Growing hay?

[Adrienne]

Does anyone know any good resources for getting started growing your own hay?

 

I have to say that I am SO tired of paying $6-$10 a bale for crappy brown hay...so we have been discussing the possibility of growing some of our own. We don't have a lot of space, but intend to keep our herd size around 10-12  plus babies until they are sold. So our hay needs would be small too. With our maximum herd size we estimate that we'd go through about 6-10 2 string bales a month. 

 

With such a small operation, intended solely for our own needs, it seems economically and environmentally sound to cut and bale by hand. At least then the goats would have green hay...

 

What I don't know is how much or how often I would have to plant, and when to do the cutting.

 

Right now the goats are rotating around the front half of the property, next year they will rotate around the back, and then move up front and so on. What impact will the hay crop have on my rotations? Can I just rotate them on the hay crop in the years they are back there? Then when it is time to cut, just cut the areas they haven't been? Also, does the hay crop need to be rotated similarly to crops in a garden...should it sometimes be planted in the front instead of the back? and how often does it need to be replanted?

 

In the mean time, what about feeding them dried clippings of our current grass...it is being cut now, and I think its close to 3 feet tall in the back where the  goats have not been once it's all done there will be quite a bit to rake and bag up...could those be stored for winter food?

[Joan Teebagy]

Please be careful. Cut hay that is put in the barn with too much moisture can spontaneous combust,

[Melissa Johnson]

Have you investigated areas near you?  Like maybe in MS or Florida which isnt too far away is it?  If you have a storage for hay - maybe it might be worth it to check that out - ??

Adrienne said:

cutting the grass with a scythe has to have more nutritional quality than $10/bale brown hay... I am pretty sure that the goats would rather eat the grass than the hey we have available...I think we have the stuff to make a wooden baler. I think I can convince him to invest in a scythe since we don't have a working lawnmower anyway and it has to go somewhere.

[Melissa Johnson]

I was just reading the other night not to give goats grass silage - which I took to mean "hot fermenting grass"  it said why but I dont remember - too hot I suppose.  I think it was that tennessee site they have boer goats I believe.  Too bad you arent close to Alabama - they do peanut hay there, but it is the gigantic round bales.  From what I've read peanut hay is very good nutritionally.  When we first came here, my husband seeded and fertilized the field and planted timothy and fescue (we had cows).  That was in the early 90's and it cost bout $600.00 to seed 22 acres.  He bought a swather that cut it and threw it in (wind) rows and then a baler.  The drying is the thing - most hayer's have a machine that rakes it (turns it over) so it dries top and bottom.  I think cows are alot less sensitive as to what they can eat - as far as dry/hot/or kinda fermented....  I just decided not to buy some $10 bale hay - paid $15 for orchard grass.....  sometimes I think I forget I have "goats".  But then again I only have 3 so why not buy them something good.  Anyway, it was a bentgrass, timothy and fescue mix.  I have never fed nor seen bentgrass.  Anyone know anything about that?  I have read that goats dont find fescue that palatable. 

Forgive my rambling - someone told me once my thinking is linear....

Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:

Growing hay is not a big deal as it can be just grass and whatever naturally grows in your pasture. Harvesting hay is the big deal. We have a scythe that my husband uses to cut tall grass. If you don't have a scythe -- only a lawn mower -- you can't really cut hay. It is VERY important to make sure the grass is dry before you stack it up. If it is not dry, all sorts of nasty things can grow in it. We actually feed freshly cut grass/clover/weeds to our goats in the barn every evening, and it was working great until a couple weeks ago. My husband and our apprentice got ahead of themselves and were putting the cut grass into our little hay wagon in the morning for the evening feeding. The apprentice noticed it was hot inside by evening and asked my husband if it was okay. Since it didn't smell bad, my husband said it was fine. Two days later, we had a dead doe from enterotoxemia -- one of my best milkers. Thankfully I realized the problem just as they were getting ready to put more hot hay into the feeders the night after Anne died. Some people also feed haylage, which is fermented hay, but it sounds tricky, and you can wind up losing an animal or two before learning how to do it without the nasty stuff growing in there. But you are correct that brown hay has very little nutritional value.

[Adrienne]

cutting the grass with a scythe has to have more nutritional quality than $10/bale brown hay... I am pretty sure that the goats would rather eat the grass than the hey we have available...I think we have the stuff to make a wooden baler. I think I can convince him to invest in a scythe since we don't have a working lawnmower anyway and it has to go somewhere.

[Jan]

My husband is concerned that the hay we are cutting is not the very best( he wants to lime and possibly plant a "real" hay crop for next year) ....however it was an organic growing field until 6 years ago and looks pretty good.  The cutting has started and I am excited about the results.

[Deborah Niemann-Boehle]

Growing hay is not a big deal as it can be just grass and whatever naturally grows in your pasture. Harvesting hay is the big deal. We have a scythe that my husband uses to cut tall grass. If you don't have a scythe -- only a lawn mower -- you can't really cut hay. It is VERY important to make sure the grass is dry before you stack it up. If it is not dry, all sorts of nasty things can grow in it. We actually feed freshly cut grass/clover/weeds to our goats in the barn every evening, and it was working great until a couple weeks ago. My husband and our apprentice got ahead of themselves and were putting the cut grass into our little hay wagon in the morning for the evening feeding. The apprentice noticed it was hot inside by evening and asked my husband if it was okay. Since it didn't smell bad, my husband said it was fine. Two days later, we had a dead doe from enterotoxemia -- one of my best milkers. Thankfully I realized the problem just as they were getting ready to put more hot hay into the feeders the night after Anne died. Some people also feed haylage, which is fermented hay, but it sounds tricky, and you can wind up losing an animal or two before learning how to do it without the nasty stuff growing in there. But you are correct that brown hay has very little nutritional value.

[Adrienne]

You might be right Kare, I was thinking about planting some alfalfa that will grow well here. From my research it might be a bit much to plant a full acre, but half might even give us some surplus with 4 cuttings. Since I don't know any hay people it might be one of those things we have to do by trial and error. Theres a guy who's property we have listed who used to grow hay on it...if I ever get to meet him I intend to ask.

Hopefully the grass cuttings would have more nutrition than the brown hay...

[Kare]

I've been cutting some grass and giving it to my goats. =)  As far as hay, I wonder if you could just cut what you already have rather than having to plant.  Wouldn't that be grass hay?  I love that you rotate your goats.  We just divided our pen into 6 smaller pens so we can do that too on a very small scale, but I only have 3 does, 2 bucks and 2 wethers.  That's plenty for now =)