[llamakevin]

We seem to waste an awful lot of hay, or should I say, our pygmy goats seem to waste a lot of hay!

Any tips on minimising this?

Thanks

[little blue]

what do you feed it in?
or rather, how far apart are the rack wires? 

we've found that now we aren't taking in bits off a large round bales, but are squeezing in a whole small bale into a large rack there is less waste cos its tightly packed!

my friend once suggested putting some kind of "tray" underneath the rack, to catch the bits that fall, then you can chuck it back in later...

[Crofter]

We have a hayrack with a sort of "cage" around it that the goats can get their heads in to eat the hay.  Any hay that falls down lands on the floor of the cage and does not get soiled. When the rack is empty the goats will forage in the bottom an recycle the dropped bits.
This does not stop a certain goat from taking a huge mouthfull of hay out and wandering off with it.
I don't know if you have any other stock but in winter, when the cage fills up with discarded hay, the sheep will often eat what the goats leave.

Dave

[ballingall]

It does depend what you feed in, if you use a hayrack make sure the bars aren't too far apart. I do know a company who make a "Pygmy goat" hayrack which has smaller bars. The other tip is if has an open top to make a lid for it- just a sheet of weld mesh cut to size will do.

We recycle hay as well, if the milkers leave hay it then gets offered to the youngsters/males, and if they leave any which is hardly ever, it then goes on to the guinea pig.


Beth

[jaykay]

Making lids for the tops (we used wood) was the one things we did which reduced waste the most.

[Crofter]

Good point, I forgot to mention that our enclosed racks have lids too.

[llamakevin]

Wow, thanks - I appear to be doing it all wrong - we've been shaking out the hay before it goes in the rack, and yes, I think we have quite big holes so will think of a way to make them smaller, and non of them have lids - thanks all, another job to add to my ToDo list!

[jaykay]

another job to add to my ToDo list!

just in case you thought you were going to sit in the sun with a beer 

[llamakevin]

another job to add to my ToDo list!

just in case you thought you were going to sit in the sun with a beer 

Haha, you obviously know me well 

[egglady]

how high should the hay rack be?

[little blue]

how tall are your goats?!

they digest better if their necks are straight / a little stretched.
A rack which has a long vertical-ness is better if you intend having kids (though ours go up on their hind legs, balancing on the shed wall or Mum's back!)

[llamakevin]

I've got pygmy goats and in the main the racks are very close to the floor - a problem with putting a lid on would be them jumping on to it and they do not really eat from the top anyway - I will put a lid on but will have it sloping to try to stop this. I think the holes are way too big for pygmies so will start again with some welded mesh and a bit of timber.

Watch this space for some photo's - I'll be having a go this weekend!