# Goats and Peanut Hay



## Hip_Shot_Hanna (Apr 2, 2005)

Asked the same question on the sheep board.. can goats eat peanut hay? Not perennial peanut hay, but the hay that is baled after a peanut harvest?

Thanks!


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## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians (May 6, 2002)

Yes, but because it is usually grown in such sandy soil you might want to put it into hay feeders that are higher up than normal, so the sand has a chance to sift out of the hay. My goats love it, it is a hay they grow to rest alfalfa fields. Like everything else being a change, especially if it's from grass to this high protein legume, make all changes slowly. Vicki


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## betsy h. (Sep 28, 2008)

I would not let them eat hay made from peanut fields. Reason- aflatoxins or other bacteria in the left over peanuts.

Perinnial peanut is the stuff.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

if peanut hay were bad it would not be used so much down here, every peanut field (and we are supposedly the peanut capital) down here is baled up after the peanuts are harvested, cattle and goats both LOVE it, its our equivalent to alfalfa sence we cant grow (or just dont grow not sure which) alfalfa down here,


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## betsy h. (Sep 28, 2008)

Here is a post I got from a friend of mine who is a goat vet at UGA.

"Betsy,

Regular peanut hay is the above ground tops of peanut plants when the
peanuts are harvested. This plant material at the time of peanut harvest
is quite mature and not very dense in usable nutrients. It would be like
feeding a high quality straw. Okay for beef cows with huge rumens.

Perennial peanut is a different but related plant. It does not produce
the underground peanuts. It is grown for forage and hay and is not cold
tolerant. It is grown along the gulf coast and in Florida. The hay is
very leafy and the stems are very fine. Because of this you need to feed
it in a trough or have a trough under the hay feeder to catch the leaves
that fall. Our goats prefer to eat it over any other type of hay when
given the choice, and they thrive on it. It is the deep south's alfalfa.

Mike"


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## chris30523 (Jun 11, 2005)

I have a friend with Boers and she grows her kids out on the P-nut hay.They are healthy happy and grow well not to mention she gets top dollar for them.She feeds it in small amounts to her does also but says if she feed to much they get fat.


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## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians (May 6, 2002)

Okay for beef cows with huge rumens.
..................

A rumen is a rumen. I could name drop 2 national quality herds who feed peanut hay, there is still peanuts in the hay when it is bailed since they don't grow it for the peanuts, just to rest the land and also to fix nitrogen, with alfalfa being such a heavy feeder. It's not as if peanuts are harvested, and then the left over tops are bailed like corn stalks are. Very popular in Oklahoma where we got ours from.

:"Mike" is under the ASSupmption that the peanuts are harvested? How could you even do anything more with it than bundle it all up? It's cut and bailed before most of the peanuts are even mature. It would be like harvesting any root crop and then trying to hay the tops that are laying in the field. 

I think in answering questions it's better to come at them in the vein of experience ie: I have used peanut hay, would love to get more peanut hay to use....vicki


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## thatcompchick (Dec 29, 2004)

Vicki,

You aren't reading the post from Mike correctly.

There are two different types of hay available - the perennial peanut that is grown FOR HAY is great. This is why you still see the peanuts in it.

There is silage, or leftover, from peanut crops (yes, they do this for beets and others too) - that is sometimes fed to hogs, cows, etc. I would not feed this to a goat - for reasons stated above.

Andrea


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## Hip_Shot_Hanna (Apr 2, 2005)

I did say "not" the perennial peanut hay. And yes, the hay I was asking about *is *hay that is made from the _leftover_ tops of the peanuts AFTER the peanuts have been harvested. I've seen it fed to cows, and so on, and wondered about whether goats or sheep would do okay on it. There are usually a few peanuts left in the hay, but nowhere near what there would be if the peanuts had not been harvested.

Thank you so much for the responses. It seems that I'd do better just to continue to feed alfalfa pellets and coastal hay as the roughage portion of their fodder.


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## RedSawdust (Mar 9, 2009)

I feed peanut hay, the residue baled after the peanuts are harvested, and have for over two years. I have had tested, and it is very high TDN.
Quality depends on the farmer who rolled it. If he follows close behind the harvester, doesn't set the roller so close to the ground that he picks up a lot of dirt, you get quality hay. If he lets it lay over night, or if it gets rained on before being rolled, or if it's stored outside on the ground, it's probably not worth hauling home. My regular
supplier ran out this year and I had to look elsewhere. The last load I bought, and I watched it taken out of the barn, contained a lot of mold and when the roll is gone, there is 3 to 4 inches of dirt in the bottom of the bunker. Needless to say, this was rained on, probably before it was rolled, and he had his baler set much too close to the ground.
Other than that, goats love it and thrive on it.


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## Madfarmer (Mar 22, 2008)

I got no response to my query to FL Dept of Ag regarding the perennial peanut hay. Does anyone down there know how I can get 20-50 lbs of the rhizomes sent to me so I can do a trial bed?

Madfarmer


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## desertshi (Jul 23, 2008)

Down here in the "deep south" (I am more southern than any of you! lol) They use a mixture of straight alfalfa (they don't grow any other type of hay here, just straight alfalfa) and the "left over" p-nut crop hay in the large operation dairy cow farms. Like Vicki said, I think a rumen is a rumen. Goats may be a little more susseptible to getting sick from certain things because they are a smaller animal though. I fed peanut hay to my Holstein last year and saw a better milk output than when I fed straight alfalfa. There are lots of peanuts in it still and I use it with my goats that I have had since July. They are due, from the looks of there udders, by the end of this month. They are FF and I have never had goats before this so I cannot say whether peanut hay is better for milk output like I saw with my Holstein. I will definantly report though if I see any difference. 
PS. My goats LOVE it and THRIVE on it as well!!


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## dragonchick (Oct 10, 2007)

Madfarmer said:


> I got no response to my query to FL Dept of Ag regarding the perennial peanut hay. Does anyone down there know how I can get 20-50 lbs of the rhizomes sent to me so I can do a trial bed?
> 
> Madfarmer



You might contact someone who actually grows it. You would have to find out if its legal to ship from Florida. Texas and Florida have some funny laws as to what is allowed and whats not when it comes to importing and exporting plant material..


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## Tallabred (May 23, 2008)

Most of the rhizomes(and hay) come from Georgia, not Florida. The rhizomes do not mix well with other grasses - they get choked out very quickly. I know that my peanut hay guy has sold rhizomes in the past - I will see if he still does.


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## saanengirl (Apr 7, 2009)

> A rumen is a rumen.


 Actually, that is not exactly true. While the rumens of different species work in a similar fashion, each species is designed differently. Cattle have a much larger rumen proportionally than do goats. Because of this, cattle can tolerate a much lower quality diet than goats. In fact, the way cattle eat (like a lawnmower) is designed for a lower quality diet. Cattle can hold proportionally more food in their rumens, they chew it less, and it spends more time fermenting because it passes slower through the rumen than the food of goats. Goats are much pickier about their diet and must have higher quality food than cattle. The passage rate of their food is much higher because there is not as much room for it, and also because they chew it more efficiently.


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## jBlaze (Dec 26, 2007)

KSALguy said:


> if peanut hay were bad it would not be used so much down here, every peanut field (and we are supposedly the peanut capital) down here is baled up after the peanuts are harvested, cattle and goats both LOVE it, its our equivalent to alfalfa sence we cant grow (or just dont grow not sure which) alfalfa down here,


Well, I just learn something new every day. I didn't know that alfalfa was not grown other places and I would have never thought of P-nut hay. I thought peanuts grew on a shrub. LOL. 
Hey, speaking of new things, we got so many black-berry weeds here, wish they could find a way to make a "hay" from them, cause they grow all over and no-one wants them. hehehe.


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## DairyGoatSlave (Dec 27, 2008)

my girls eat the blackberry leaves till its a stem then i go in and hack down the vines and toss them into the dumpster


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## shiandpete.1 (Aug 13, 2008)

After the reading I am wishing that they grew p-nut hay here in Colorado. I believe I am going to do a bit of research. My question would be the nitrates (if I wsere to feed it to cows) because it is grown on the old alfalfa fields. I am gonna go do some research ont his as I am really interested now. Here Alfalfa is expensive. I get a deal on it as my dad sells hay for a living but it is still expensive.


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