# Just bought 1st "bale" of compressed alfalfa



## LFRJ (Dec 1, 2006)

NOt impressed. We're _STILL_ waiting for first cutting to roll in from Eastern WA. 
The gal at TSC suggested the compressed bale. I looked it over and commented that it looked stemmy and powdery. I was told that this was only the outside. When I popped the twine it would "fluff out" and be much more leafy. So we picked up a "bale" about ten bucks. Sure enough, after we got it home and I cut the twine what to my wondering should appear? Stems and powder thru and thru. 

Our small herd is no longer picky. They'll eat pellets, grass hay from last year, home made hay (when we can make it), so I know they'll not waste as much as they were prone to when they first came here - but I sure can't expect them to eat powder without a spoon. Anyone else have similar experience? Maybe it' just a bad bale???


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## TheLoveOfGoats (May 12, 2011)

:grumble: I HATE compressed alfalfa!! :hair

I bought a few bales a few years ago and they were horible. They were nice and green and looked half way decent on the outside, but when opened it had looked like they swept the floor and made a bale out of it. It had rocks in it and was dusty. Havent bought them sense. :shrug:


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## houndlover (Feb 20, 2009)

I only buy alfalfa pellets. No waste, and when I stick with my favorite brand - Stan D Lee - the consistency is what it should be - excellent quality in every bag.


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## TheLoveOfGoats (May 12, 2011)

I use alfalfa pellets as well. When I was using bales there was so much waste, love the pellets!


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## mrs.H (Mar 6, 2003)

alfalfa pellets here too.


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## DamnearaFarm (Sep 27, 2007)

Another vote for Standlee's alfalfa pellets from TSC. No goats, but i've fed them to horses for quite a while. Occasionally i'll run across an alfalfa cube in a bag, but that's it for things that shouldn't be in there.


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## noeskimo (Mar 17, 2011)

i went to a seminar taught by 2 small ruminant nutrition specialists.When questioned, they said pellets are better than nothing, but that traditional alfalfa hay is much preferable because of the additional fiber increasing the time it takes to digest. I'm thinking about it , but it does make sense.They were not fond of compressed hay either.


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## PrettyPaisley (May 18, 2007)

I didn't know any better because I'd never seen alfalfa bale before but thought what the above post states; surely it has to be better than pellets because it's grass and fiber, it must be more like what they eat in nature than pellets are-even if it's not perfect.

I so wish I lived somewhere with enough land for them to browse they way Mother Nature intended. For now we trim the trees around the house slowly and stick large branches in the trees in the pen and they seem to be happy stretching long and tall for the leaves and chewing the bark off them as if they were really browsing.


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## LoneStrChic23 (Jul 30, 2010)

We tried a bake of the compressed junk.....Awful!

Ended up soaking it in milk & fed it lil by lil to the chickens, they liked it 

I too feed Standlee Brand alfalfa pellets....my girls get it free choice. I've not found quality, affordable alfalfa hay in my area, so pellets it is.....To be honest, I'm so pleased with the consistent quality of Standlee Alfalfa pellets that even I had a good source of alfalfa hay, I'd still buy the pellets......They also get unlimited coastal hay & Right Now Onyx minerals.


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## Cannon_Farms (Aug 28, 2008)

Ill be the odd man out and say I like the compressed bales but apparently for the same reason yall dont. My goats wont eat the stalks in most and the compressed is soft enough. I leave it in the bag and place into a trash can before decompressing it so very little goes to waste. I didnt find it any more or less messy than regular alfalfa that being said unless we are traveling with the goats they get the pellets, the hay keeps them busy.
Mine also get plenty of long stemmed forage which is very important to grazing animals of all species


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## julieq (Oct 12, 2008)

We started using Standlee compressed alfalfa hay for the goats and compressed Timothy grass hay for the horses about two months ago. Local hay prices had risen to 200.00 per ton and we were running into too much mold, so Standlee was the same price and it's CLEAN. Yes, there is some powder in the alfalfa hay, but the goats still love it and as always, we give the leftover stems to the horses. Since DH and I have both had low back surgery, the smaller bales are easier to manage for us.


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## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

I've never heard of it; is it the chaff?


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## birdiegirl (Nov 18, 2005)

We buy the TSC compressed bales when they have it in stock. We do it like Cannon Farms stated above: place the bale inside a trash can before cutting through the straps that hold the bale in a compressed position. Then I am very careful when I peel a flake or two off to avoid loss of the leafy bits. The hay goes into a feeder, and any stems that are not eaten, are swept up and fed to the rabbits. We pay $12/bale. I just found an excellent source of very nice alfalfa hay, and hope to make that my primary source, but the TSC hay works as a back up plan.


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## Gaby Rose (Jan 17, 2011)

I bought the compressed bales a few times and really didn't like them. The leaves just crumbled into dust and the goats didn't eat much of it. I do have a really good source for regular alfalfa bales and I'm sticking with them. I feed some alfalfa pellets after their grain ration at milking time too just to keep them busy so I have time to finish milking.


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## uncleotis (Mar 14, 2005)

Thanks to the many people in this group that have talked about Standlee alfalfa pellets I tried my first bag on my milk goat Maggie because I'm just about out of third cutting alfalfa hay. She gobbles them up, I couldn't believe it. I was feeding some other type of alfalfa pellets from the feed store to my other goats this winter, Maggie wouldn't touch them.

So far I'm really impressed. Standlee looks and smells like alfalfa and not one bit of dust yet. With the other brand I used to sift them first to get the dust/powder out and it was unreal how much powder was in one sack that I'm paying for and the goats won't eat.


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## francismilker (Jan 12, 2006)

The compressed alfalfa isn't bad as long as I mix it in with corn chops and a little molasses to hold it all together. Otherwise, it ends up falling through all the cracks and gets wasted.


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