10 Affordable Hay Alternatives for Feeding your Animals

Tough winters or scorching summers affecting your forage? Check out these 10 affordable hay alternatives that might help when you are in a pinch without breaking the bank!
Who knows, some of these Hay Alternatives might find permanent spots in your feeding systems.

[@nicohelpdesk435]

Very interesting and comprehensive video and list. Agree wholeheartedly with brewery pulp. Chickens love it.

[@GrowthMindset-ru8jo]

Some I hadn't thought of!

[@k-dog58]

Amaranth does actually grow wild in Australia I live in Queensland, and it’s a very common weed. But if something goes typically classed as a weed, it’s usually the most useful plants

[@JoeSmith-sl9bq]

Thanks!

[@lpmoron6258]

Please getting that grain straw and make eating utensils from it. It generally has lots of herbicides in it!

[@markanderson4741]

The reason you can't find "affordable" hay is because videos like this convince hay farmers like me that people will never value quality forage enough for hay farmers like me to ever make any money raising it. So we plow it down and plant corn and soybeans instead. Even though we would rather raise forage, which is better for your animals, better for our soil, and better for everyone's groundwater. This is exactly the kind of video the large industrial feed companies usually produce to convince people to buy nutrient empty roughage instead of a quality forage. They win twice this way. They convince people to buy their waste products they used to have to pay to get rid of, then they get to turn around and sell you their high priced feeds to provide the nutrients your animals aren't getting from their waste products that the animals would have gotten from a quality forage. There is a saying among Cargill's clients - "If you find yourself in a win-win situation with Cargill, it means Cargill won twice." This is a great example of that.

[@RegenerativeFarmersofAmerica]

Disagree. Like many other farmers we are paying tons for hay which we totally understand the value of but we are struggling as well. In some areas we can't even get hay even when we pay the prices. Then we have to make culling decisions we don't want to make. This is to try to help livestock farmers get through hard times.

[@markanderson4741]

The animal farmers in my area feed cornstalks as roughage, then buy expensive soybean meal for the protein they could have gotten from alfalfa. Horse owners feed low quality ditch hay or swamp grass and then supplement with expensive commercial feeds and grains, which are often their source of gastric ulcers, insulin resistance, and other health issues which create vet bills more expensive than simply buying a quality hay. They are all following this approach under the guidance of nutritionists working for large industrial feed companies. Major alfalfa seed companies are now planning to discontinue offering alfalfa seed altogether because people who can't make money growing hay are not raising it. You say you understand the value of quality hay, but unless you actually start valuing it by paying for it, hay shortages will only get worse, because we're just going to quit.@@RegenerativeFarmersofAmerica

[@fiffihoneyblossom5891]

Getting hay is a nightmare in my country. There's just never enough. Most of our meat animals are free range, so it's not a big market. We are forced to look for alternatives, because there just isn't any hay to buy. There is definable a place for alternatives. And as much as I would rather support the farmers, no matter what the charge....what else am I going to do to feed my livestock

[@josephbarker91]

I feel like this is a chicken and egg debate.

[@kathleenredick275]

You can supplement with beet pulp, but it's not all that nutritious.

[@kathleenredick275]

Warning! Do not feed any maples that are or turn red at any stage. Mulberry trees make great fodder, though.