I have two pygmy goats which I purchased a couple months ago as alearning experiance prior to starting a herd.They are at a property That I will not be at every day during the winter.Is the large bales of sufficient quality? legume or grass?So far they thrive on the growing tips of weeds and brush ignoring legumes and grass.Will they eat the bud and tips of brush during the winter?

-- Keith Etheridge (grandpa@chipsnet.com), July 12, 2001

Answers

Hi Keith, we give our goats hay during the winter, even though we don't freeze here. The quality of the browse in the woods is pretty depleted by late fall. Yes they can find stuff to eat, but ours our also bred during this time, and the weather starts getting wet, when they are layed up in the barn for a couple of days from the rain, they need the roughage from the hay in the barn. I would think the round bales of grass hay would be fine as long as it was under shelter and had something around it, if they eat the middle out of a bale, it can tip over and squish them. vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 13, 2001.

here where we live it frezes and snows pretty bad the goat's sometimes can't even get out of the barn (not very often) we put round bales (alfalfa) beside the barn in the winter. it is cheaper than buying hay bales to. they last quite a long time and don't require much work of thowing hay but we still have to feed them their grain. the goat watse a lot of it if you don't get a feeder thing to put around it they end up sleeping on it climbing on it then they go to the bathroom and them they think they can't eat it. this might be a bit much just for 2 pygmys.

-- lidnsey in southern il (l_shamhart@hotmail.com), July 13, 2001.

Round bales of grass hay are fine for unbred pygmy goats in the winter, but that may not be your biggest problem. Here in Maine, your biggest problem would be frozen water. If you can't get to the property daily to water the animals, you would need some type of water heater to keep the water from freezing. Then you would need to be sure they can't soil their water since goats are wicked picky about clean water. Of course, you could be in Florida and this may not be an issue!!

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), July 13, 2001.

Hi Keith, I live in Ohio and it gets cold here ,by feeding course hay in the winter your goats can produce more body heat.I feed Alfalfa grass mix in the summer and the coarser (1st cutting) hay in the winter it doesnt matter if you feed large bales or small as long as you don't feed moldy hay.I would be careful about feeding any wilted forage as it could have a nitrate build-up that could kill them. good luck and try to keep your hay as dry as possible.

-- Russell D. Horner (rdh123@bright.net), October 20, 2001.