Monday, January 17, 2011
When I Feed Alfalfa Hay
The sheep forget their manners.
They crowd me around the hay feeder and bite at the intact bale. When I cut the strings, they refuse to step back and allow me to take half of the bale and place flakes in the other feeders.
They are not scared of me on alfalfa mornings.
When I feed alfalfa, Good Mom doesn't follow me to the chicken shed. She prefers alfalfa over the bits of grain.
On alfalfa hay mornings, the sheep don't pick at the hay. They gobble. They don't leave some for later. They eat every stem and leaf.
Once finished, they return to the barn to drink water, lots of water, and then to loaf and ruminate and wonder when I'll do that again.
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Love it! Yes, Alfalfa is like desert and who doesn't love a good desert first? My horses will throw all the hay out of a feeder to find every leaf of alfalfa that might be hiding on the bottom of a feeder. They try to hold out for more, wasting other good hay. By late day they are eating what was thrown aside earlier in the day. They have no manners either!
ReplyDeleteI'm feeding one bale of third cutting alfalfa and one bale of first-cutting grass/alfalfa mix to the sheep when the weather is below freezing. I keep debating whether I should feed the alfalfa in the morning or evening. The horses, of course, always get first cutting grass/alfalfa mix... much to their dismay.
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