Goats on pasture vs browse

PrettyPaisley · #1 10/27/12, 11:03 PM

I have a wild child goat-Chi Chi who jumps the fence every morning and enjoys whatever she wants all day long. She is *thick*. Then there are the others who are on pasture-only 4 who milk and they are thinner than the other who are dry and eat grass all day.

Is Chi Chi thicker because she is eating the better diet? My winter project is to fix the fence behind the house so they can all browse but for now pasture is the best I can offer them.

KrisD · #2 10/28/12, 01:40 AM

Ugh I have one of those. Drives me nuts. I use a dog tie out stake for her and stake her where I want her. Yes mine get fatter if they jump the fence and eat the neighbors property (much more browse).

Alice In TX/MO · #3 10/28/12, 07:29 AM

Yes. Browse is the natural goat food. The goats pick and choose what they need in nutrients. Also, they are less likely to pick up worms browsing, as the worm larvae climb up the grass blades to about 4". They don't climb trees.

Shygal · #4 10/28/12, 07:40 AM

They are also thinner because they are milking. the dry does dont have to put their food into milk production

Clovers_Clan · #5 10/28/12, 06:10 PM

Hide out in the bushes and find out what she's eating, then encourage all of those lovely weeds to grow in your pasture! Seriously, you can probably still pick off some seeds.

**gone-a-milkin** · #6 10/28/12, 07:12 PM

Or you can take a pair of lopping shears out every day and cut some browse for the less bouncy goats.
Unless you want to just turn them all loose each day.

Alice In TX/MO · #7 10/28/12, 07:19 PM

I cut browse for my goats when we are in Texas. I clean up old cemeteries and roadsides waaaay out from town. Sometimes I get lucky and find a tree trimming crew at work in town and let them dump oak tree trimmings at my house.

CaliannG · #8 10/28/12, 08:14 PM

Since I have been working on fence lines lately, my goats are occasionally getting locked up for three or four days at a time.

The last time was with an all-they-could-eat buffet of horse quality grass hay. A lovely mixture of coastal, timothy and alicia. Provided for them in a feeder that they could walk 25 feet to gorge themselves.

From their crying, you would have thought I was starving them. Also, production dropped by half after the first day on it.

The first day BACK on my mixed pasture (mixed with weeds, grass, trash trees, scrub bushes, and mesquite), production picked RIGHT back up.