while on the subject of hay) what type of hay do you feed? Grass, oat, rye, clover, orchard??? I'm sure there's more but that's what came up first.  Just curious what everyone feeds for hay. . . .


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## Muddy Creek Farm (Oct 5, 2007)

I like seem to always get orchard/.... hay. My goats LOVED Oat/Orchard. I am currently feeding an Orchard/.../Alfalfa. But I bought several hundred bales of Orchard/Alfalfa which my goats love.


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## goathappy (Oct 5, 2007)

As long as its oat hay that is not that mature, as in the heads were not on yet when it was baled then they should like it. Oat hay is a very good women's remedy. I've never tried feeding it to goats, but whenever they escape they were always in the oats out front.

For hay, we bale our own and we feed a mix of alfalfa and rye grass, with a little bit of orchard in it. Orchard tends to take over so we don't have that much. We have a field of grass/clover mix, but that is getting ripped up next year because we can hardly get it to dry down properly because of the clover, and there is too much orchard in it and the goats dont' like it as well.

We are keeping the grassier part of the field for buck hay though.


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## AlaskaBoers (May 7, 2008)

i feed a quality timothy/brome/grass mix.


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

What's the benefits of rye grass? I've seen it for sale around here but not a whole lot of it.

For your goat's pastures, what do you typically plant, if anything? Also, when do you plant or reseed? I'm a newbie when it comes to these kinds of things. . . . my grandpa typically does these things but now that we have a "pasture" at home (a small one for 5 goaties) I need to figure out what to plant in it that's very palatable to the goats. It looks like Anna plants wildflowers in her pastures, anyone else do this??

What is brome?? Again, sorry for all these strange questions. . . . :roll:


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## heathersboers (Sep 5, 2008)

We feed coastal,alfalfa, peanut and soybean hay.


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## goathappy (Oct 5, 2007)

Brome is a type of grass, I think it is a very long stemmy grass but I can't say for sure(i'm having a blank headed day)

The rye is a grass the goats just love, as to the benefits, I think its better for protein content.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

> Do goaties like oat hay??


 they will eat it ......but I found with our boers.........they do waste alot ...........they eat the oaty parts and leave alot of stem...... :roll:


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

That's what I've noticed with the timothy hay we purchased recently. . . . they're doing pretty good eating it all up but I don't like this timothy, too course.

Any thoughts on the pasture???


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## goathappy (Oct 5, 2007)

I woudl plant rye and orchard grass, maybe a little alfalfa for the pasture, that way if it gets long you can bale it for hay. Rye is also good for milk production


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## sparks879 (Oct 17, 2007)

we reseed our pastures with a good quality orchard/rye mix. try not to get any fescue. some years i will get a two lb bag of clover and mix that in with it. you can usually get away with 3-5 lbs per 1000 sq feet if you are reseeding. If you are planting a new pasture you will need to do closer to seven lbs per 1000 sq feet. and more then likely you will need to reseed again. right now is the ideal time to reseed actually its getting kind of late to reseed as its starting to freeze here at night. at least where i am. we did ours about a month ago. you could throw down a good cover crop. Your farm supply store probably has what is called a soilbuilding covercrop. this would be good to throw down right now. im not exactly sure o the lbs per sq footage. if you are throwing down a new pasture you will want to cover it with straw or a thin layer of peat moss.
As for hay i feed a good quality orchard alfalfa mix from eastern washington. they get a certain amount in the morning and a certain amount at night. During the day they have free choice local grown alfalfa local grass mix.
hope this helps.
beth


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

That helps so much Beth and everyone else. Thanks!! Just what I needed to know. . . . 

This area has never been planted w/ anything but grass seed, it has lots of grass on it now. So, I can just throw some seed on it now or should I still get the soil-building cover crop thing? I think we'll see if we can get some rye/clover/orchard seeds, hopefully the feed store has that.

Thanks again! You guys are great!


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## sparks879 (Oct 17, 2007)

what the cover crop does is basically a soil ammendment. it saves valuable nutrients and top soil from harsh winter weather. this is why people throw it over existing lawns and pastures. if you are looking to reseed you will want to do that pretty quick, and just throw some more seed down over your existing pasture. so it really depends on what you are wanting to do .
beth


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

We don't really have harsh winter weather here, we barely get snow (if any at all). Most we have is lots of rain and cold. I think we may get the cover crop anyways, can't hurt.  So, which do I put on first, the cover crop or the seeds??


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## goathappy (Oct 5, 2007)

You spread them together. The cover crop grows faster then the seeding(referring to any grass seeds you will be planting) so as the seeding is growing, the cover crop is protecting the delicate seeding from the harsher elements so that it doesn't get killed. Cover crops are still a good idea even if you don't have snow.


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## liz (Oct 5, 2007)

I get a local timothy mix hay for my goats....they have done very well with this, they also get a portion of alfalfa cubes each night. I "pastured" off part of the hill above the main yards and it has a bit of everything in it..timothy, clover, alfalfa as well as wildflowers. Since the girls have this pretty well browsed over, I'll be getting some seed to cover the pasture...rye, as well as alfalfa and timothy...or even just an orchard mix :shrug:


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## enjoytheride (Oct 5, 2007)

Oat hay is a real balancing act- it gets really fibrous as the oat heads mature so it needs to be cut at just the right time. It does not seem as palatable - the oat heads are picked out first and the rest does not seems as attractive.
But the worse part of oat hay is when you store it- it is a rat and mouse magnet. The first year I fed it, I did not realize that it would do this and I had rats everywhere before I could get it under control.


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## badnewsboers (May 9, 2008)

I was actually at a field day today and part of it was pasture management. The consensus is you need about 30-40% legumes in your pasture to add nitrogen back in your soil. A good choice would be Lezpedeza or Chicory since they have tannin which is a natural wormer. Clover works well too and since its cool plant, you could start frost seeding it soon enough. The grass is more personal preference and depends what would grow best in your area. The field day expert promoted rye. Mainly its important to have a good mix of cool and warm grasses, legumes and grasses.

Hay wise we have been feeding Bermuda hay, but came to find out its not all that digestible for goats. We're trying to switch to peanut hay.


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

I went to the feed store yesterday and bought Crimson Clover (there was another kind, White Dutch?). I asked the difference and he said basically height/size of the clover. I figured the taller the better, the more likely they'll eat it. . . . also bought some Fall Rye and Lowland Pasture Blend.

I figured for hay I will either go by what Beth said (putting a certain amount of Eastern Oregon hay in the morning & night, free choice local during the day) that's a good idea for us as Eastern hay is quite expensive and hard to come by at times. The local hay actually looks quite nice, depending on where you get it from. We went to look at some "organic pasture grass" yesterday and it was so UGLY!! Looked like bales of straw for $7 a bale. I was like "um, thanks but no thanks". In the very nicest way possible I said something like that. . . . my goats wouldn't touch that stuff unless they were laying on it (didn't say that part). Anyways, found some other local hay and may go check it out. We have really nice alfalfa for the winter so if I'm not able to get Eastern hay I may add a little more alfalfa to their hay. 

Thanks everyone!


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## goathappy (Oct 5, 2007)

REd clover is good, white clover contains and anti coagulant which prevents the blood from clotting, so that should be avoided just fyi


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

They only had two types, White Dutch and Crimson Clover, I bought the Crimson Clover. . . . guessing Crimson is the same as Red Clover???


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## capriola-nd (Jul 6, 2008)

Okay, one more question regarding hay. Anyone ever tried Oat/Barley/alfalfa hay for their goats?? I just found some hay for sale on CraigsList, from Eastern Oregon - they have several varieties of hay. The oat/barley/alfalfa is the cheapest but they also have orchard grass. I would be feeding this to my goaties at home, three Pygmy does and two Nigerian does.


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