To buy alfalfa from Thailand

[Elena Kulikova]

Hi! Does someone know where to buy alfalfa hay or pellets in Thailand? With reasonable price/quality ratio ???? It's needed for Holstein calves in Cambodia ????

Edited March 14, 2021 by Elena Kulikova

[kickstart]

You will have a big job finding Alfalfa pellets or hay in Thailand ,it is not grown here ,our local cattle feed shop had some Alfalfa hay bales ,imported from the USA ,each bale was about ,200 baht/bale.

https://www.21food.com/products/alfalfa-hay-bales-839177.html

This link looks like a big company selling Alfalfa hay ,you would need only a few bales for some calves .

Here in Thailand we have some Pangolar hay about 120baht/bale ,not good quality all stem and no leaf, not good for young calves  

You could do what the Thais do, and what I used to do for calves feed rice straw ,it is a better feed for very young calves ,helps develop the rumen ,hay for Young calves take a lot of digesting ,and you end up with pot belled calves ,rumen full of  undigested hay .

So, just feed a good quality calf concentrate ,rice straw and water up to four months old then switch them to some hay if you can find any. 

[Elena Kulikova]

Thanks! We have around 250 calves per season so we need a lot of hay! Yeah, rice straw is also possible option. We just wanted to have some more protein in their ration until 7 months old. Did you have experience with any protein crop in Thailand?

[kickstart]

You have a lot of calves ,do you have any land where you could grow some grass ,I know water could be a problem in the dry season ,but for calves a couple of acre's,5-6 rie in Thailand ,using a cut and cart method.

If so, have a word with TV's Michael Hare at Ubon Forage Seeds ,he sells grass seed ,do not plant Napier  young calves will only eat the best leaves and leave the rest .

But, feeding grass to very young calves you will still get the pot-bellied problem ,especially if the grass is past its best feed value ,normaly at  more than 60 days old .

My area is a big dairy cattle area ,90% ? of the calves are feed milk until they are 3 months old ,then they are feed a calf pellets  14-16 % protein  and rice straw they seem to grow ok ,but feed cost would be high as the forage is of poor quality ,and a good quality concentrate is needed for any  weight gain. 

Brewers grains  is a good feed ,you have it in Cambodia ,but is it available in your area.