Choosing Hay for Your Dairy Goats

Reader Contribution by Eric Reuter and Chert Hollow Farm
Published on December 3, 2015
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When we began raising dairy goats, we barely knew hay from straw. We grew up in gardening families, without livestock. So when it came time to start buying hay for our goats, we had to learn from experience. Here are some things we’ve learned to consider when sourcing hay for our herd.

What Is Hay?

As a working definition, hay is the cut & dried stem/leaf material of non-grain livestock-edible plants such as grasses and legumes. It’s the dried equivalent of what the animal would want to eat fresh. Straw, by contrast, tends to be the cut & dried stem material of harvested grains (such as oats or wheat) which aren’t particularly palatable. Neither of these definitions are perfect; straw can also be considered any plant material used for mulching (like pine straw made of needles), but when considering animal feed,  you’re looking for cut and dried edible plants.

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