how much space needed?

[longshot38]

if you were buying, say 2 goats, as young in the spring and raising them to slaughter in the fall. no over wintering needed, and cleanup not really a problem. how much space would you need to do this? trying to do this humanely just wanting winter meat so to speak.

thanks
dean

[Frosted Mini's]

It depends very much on your land and plants available, and whether you have irrigation or if not what the rain is like in your area. Are you putting them on a pasture or an area with a lot of browse (bushes, trees, etc)? If it's just a pasture and is already fenced, I would suggest trying some electric net fence and moving it around to rotate them through it, and then you can pretty easily figure out how much they need based on the length of grass and how long it takes them to eat it. Different times of year, the plants grow faster than other times of year, even throughout spring/summer/fall.

[Clovers_Clan]

Hmm, Newfoundland. Spring to fall, that would be like 4 weeks, right?

Seriously though. Just two goats should be easy. If you have sufficient land but no fencing yet, you might consider rotational grazing with electric net. Healthier for the goats and less expenditure. Especially since you are using it for a short time each year.

Perhaps the easiest way to figure stocking rates is to find the stocking rate for cattle in your area and go from there. Take into consideration if its strictly grass you will need more area, if its wooded/weedy you'll need less. I think I've read the general rule is 7-8 goats = 1 cow.

[longshot38]

4 weeks? that could be 4 hours. i believe you can do one cow/calf pair per acre, on average. this question came from a conversation with my dad where he told me that goats don't take much room but he wasn't sure because its been a lot of years since he helped keep animals, he's 72, and like he said you can't turn animals loose in the community to graze like his step dad and others of that generation did.

so i figured i would ask i was thinking about a quarter acre of grass supplemented with hay and pellets.

dean

[Clovers_Clan]

Thats certainly big enough if you are supplementing with hay. And also big enough to divide up a few small paddocks for rotation. Which I would recommend. I do a couple of forage gardens in conjunction with my vegetable garden for weanlings. It has been surprising how much more productive this is than regular "pasture". Buck plot seed works great and it sounds like it might do well in your environment. It comes up fast and recovers well with rotation. You might not have to supplement much.