Feeding Alfalfa to Pregnant and Nursing Mares

[SummerTime]

Diane,

I wanted to start this thread on feeding alfalfa because I need an education on it! I have always heard not to feed alfalfa to Minis, I disagree with this and I know that you do too. I would love to know how much to feed to a miniature, Pregnant, Nursing, non pregnant and non nursing mares and geldings. I feed Summer alfalfa and believe with all my heart this helped with her milk production (alfalfa is what helps milk production in goats), however I'm not real sure if I'm feeding her the correct amount. Can you help clear this up for me?

Thanks!!

Mindy

 

Yes, I so TOTALLY disagree.

Alfalfa is the best there is -- especially for these precious mommas! I feed all my horses alfalfa, and nothing else. I use Alfalfa hay, but if I can't get it, I use the cubes, and my last choice is the pellets.

Here, a bale of Alfalfa hay is upwards of $22.00/bale. But, I'm fortunate, in that I purchase my alfalfa cubes from the Purina store, and they are green, leafy, smell great and fall apart in your hand. By the time you are at the bottom of the bag -- all you have left is leaves and small pieces -- no chunks.

For pregnant mares, I make sure each starts out with a flake of Alfalfa hay.in their stall. Then when they go out for exercise, they find flakes of alfalfa all around the paddock -- because here all I have are dry-lots, so by placing the hay in various spots, it makes some of the mommas who like to stand still, actually have to walk around. With the pregnant mares, I keep filling the paddock or their hay feeders so they never are without their alfalfa. And at night, I make sure they have plenty to munch on while they wait. LOL

For everyone else, I start with 1 flake per horse in the morning. By the night meal, it's generally gone, so everyone gets another flake. Because the cubes are cheaper to feed than the hay here, I add the cubes right to their full grain ration. If I am adding the cubes, then I cut back to 1 flake of hay per day per horse.

Basically, I find the alfalfa both a tummy soother (only had 1 instance of colic here in all the years - and it was a mare brought in for breeding) and a perfect medium for giving everyone the extra protein that they need -- without adding a bunch of useless calories.

Hope this helps. If you have questions, or if I've forgotten something, let me know! LOL

 

[chandab]

While I'm a die hard grass hay feeder, Diane will be happy to know this winter the minis have gotten more alfalfa than they ever have in the past. Its what hay we have available. We put up our own for the cows, so mostly grow alfalfa. We do have some grass bales, and I usually pick those for the horses (around here, or maybe its just Shayne, the grass bales and stores better than the straight alfalfa); but our grass stack was buried under a snowbank half-way through winter, so I had to feed bales from the same stack Shayne was feeding cows off of. I also currently ahve tim/alfa cubes I'm feeding. [Also have timothy pellets, donkey-do shouldn't have too much alfalfa and neither should a couple of the mares, so the timothy pellets are great to have on hand.]

 

[SummerTime]

Thanks so much for the information! I have been feeding Summer about a flake a day along with grass hay. I also feed her 1 cup of soaked beet pulp and a half and half mixture of oats and barley along with a small amount of HF Source Supplement. She seems to be doing well on this. I'm kind of a all natural person and try to feed a natural diet. Of course she has as much grass as she wants when its growing! Maybe since she has grass to graze on 1 flake of alfalfa is enough?

 

Yes, of course. Because I only have dry-lots, I have to increase the amount of roughage by adding the additional flake -- or adding cubes to their grain. But if she has grass too -- that's just perfect!

And alfalfa is a perfect "natural" diet -- I just wish I could grow it here!

 

[JAX]

- I just wish I could grow it here!

Oh boy me too!! We are paying $30 per bale of the three strand bales which run about 90lbs. They know they got us by the b_l_s here though...

 

[chandab]

Oh boy me too!! We are paying $30 per bale of the three strand bales which run about 90lbs. They know they got us by the b_l_s here though...

With those prices, are cubes cheaper where you are?

I can get cheap cubes for about $10/50# bag and better cubes for $14/40# bag. [both of those are timothy/alf mix, but the staight alfalfa are the same or even a little less.]

I couldn't have more than one or two minis, if any horses, if I lived somewhere else. I have never paid more than $120/ton for hay, small squares grass or grass with a bit of alfalfa in 70-100# bales depending on where I got the hay (so mostly under $5/bale, usually around $3.50/bale).

 

[SummerTime]

Since I am new to feeding alfalfa, does any one have an opinion on Standlee alfalfa hay? I get it at Atwoods for 15.99 for a compressed bale, which seems way to expensive to me!! It probably weighs maybe 50 #. I'm not sure what "good" alfalfa looks like, this seems to have a lot of stems in it. I know it is suppose to be very leafy, so I think I'm getting taken!

 

[Bonny]

I really like Standlee products. I use the pellets of alfalfa and tim/alf mixed pellets. I havent tried the alf hay they have so cant comment, sorry.

I am also big on alfalfa usage! I keep grass hay available for my ponies, but add the alfalfa to my preg and lactating mares feed. The stallion and the gelding get the tim/ alf mixed pellets added.

I also use the alf pellets as a treat. personally I have seen the alf helps a lot to bring up and maintain toplines. It has helped Dream so much, esp since she was so emanciated when I got her, then she got bred right away.

 

[chandab]

Since I am new to feeding alfalfa, does any one have an opinion on Standlee alfalfa hay? I get it at Atwoods for 15.99 for a compressed bale, which seems way to expensive to me!! It probably weighs maybe 50 #. I'm not sure what "good" alfalfa looks like, this seems to have a lot of stems in it. I know it is suppose to be very leafy, so I think I'm getting taken!

Standlee is a pretty good brand, a bit expensive, but once you process and bag it, almost every feed is expensive. Standlee is the better brand I can get around here (ok, so the closest place I can get it is 150 miles, but its very nice), the products I buy are always fresh and green. I can buy cheaper tim/alf cubes locally, but my horses don't like them as well as the Standlee brand (and they aren't as green or fresh smelling, and are usually harder). [i usually stock up in the fall when we sell calves, and bring home 20 bags of their timothy pellets. Hubby brought me 4 bags of the T/A cubes when he went to a bull sale last month.] Since I have decent hay, we raise our own; I buy the timothy pellets to have on hand if someone needs a boost or I need to feed a wet meal for some reason (I was feeding beet pulp, but my supplier switched brands, and the stuff is loaded with molasses and icky).

 

[Gone_Riding]

I wish I could get good alfalfa here in Washington State. Yes, it's grown here, but the farmers get more for it by exporting it. What's left is junk and it's still about $18.50 a bale. I never fed anything else up until about three years ago. I miss great alfalfa...

 

The compressed bales here are even higher than a "regular" bale -- so $15.00 sounds good to me.

I can get the good Alfalfa cubes for $15.00/50 pounds -- which is why I'm using so many of those.

Chanda -- I used to be able to get a 3 strand HEAVY bale of Alfalfa -- (that I couldn't even lift -- had to have my sons put it on the wheeled cart for me to pull around) -- for about $18.00. I had 45 horses at the time and I won't tell you what my feed bill was as it was all dry-lot then too. I remember those days where money was coming in and going out so nicely -- before the economy "crashed" in 2008.

 

[chandab]

The compressed bales here are even higher than a "regular" bale -- so $15.00 sounds good to me.

I can get the good Alfalfa cubes for $15.00/50 pounds -- which is why I'm using so many of those.

Chanda -- I used to be able to get a 3 strand HEAVY bale of Alfalfa -- (that I couldn't even lift -- had to have my sons put it on the wheeled cart for me to pull around) -- for about $18.00. I had 45 horses at the time and I won't tell you what my feed bill was as it was all dry-lot then too. I remember those days where money was coming in and going out so nicely -- before the economy "crashed" in 2008.

We raise our own hay, although I do buy some small squares from a guy (our homegrown is all big rounds), I have 15 minis; and hubby thinks I spend way too much on feed. I go through about 5 bags extruded feed per month, 2-3 bags low carb feed, 4 bags senior/growth (senior stallion goes through a bag of senior a month, the babies 3 bags of growth/senior). I couldn't imagine how bag it would be if I had to buy all my hay or hay cubes too; but not as bad as elsewhere since our hay is fairly reasonable around here (usually, if there is a drought or something, those that have hay really gouge those that don't).

 

[Eagle]

I converted to alfalfa after Eagle had so many problems and I was very happy. I I found a farmer that would give it for me for about $6 x small bale. I fed meadow hay out in the field and alfalfa at night in the stables.

 

[chandab]

Just a little FYI, for newbies and even not so newbies... Alfalfa is called lucerne in many countries outside the US. [Just in case you read other international boards, and someone mentions lucerne, and you are wondering what weird feed product that is.]

 

[JAX]

I wish I could get good alfalfa here in Washington State. Yes, it's grown here, but the farmers get more for it by exporting it. What's left is junk and it's still about $18.50 a bale. I never fed anything else up until about three years ago. I miss great alfalfa...

LOL yep it is probably being exported down here because we are desperate for good hay and are dumb enough to pay the $30 per bale for it. Yes I could get cubes for cheaper but am feeding 28 minis and 3 biggies and the idea of having to break up or soak for that many would just add way too much time to my already long feeding times Im afraid.

And in response to the original question yes I believe the minis do so much better on alfalfa. As for how much, depends on the horse really.Mine get anywhere from 1/2 to a full flake of alfalfa per horse per day. I also feed grain with that.

 

Never soaked an alfalfa cube for anyone other than my "toothless" elderly 2 ladies that have missing teeth. My cubes are easily broken in my hand, so as long as I can break them by hand -- they can easily break them with those teeth.

If it takes a sledge-hammer to break the cubes, I guess I would take to drenching them in a bit of water too. I do throw some water over them in the winter for my older horses -- just to make sure they are drinking enough. But I don't really "soak" them - I pour water over them, get their feed prepared in my bucket, and carry both to the paddock. So, not MUCH soaking -- but enough to swell them a bit.

Just in case you have nice cubes like I can get here.

 

[JAX]

Diane which type of cubes do you use? I bought several bags of "Rocky Top" but they had to be softened with water or even soaked for a long time to get them to break. Have yall heard of Hay-Rite Premium Alfalfa Cubes? Was thinking about trying to get some but did not know if these would be the really hard tough to break type or not.

 

I'll have to check the name on the bag, so it will be tomorrow before I can give you the name. I live in town now, but the horses are on my property where my mom and son's family lives. But I will...for sure!