[case1950]

I have been thinking of getting some goats. Not sure what kind yet. Thinking about playing around with raising a few meat goats. I was wondering how many goats on average can you put per acre. My land is about maybe 20% to 25% field and the rest is woods with fairly thick under brush. Looks like a good bit to eat.

For a second question can you plant anything that goats can feed on during the winter. I usually plant some food plots for the deer and was wondering if they would eat it also. I live in Georgia so winters are pretty warm.

Thanks,
Case1950

 

[KannapolisPygmy]

I don't know much about loose goats; I feed mine. Just for comparision, though, I've got 2 pygmies on 1/3 acre.

Just wanted to remind you that wild underbrush is probably full of things poisonous to goats. If you leave them loose in untamed woodland they'll likely get very sick. Deer know to avoid these things; goats often don't.


Good luck

 

[oberhaslikid]

I was waiting to see if someone may have read the same thing I did on this.I believe I have read that it is 6 goats per acre.I have 12 per 3 acres of wooded and a small amount of pasture( that I planted myself).They do not keep it all down at once, they have done a good job and have never ran out of brush.They are milk goats and I do feed on the milk stand.

 

[BigSkyBoerGoats]

Everything you read says 6 per acre but that's ideal situations and we all know that real life isn't always ideal. I can tell you as of right know I am running 21 boer goats on ONE acre. That sounds like a lot and it is pushing the limits in most circumstances but I still have plenty of grass and even mowed it once this summer already.

There are as many different management techniques as there are people who raise goats. If you push the envelope on goats per acre just remember to keep them wormed well. That's priority. I am actually thinking of setting up a feedlot situation as a project to see how it works. Even on limited acerage you can still throw them a round bale of hay and a protein block and they will do fine. I truly believe that one of the reasons that I do not have problems is because I stay on top of my goats health (especially worming)....... if you do that most people could triple that number per acre.

Jason
www.BIGSKYBOERGOATS.com

 

[Mrs_stuart]

We had 4 dairy goats on 1/4 acre...
We just put out lots of hay and feed all a good grain twice a day. It is harder on the feed bill but we love the goats. We are down to 2, one ober buck and one ober doe. They are both over a year old but they are still small. You can do what ever you want if you feed and offer the right things so they get enough feed, minerals and water and you keep their area cleaned out.

Belinda

 

[BrushBuster]

the six goats to the acre is stated alot and may be an average, but i think what they're mostley refering to is normally you can keep six goats on the same amount of ground that it would take to sustain 1 cow. but everything depends on how they are managed and how good your pasture or forage is. i've kept 30 or more on 3/4 of an acre and they couldn't stay ahead of the grass. the biggest problem isn't that they won't have enough to eat. it's controlling the worm load. if you're going to run a big number of goats on a small pasture, they need to be rotated very regularly to give the pasture 3 weeks to a month to let the worms eggs deposited by the goats time to die off. woods are not as big of a problem with worms because the worms get into the goats mainly by forcing them to graze rather than browse which is thier natural way of eating. i don't think you could run near as many in the woods as you could the pasture. i've never really pushed my woods to the limit like i have my pasture. but i have fenced off small portion here and there (1/4 acre or so) and 10 or 12 goats will have it eat down to nothing in less than a week most the time. i've never had a problem with mine running in the woods, maybe i've just been lucky. but they seem to have the ability to know whats good for them and what ain't, or at least not eat enough of it to cause a problem.

 

[okgoatgal2]

i never had a problem with mine eating poisonous stuff in the woods, neither has my mom in 19 yrs of raising dairy goats. goats are very smart and as browsers, they don't eat on one thing until they get sick....watch them. they take a bite here, walk a step take another bite, over and over. they prefer browse to grass. i agree with the rotating to avoid worm problems. better to undergraze/browse, than to over and wind up w/problems.

 

[case1950]

Hey thanks everybody. I just didn't want to put to many out there. I'm going to cross fence it so I can rotate them from area to area. I figure it will help with the worms and give the land time to green back up for them.

Thanks again

Case1950