Most goats do best on grass hay as their everyday forage, with legume hays like alfalfa added strategically for does that are pregnant, nursing, or growing kids that need extra protein. The right choice depends on your goat’s age, sex, and production stage. A healthy adult goat eats roughly 2% to 3% of its body weight in dry matter forage each day, so hay quality has a direct impact on whether your animals get the nutrition they need or fall short.
Grass Hay for Everyday Feeding
Grass hays, including timothy, orchard grass, bermuda, and oat hay, are the backbone of most goat diets. They provide 8% to 10% protein, which comfortably meets the minimum 7% crude protein an adult goat needs for basic maintenance. Grass hay also supplies enough fiber to keep the rumen functioning properly without overloading your goats on calories or calcium.
For adult does that aren’t pregnant or milking, wethers, and bucks outside of breeding season, a good-quality grass hay can serve as the primary feed with little or no supplementation. Orchard grass is a popular choice because of its soft texture and palatability. Timothy is another reliable option, though availability and price vary by region. Bermuda grass hay works well in southern climates where it’s grown locally.
Alfalfa and Legume Hays
Alfalfa is the most common legume hay fed to goats, though clover and peanut hay also fall into this category. The protein content of alfalfa runs between 16% and 20%, roughly double that of grass hay. It also contains two to three times as much calcium. That nutritional density makes it valuable in specific situations but problematic as a year-round feed for every goat on your property.
Alfalfa is most appropriate for lactating does, who need significantly more protein and calcium to support milk production. Pregnant does in their final two months benefit from it as well, since fetal growth accelerates rapidly during that window. Growing kids also thrive on alfalfa or an alfalfa-grass mix because the extra protein supports development. For these animals, feeding alfalfa hay or blending it 50/50 with grass hay gives them the nutritional boost they need without relying heavily on grain.
Why Bucks and Wethers Need Grass Hay
Male goats, both intact bucks and castrated wethers, are especially prone to urinary calculi, a painful and sometimes fatal condition where mineral stones block the urinary tract. Goats naturally produce alkaline urine with a pH between 7.5 and 8.5, which already creates conditions favorable to stone formation. Feeding high-calcium hay like alfalfa on top of that tips the mineral balance further in the wrong direction.
The Merck Veterinary Manual recommends keeping the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio in a goat’s diet between 1.5:1 and 2:1. Alfalfa’s calcium content can push that ratio well above 2:1, particularly if the rest of the diet doesn’t include enough phosphorus to compensate. For bucks and wethers, sticking with grass hay as the primary forage is one of the simplest ways to reduce their risk. If you’re feeding a mixed herd, this means separating males at feeding time or choosing a grass hay that works for everyone and supplementing the females separately.
Cereal Hays and Other Options
Oat hay, barley hay, and other cereal grain hays can be good options for goats, offering moderate protein and decent palatability. However, cereal crops can accumulate dangerous levels of nitrates, particularly when they’ve been stressed by drought, frost, or heavy fertilization. Nitrate poisoning in ruminants was first identified in the late 1930s from oat hay. Forage with nitrate-nitrogen levels below 1,000 ppm is considered safe. Above that threshold, you need to limit how much of the diet it represents, and anything above 4,000 ppm is potentially toxic.
If you’re buying cereal hay, especially from a year with unusual weather, it’s worth having it tested. Most agricultural extension offices can point you to a forage testing lab. The cost is minimal compared to losing an animal.
How to Judge Hay Quality
Not all bales of the same hay type are equal. A bale of late-cut, stemmy alfalfa can be nutritionally worse than a well-timed cutting of orchard grass. Cornell University’s forage evaluation guidelines highlight several things to look for when buying or inspecting hay.
Leafiness is the single most important visual indicator. The leaves contain about two-thirds of the protein in hay, so a leafy bale is a nutritious bale. Young, leafy forage with small-diameter stems was cut at the right time. If you’re looking at alfalfa with thick woody stems, visible seed pods, and few leaves, it was cut too late and has lost much of its feeding value.
Color matters too. A natural green color means the hay was cured properly and hasn’t been rained on or sun-bleached. Light green to slightly brownish is acceptable. Yellow, straw-colored, or brown hay has lost quality. Stems that look harsh and brittle were likely bleached by the sun and will be less palatable to your goats.
Always open a bale and smell it before feeding. Good hay smells fresh and slightly sweet. Any musty, sour, or earthy smell signals mold, and moldy hay is genuinely dangerous.
The Danger of Moldy Hay
Feeding moldy or spoiled hay is one of the most common causes of listeriosis in goats, an infection caused by the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. Round bales that have started to rot on the outside are a frequent source. Symptoms include depression, loss of appetite, fever, lack of coordination, excessive drooling, and a characteristic circling behavior. Facial paralysis on one side, a droopy ear, drooping eyelid, and saliva running from limp lips are hallmarks of the brain infection form. Once neurological symptoms appear, death can follow within 24 to 48 hours.
This isn’t a minor quality issue. Inspect every bale, discard any sections with visible mold or discoloration, and store hay off the ground in a dry, ventilated area.
Reducing Hay Waste
Goats are notoriously wasteful eaters. Hay losses range from 2% to 60% depending on how you present it, with most waste coming from trampling, pulling excess hay onto the ground, and fecal contamination. Feeding hay on the ground is the worst approach: goats will walk on it, defecate on it, and refuse to eat it, which also creates parasite and coccidia exposure.
Feeder design makes a measurable difference. Research comparing several feeder styles found that a basket-style feeder holding a round bale above a raised platform wasted the least hay, about 2 pounds of dry matter per animal per day. A six-sided feeder with movable panels performed nearly as well at 2.2 pounds. Round feeders with vertical bars wasted the most at 2.9 pounds per animal daily. The key features to look for are panels that move inward as the bale shrinks and a platform or tray underneath that catches dropped forage so animals can eat it before it hits the ground.
If your current feeder wastes a lot of hay, consider whether you can add a catch tray beneath it or modify the openings so goats can’t pull out large mouthfuls they’ll drop and ignore.
Matching Hay to Your Herd
- Adult does (not pregnant or milking): Good-quality grass hay meets their needs. Target at least 10% crude protein and 55% total digestible nutrients for maintenance.
- Pregnant does (last 2 months): A grass-alfalfa blend or straight alfalfa to support fetal growth and prepare for lactation.
- Lactating does: Alfalfa or a high-legume mix. The extra protein and calcium directly support milk production.
- Growing kids: Alfalfa or alfalfa-grass mix for the protein needed during rapid growth.
- Bucks and wethers: Grass hay only. Keep the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio between 1.5:1 and 2:1 to protect against urinary stones.
If you’re running a mixed herd and can only stock one type of hay, a good-quality grass hay is the safest universal choice. You can then top-dress or supplement with alfalfa pellets for the animals that need more protein, rather than risk overfeeding calcium to the males.