How long to let pens rest?

[The Tin Mom]

We are building a second pen to help rotate our girls. How long is the optimal time to let the pens rest in order to reduce heath issues? Seems like I have heard three to six months - but I want to double check.

[Oat Bucket Farm]

I would rotate every six months if I had the pen space to do so.

[southerngurl]

To kill out worms it's longer than that, good hard freezes in winter or prolonged periods of very dry weather help. Your talking more like a year.

One thing to consider if you have other livestock is put cattle or horses on the one the goats are not in. They pick up the goat worms but are a dead end host so they help clean your pasture and clean up some of the worms. Goats do the same thing for horse/cattle worms as well.

Also rotating to keep your fodder taller will help as most of the worms are close to the ground. Consider also planting of lespedeza sericiea in the field to help with barberpole and probably coccidia.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Do NOT plant lespedeza. It is a pest plant and very invasive. We've got it, and I know the benefits, but it ruins hay because it get tall and woody.

http://www.invasive.org/browse/subinfo.cfm?sub=3033

[bee]

Do I understand if you already have the lespedeza that it is a forage plant goats will eat and it is not harmful but good for them?

[Alice In TX/MO]

Yes, it is very good for them. It's just not good in your hay fields.

[southerngurl]

Info on the au grazer variety of sericea lespedeza:

http://simsbrothers.com/pdfs/Invasiv...ion_of_SL_.pdf

[Alice In TX/MO]

Good article. Basically it says you've got to graze it or hay it frequently so it doesn't seed out.

[Minelson]

I rotate my horse pastures every 30 days. And they get the winter off.