Does anyone do ANYTHING like this??

[hoggie]

I am in the middle of trying to design my goat yard I am home sick so I may as well do SOMETHING useful

As I have a horrible bug which made doing the animals last night a REAL chore, my mind is on labour saving. My animals are all pretty labour intensive. I don't mind this normally but, as I realised yesterday, it hinges on me being well and fully functioning to work.

So I was thinknig about some sort of system where the end of the goat run, backs onto the haystack. This would give them free access to hay if I had some sort of movable grating between the two. The biggest drawback I can see is the potential for waste.

Or maybe a second section to the run that backed onto the haystack, that the goats only had access to if I needed it.

Does anyone have a system anything like this? If so, what? And what are the pros and cons?

Thanks in advance

hoggie

[dale anne]

howdy call your local school and ask if any 4h kids want a volenteer job.....or talk to the local 4h..ffa...teachers...in exchange you can allow a child to show one of yer goats....they have lots of unreg goat shows in our town for kids starting out in FFA/4H so then can get feet wet in the ring...this may help in times you are sick or busy...make sure to teach the kid/s everything they need to know about goats...hoof trimming....bottle feeding....so on.....it is a hands on learning for them and a great asset to you should you need to call on this student when you are sick...no worries the goats and kid/s[no pun intended] know each other and what has to be done...these FFA/4H kids around here are great kids and very dependable...eager to learn and help.....maybe they will be where you live as well........hope this helps...dale anne

[4Hmomwyo]

How about a gate about 4 feet from the end of the run (where it backs up to the haystack). Then when ill, or vacationing, you can open the gate to give them free access to the haystack. When everything is fine, close the gate and limit access.

[Alice In TX/MO]

What form is your hay? Round bales?

How do you move your hay?

I'm assuming all goats are de-horned.

I'm thinking a small covered pole structure at the end of the run. If you use round bales, you back that tractor up with the hay on the fork, and drop it under the cover. Hay is 'separated' from critters by a cattle panel. Push the hay up next to the panel.

I think Emily fed her goats along the side of her loafing shed in a similar manner. Cattle panels with the round bales against it on the 'outside.'

[chamoisee]

I have done this. They waste a lot, and there is strangling potential with the baling twine if you don't cut it, but the goats are less stressed, eat more, and gain weight better. Eventually I did it only for the disadvantaged animals.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Ack. No no no. No twine. Ours are net wrapped. I hate twine.

[thatcompchick]

If I'm following what you are saying, I do this - just make sure the hay stays up against hte fencing (on this part I use cattle panels) or they will get their heads stuck in there.

Kinda nice on a really cold day when I go to feed the horses and forget hte bale knife, but the goats have neatly thinned the hay out for me so I can just pull the flakes out ;-)

Andrea
www.arare-breed.net
www.faintinggoat.net

[Freeholder]

Originally Posted by dale anne

howdy call your local school and ask if any 4h kids want a volenteer job.....or talk to the local 4h..ffa...teachers...in exchange you can allow a child to show one of yer goats....they have lots of unreg goat shows in our town for kids starting out in FFA/4H so then can get feet wet in the ring...this may help in times you are sick or busy...make sure to teach the kid/s everything they need to know about goats...hoof trimming....bottle feeding....so on.....it is a hands on learning for them and a great asset to you should you need to call on this student when you are sick...no worries the goats and kid/s[no pun intended] know each other and what has to be done...these FFA/4H kids around here are great kids and very dependable...eager to learn and help.....maybe they will be where you live as well........hope this helps...dale anne

Just curious -- Hoggie, do you have anything like 4-H or FFA over there?

I've had the same thoughts -- I'm not getting any younger, have a bad back which acts up once in a while, and get sick once in a while. I need to make sure things are set up to be easy to deal with even when I'm sick, weak, in pain, LOL -- that sounds miserable! But you know what I mean! Be prepared!

Kathleen

[Liese]

What I have noticed is that doing things to make life easier usually means doing things in a more costly way. Like free feeding the hay with round bales - just so much wastage. Keeping everyone close in the winter does certainly help - less steps and water totting - putting in water hydrants, while lovely is again more $'s. Right now we give everyone warm water in the am., were I disabled or sick that would probably not happen. But even the chickens appreciate it soo much the extra work is gratified! Mostly I try to get into a routine and plug away - with Bob's help I can have sheep hayed & watered, doe goats/llama hayed & watered, 2 goats milked, chickens fed & watered, bucks and rams ditto, bunnies ditto in an hour and a half (6-7:30). If it's just me then it takes 2 hrs. Needless to say I just tell myself I don't have time to be sick! But by 8 I'm ready for another cuppa! Bob brought a pedomater home from work, wore it a few days - I only walk a mile a day doing chores - sure seems like more some days!

[hoggie]

Hi - thanks all for the responses. Sorry it took me a while to come back.

We don't have 4H or anything like it here. I belive that young farmers on the mainland is similar, but we don't even have that here. When I used to teach riding, I always had one or two kids who used to work for their rides. They were always only too willing to step up and take over if I wanted to get away for a couple of days. Sadly I now don't have anything big enough to teach on, and it is mostly horses that kids here are interested in.

Liese, I am with you on the routine. I nearly always do everything in the same way, in the same order. It certainly makes life much easier.

I feed small square bales. The girls I do manage to have hay in front of them constantly - I rigged up a crib that works for now - but as I am designing the yard specially for them, i thought that if there were a way to rig it properly it would be a good system.

I have to say at this point (just so no-onw here thinks I am teh sort to give up at the first sniff) that in 30 years of animal owning, I have only called someone in to do them because I was ill twice I think. Even when I had DD, she was 11 days late arriving and my waters broke while I was doing morning pig feeds midwife wasn't too impressed for some reason

You ahve it BlueJuniperFarm - it is just trying to be prepared really. If I was really bad with something - knowing that hay is rigged up ready to go is one less thing to worry about. I always used to do this with the ponies - I would have a round bale delivered over the fence and if I needed to go away for a day or two, they could be checked on but hay and water were on tap as it were. obviously with the goats it will be a bit more complex than that. There is milking etc to sort, But to know that if I was keeling over with something, i could make life easy for myself, sounds like a good move to me

Good point about them strangling themselves - either on the twine, or the fence - would have to think that one through carefully.

An extra question - what exactly are "cattle panels"? Sorry to be dense, I am sure it is something we have - just call them a different name

Thanks again

hoggie

[gracie88]

http://www.motesclearcreekfarms.com/...elter-tarp.asp

This site shows a shelter made of cattle panels and tarps. They are basically like a section of wire fence except with maybe 4 gauge wire welded together, so more rigid and sturdy than fencing. It is great for all kinds of stuff, but horned goats can get hung up in it.