# Grinding Hay...



## The Tin Mom (Dec 30, 2008)

Dh gets frustrated with all of the waste that we have and hay is getting more and more difficult to find here. He wants to get a grinder and grind the hay. My concern is that, if the hay is ground, the girls won't get the roughage they need for their rumen. (He wants to break it down more so that they don't pull as much out when they go through it looking for the best pieces).

Does anyone have experience with this? A grinder is expensive, but, if we save as much as he thinks we will, it would pay for itself in a year.

I am not sure whether it would do any good or even be good for the girls....


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## vicb66 (Oct 20, 2007)

This is the product I use.There is absolutely no waste and it's nutritional analysis is on every bale.I feed this plus senior horse feed.My cheese is the best tasting in the area and my girls look like show beauties!Plus no waste at all!


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Jul 28, 2006)

I prefer my girls to have the longer stem roughage in their hay. Not sure how well they would do or how well they will eat it if it's all ground up.


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## Donna1982 (Jun 14, 2011)

vicb66 said:


> This is the product I use.There is absolutely no waste and it's nutritional analysis is on every bale.I feed this plus senior horse feed.My cheese is the best tasting in the area and my girls look like show beauties!Plus no waste at all!


I dont agree with no waste. We use to use it and there was waste. Not as much as hay but still enough I cant see using it. But most of all our goats actually lost condition on it. 


I dont know about grinding it up. Like oat mine like the long stems. They will pick that out first then eat the other.


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## vicb66 (Oct 20, 2007)

I do not have access to a consist supply of hay so for me it's awesome.Plus I tie all of my girls to their own buckets when I feed.If for some reason the chaffehaye gets missed by the goats the ducks eat up the rest.My egg yolks on my chicken and duck eggs is almost orange year round because of the addition of the chaffehaye.I also make a hot mash with it and grain to feed my pigs.So they constantly have hay even when everything is beige here in Illinois.When I switched to the chaffehaye I bought a platform scale for weighing my girls.I weighed them when I switched and then weighed them everyday when I milk.When I saw they were losing weight I just increased the chaffehay and the switch went well.Without weighing them I can see the switch would have been tough.
I buy it by the semi load and it lasts for about a year.I wouldn't raise animals without it around here.Most of the guys that bale hay around here just do it for extra money.They don't really take all that much care in making sure it's at peak and it's not a bunch of weeds.I wouldn't even use it for garden mulch around here.Plus the going price for a bale of grass hay is over $4.50.


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## vicb66 (Oct 20, 2007)

I did shred my hay and straw with a stihl limb chopper but the dust was AWEFUL!


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## thaiblue12 (Feb 14, 2007)

I rake the waste hay daily, then I place it in other areas, give some to the bucks and any that is dirty I use for bedding. For some reason if I rake it and put it on a different pallet in a separate area, on the spools and etc they go and eat it. Goats are weird. I can tell you any that gets under the main pallets and turned into more of a powder they will not touch so grinding it up might be a waste of money.


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## The Tin Mom (Dec 30, 2008)

Oat Bucket Farm said:


> I prefer my girls to have the longer stem roughage in their hay. Not sure how well they would do or how well they will eat it if it's all ground up.


That is how I feel, too. But, he says that it wouldn't be ground very fine - I am not sure how small it would be....

He has been thinking about this for awhile & I have been resisting it.


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## mpete (Mar 4, 2008)

A full size goat needs about a half flake twice a day. Since I went to that schedule, I do not have any waste from my alfalfa hay. I do have waste from the oat hay which I expected and "wanted" because I rake it up and give it to the steer or use it for bedding. But the alfalfa has no waste at all.
Is it possible you are over feeding?


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Jul 28, 2006)

We don't really have a lot of hay waste. Maybe try a different way of feeding it? A hay feeder with something underneath to catch what falls so it doesn't get on the ground or something?


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## prairiedog (Jan 18, 2007)

smaller amounts several times a day instead of a big amount once a day maybe.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

I have a good friend who has her feed mixed and ground with hay. It looks like cornmeal consistency. Goats chow down on it, and they look GREAT!!

Just prechewed.


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## LoneStrChic23 (Jul 30, 2010)

Vic, I had to laugh at the "more than $4.50 a bale" comment.

If, *IF* I can find really crummy, good for nothing but bedding straw in 50lb bales, it's $8.00+ 

Anywho, I don't think chopped hay would be bad as long as it isn't that powdery junk TSC sells.... I read somewhere that it had to be at least 1/2" long pieces (I think..) to be proper long stemmed roughage. Don't remember the details but it was discussed on DGI a few months ago. I had to feed a chopped timothy hay for about a month & pieces ranged from 1/2"-3" long. Goats loved it, did great on it & had the same big, bulging rumens they had on regular hay.....This was also without any grazing, browse ect. ect. Just chopped hay, alfalfa pellets & grain.

Plus, think about it, how long is the grass they consume? (when I had grazing, mine rarely ate more than the top, leafiest bits on tall plants). When they browse trees, they eat the ends of twigs, & leaves......None of that is near as long as the leaves/stems in my hay bales.

Is there any way you could find some coarse chopped hay to try out before you invest in any equipment?


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

We used to grind hay for our sheep. As noted the dust was bad! It does reduce waste though by quite a bit. The animals might have done a little better if anything


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## 1sttimemom (Mar 1, 2005)

Comment on the chaffhaye product...have a friend who uses it exclusively for her horses. I had one of her horses here for quite some time and he came with a bunch of bags of that stuff. Let me tell you he was SURE happy to get some regular hay. He did not really seem to enjoy eating the chaffhaye, ate it cuz he had to. He also put on considerable weight and his coat looked SO much better after being on reg alfalfa for a month or two. 

We have 2 pet pygmy goats who run with the horses. They come eat with the horses and wouldn't touch the chaffehaye at all. Plus I thought it was expensive. I'm sure if I was in a bind and had no decent hay I would consider it, but don't know that I'd use it otherwise.


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## Oat Bucket Farm (Jul 28, 2006)

I found 4.00 hay. It's not the greatest hay in the world, but it's hay and it was a fluke that we found it. Most hay here is running 8.00 to 12.00 a bale.


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