These are questions regarding hay: 1) Primarily what kind of hay do most feed out to their dairy goats?Is straight alfalfa the #1 choice,or can a pasture type blend provide enough of what they need to produce milk in good quantities? 2) Does anyone know how to organically rid a hayfield of thistle?Unfortunately the thistle infiltrated the part of the pasture we planted in alfalfa for the goats, and we are reluctant to spray it with chemicals unless there is no alternative. Any and all ideas will be welcome and very much appreciated!

-- Linda Foster (rcfam@csinet.net), June 24, 2000

Answers

Alfalfa is primary haylage used by goat dairypersons. At milking they also feed a concentrate feed. The thistle usually show up when a ground is disturbed for new plants, like it sounds like you have done for you alfalfa field. The seed have been dormant, just waiting for you. You might try cutting th seed heads off as they develop or keep feeding your alfalfa and endure the thistles until the alfalfa overpowers it. They really do not like rich soils and will your alfalfa. Unless you are baling the alfalfa for sale, then I would just endure the thistle, your own goats will eat them.

-- JerryR(La.) (jwr98@hotmail.com), June 24, 2000.

In the south due to the poor keeping conditions of baled alfalfa, alot of us feed the best of the grass hays we can find, using a higher "real" protein in our grain (probably the reason we are all so anti-animal by product) and then we feed our milkers chopped alfalfa, that is baled in plastic, no waste and our high humidity can't get to the product and leach out it nutrients. On your thistle, the shovel method works the best, the cattle pasture that is hayed behind us, over 100 acres, is owned and maintained by a gentleman in his 70's, and yes he walks his field with a shovel, got to dig the root though as it will just come back up, and shovel and let die in the field before it sprouts it flower and sends its seeds flying everywhere! Overwintering you field in rye, and then spring up comes his crimson clover, his field has gone from underbrush in the national forest to a very productive hay field/pasture in just 5 or 6 years. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), June 24, 2000.

A while back someone mentioned plain white distilled vinegar to kill weeds. I was ecstatic because we have lots of poison ivy in this area and it's beginning to show up in the yard. Like you, I won't use herbicides. Anyway, I tried the vinegar on it and a thistle plant that had just developed, still being a short rosette of leaves about 5" tall. The vinegar browned the leaf tips of the poison ivy but the thistle started getting gray-brown in a matter of days and now it's GONE. I made sure to saturate the center of the rosette and it looked as though it had been scorched. VIOLA!

You can get pure alfalfa here in Missouri but it's usually been sprayed with every poison known to man to keep out grass/weeds and beetles. I can usually find a good alfalfa/grass mix or supplement the best grass (translate that to cut at the point of optimum nutrient content, cured quickly and stored in a dry place) I can find with some alfalfa pellets and use a good soy-based concentrate.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), June 25, 2000.

I've been using alfalfa to feed the goats primarily because that's the easiest to come by here in central Ohio due to the popularity of horses. I don't buy the first cut because it is usually quite stalky and the goats waste too much of it. I wait for the second or even 3rd cutting because it is usually more leafy and of higher quality...an alfalfa/grass mix would be nice. I don't mind a little thistle, the goats love it.

-- Jim Roberts (jroberts1@cas.org), June 26, 2000.