Alfalfa cubes have just become available here. It is marketed for horses. 50 pounds for $8.49. Montana Pride brand. Says it contains alfalfa and sodium bentonite - I presume to hold the cubes together. Anyway it might be a good alternative to the wastefulness of feeding alfalfa hay to my goats. Does anyone have any experience with this product?

Thanks.

-- txcountry girl (nancyk@icsi.net), September 20, 2000

Answers

If you took a sledge hammer you just might be able to crush one of those suckers! We just got finished on another site talking about these, and the consenceous was that the folks who used them soaked a bucket of them in hot water to feed. Alfalfa pellets of course can't be a substitute for alfalfa hay because the stem pieces are to short, but with you being in Texas you can purchase dehydrated alfalfa, baled in plastic like I do. It is the US Alfalfa brand from Kansas and also Purina carries their own also. We pay around 8$ for 40 pounds and since it can be fed in bunker feeders with grain and minerals there is no waste. I also would be worried about the goats choking on them. At the Houston Livestock Show one year they gave us cubes, the girls picked them up and threw them up into the air, all over the isles and other pens. It was a commical site. We have completely stopped using baled alfalfa and use the US Alfalfa, though I do keep a good quality grass hay in the hay feeders 24/7. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 20, 2000.

I use alfafa cubes for my goats, but only one or two at a time in their feed bowl when I am milking them. I break the cubes into smaller pieces. Some are easier to break than others. The ones that are hard I just throw back into the bag. By the time I go through all the breakable ones, the unbreakable ones have aged a bit and are easier to break. The goats have to have the cubes broken into smaller pieces. They can not handle a whole one in their mouth. They end up getting discouraged and dropping it.

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), September 20, 2000.

Great - jaw breakers for goats! Thanks for the advice. Vicki, I'm not familiar with the dehydrated alfalfa you mentioned. How is it different from alfalfa hay?

-- txcountry girl (nancyk@icsi.net), September 20, 2000.

Dehydrated alfalfa.. hmmmmm sounds like it would maybe work with my girls. i had to chuckle reading your post Vickie.... mine did about the same. Or either spit them out, one landed in the milk testers bucket one morning! Talk about a buuls eye shot, and he was standing behind. Well... got to pack... I'm out of here for st fair... lets see... hope I remembered everything I'll need!

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), September 20, 2000.

We call those 'cow candy' around here. The goats love them too, but some of them are a booger to get broken into small enough pieces for them to handle. The really hard ones I flake down with an ice pick. Just put them on a board, and push the pick in, aiming down. Keep your hands out of the way, some of them need a hard push. I always look for a bag with softer ones, less work to feed that way.

-- Connie (Connie@lunehaven.com), September 21, 2000.

Good luck at the show Bernice! Dehydrated Alfalfa is alfalfa hay that has been dehydrated very quickly to keep the nice green color, since there is obviously leaf shatter because of this technique the hay is then chopped and sprayed with a fine spray of mollassas (undetectable to the eye) to keep the dust down. It is guaranteed at 17% protein. It is indespensible to us here in Humid Texas, the keeping quality of baled alfalfa is nill. In the at least 6 to 8 years I have been feeding this I have never opened a bag that wasn't pretty, green and smelling good. You obviously can't feed this and alfalfa hay, given the choice of course a goat will want the real stuff, I just don't give them the choice. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 21, 2000.

I feed cubes all the time as a supplement to hay when good quality is not available. I also feed pellets to boost the protein level during milking. I feed the cubes whole and have never had a hard time with them.. however DO NOT FEED THEM TO HORSES when they are whole, soak them first. I had a ceommercial stable (107 horses)for many years and nearly all the boarders that fed them as a treat ended up with their horses choking on them. This can lead to a pocket in the esophagus that food gets cought in. It is a medical mess.

-- Dianne (yankeeterrier@hotmail.com), September 21, 2000.

I am not sure what alfalfa cubes are and so not think I have seen them here in Kansas. I do feed my goats alfalfa pellets, it is in their feed mix. They look like rabbit pellets. I usually feed prairie hay to my goats and the pellets to make up for not feeding the alfalfa hay. I did it because whan you say goats, the farmers around here think you can feed them the moldy stuff they can not sell to anyone else. And, I have "pissed off" hay farmers around here by making them take their moldy hay back and replace it with the good stuff. The prairie hay people are much better or know me better so they sell me good quality hay. If that's all you can get,I'd say buy one bale and see how your goats like it.

-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), September 25, 2000.

We just got three goats about 4 months ago and tried giving them the cubes. Two of our goats won't eat them (we do break them up into bite size pieces) and the one doe that does like them, goes crazy after we feed them to her. I don't know if she is just excited, or what. She jumps around, spins and runs all over her pasture. We have stopped giving them to her because I can't see how that can be good for her. Instead, we give them the hay with alfalfa in it. That doesn't seem to affect her like the cubes do. Still, she is the only goat that really eats the hay. The other two may nibble a bit on it, but don't care for it. They would rather munch on grass and eat their feed.

-- helen (rhjustis@gate.net), October 13, 2000.