Forum

All year field for goats?

Posted by Katharine Norton on February 28, 2015 at 6:33pm in Goats 101
Hi,
 
I would like some advice on fields and rotations for goats.
 
Is it ok to keep goats in the same field all year?  I know the ideal is rotation due to parasite build up, but I have read that 130 square feet is good for a dwarf goat.  If I have one field that size, can I keep them there all the time?
 
Thanks for your advice
 
Katharine
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Replies

  • Katharine Norton March 9, 2015 at 4:30am

    So sorry about your injury, hope you are doing better.  I have ordered moveable fences, they arrive tomorrow!  Excited, we'll see how it goes.

  • Deborah Niemann-Boehle March 4, 2015 at 6:04pm

    I'm still catching up on emails after being injured and then having other commitments, but it looks like you discovered the other post on moveable pens. The cattle panels (or combination livestock panels) that we have in the US are rigid and pretty sturdy and don't blow over if you have them in a square. There isn't much for the wind to catch.

  • Katharine Norton March 1, 2015 at 5:08am

    Deborah, we are on a plateau here so the weather is tropical but mild.  We have half the year which is dry, from Nov - March, so although the goats are out, its like a dry lot in that I have to bring food to them.  For the other half of the year there is lots of rain and the grass, if left, can grow to over a metre tall.  I guess in rainy season it is damp some mornings, it varies from day to day, sometimes the hot sun comes out and dries everything well, other days it is wet and cold and damp.  I would love moveable pens, but worry that tropical storms would blow them over, or the goats would rub and knock them.  Any thoughts?

  • Deborah Niemann-Boehle February 28, 2015 at 10:35pm

    I'm guessing that your situation may be very different in Nigeria than for most of us on this list in the US and even other parts of the world that get more rainfall. If you get very little rain and don't have much green grass or dew on the grass in the morning, parasites may not survive very long in a field. If you keep a goat in an area that is 10 X 13 (130 square feet), they'll eat down all of the grass in no time, and you'll have a dry lot, which works for killing parasites. It doesn't work for feeding goats though because the grass is gone. There is a post in the "featured" discussion section of the forum that talks about grazing goats on small acreage, and she has 16 X 16 pens with four goats that she moves every couple of days.

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