This week I have been thinking about what type of hay should I buy for my small goat herd in Florida. Usually, we can get alfalfa, peanut, or coastal hay all year long. I tend to supplement only in the inter for maybe 2-3 months before spring. Where I am in Florida my fields start to grow back up again in early spring. In March my pastures are already lush and green so hay supplement is not a year-round thing. Below is an example of a pasture in March. As you can see there is not much growth but its green and growing

Lately, though the prices have gone way up for square bales, a coastal square bale is about $10 right now when two or three years ago it was $7. Historically i have been buying square bales, they last about a week for the kidding does and I can switch between alfalfa and peanut hay while their milking. The problem is that the prices of square bales have gone up but the price for large round bales has stayed basically the same. It now makes more sense to buy round bales.

The tradeoff is that with round bales I can’t switch varieties that much since they will last a while considering the size of my herd, about 25 does. I will have to either buy several varieties at once and put different types in different paddocks or just buy one or two for the season. Determining the hay for my small goat herd will be different this year since the last two years I have been getting underweight and slow-growing kids which I think in part is due to not having enough hay in the winter.