Milk Production Increases Requirements
Lactating goats and ewes need more usable energy, protein, water, and minerals than maintenance animals. Requirements are often greatest in early lactation and increase with milk yield and the number of offspring.
Supporting production naturally means beginning with strong forage, not expecting hay to replace every concentrate, mineral, or veterinary need.
Forage Should Remain the Foundation
Long-stem hay supports rumination, saliva production, normal microbial fermentation, and steady dry-matter intake. Concentrates may be necessary for high producers, but they should fill specific gaps rather than displace the forage base.
Actual intake matters as much as the laboratory analysis. Hay left beneath the feeder contributes no nutrition.
Digestibility and Palatability
Lactating animals need to obtain substantial nutrition from the amount they can consume. Coarse, weathered, or dusty hay may limit intake.
Quality orchardgrass often provides a soft, leafy, palatable grass-hay foundation. Alfalfa can add protein, calcium, and energy, while orchardgrass/alfalfa offers a practical balance for many animals.
Other Grass Hays
Smooth bromegrass, timothy, bermudagrass, and prairie grass may all support particular production stages when their maturity and analysis are appropriate.
Prairie grass may fit lower production or later lactation, while a heavily milking doe or ewe nursing twins may need more digestible forage or supplementation.
Adjust Through Lactation
Early lactation usually requires the greatest support. Mid-lactation calls for continued monitoring, and late lactation often allows gradual reduction in concentrate or forage density.
Keep evaluating body condition rather than maintaining an early-lactation ration indefinitely.
Testing, Water, and Minerals
Forage testing helps identify protein, energy, fiber, calcium, phosphorus, and moisture.
Water is essential to both feed intake and milk production, and lactating animals need unrestricted access to clean, palatable water.
Goats and sheep should not automatically share mineral because their copper tolerances differ.
Health and Management
A decline in milk may reflect mastitis, parasites, dental disease, lameness, heat stress, inadequate water, competition, or normal progression through lactation rather than forage alone.
Changes from grass hay to richer alfalfa or blends should be introduced gradually.
Choosing Hay at the Barn
Describe species, milk level, number of offspring, stage of lactation, age, body condition, and whether concentrates are fed.
The best lactation hay is clean, digestible forage the animal consumes consistently and that fits the complete ration—not simply the richest product available.
FAQ
What is the best hay for lactating goats?
Premium orchardgrass, orchardgrass/alfalfa, or alfalfa may all fit depending on production, condition, analysis, and the rest of the ration.
Can grass hay alone support milk production?
It may support moderate production when sufficiently digestible and properly balanced.
Does more grain always produce more milk?
No. Genetics, stage of lactation, forage intake, water, health, and overall ration balance also limit production.
Can straw replace hay for a lactating animal?
No. Wheat and rye straw generally lack the nutritional density needed as the primary lactation forage.