Start From Scratch Farm

So I'm really new.

I grew up on a corn and soybeans farm in central Illinois and always wanted animals.  Well now it looks like I'm moving back to the farm and getting some of my own land.  Actually it's about a 5 acre plot with sides of 450'.  Right now I'm planning on having about 8-10 does and up to 4 bucks.

I have some questions about the barn and pastures.  

1. How much space in a barn would I need for 8-10 does and their kids?

2. Will (3) 1/2 acre pastures be enough to graze the does so that the worms will die before being reingested?

3.  If I build a central yard for the does for feeding and watering and open one side of it to the pasture, how big should the yard/night pen be?

4.  Is it realistic to graze 4 bucks between 2 (150'x300') pastures?

5.  I will need to seed the pastures. Right now they're a corn field.  Are there any plants I should definitely include? avoid (beyond the poisonous ones)?

6. Will I need to buy my own atv pull-behind seeder to reseed the pastures or will a broadcast seeder suffice?

Thank you for your help.  I really appreciate it.

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  • unfortunately my computer died before I could upload it.  That file doesn't exist anymore.  

  • Awesome!

    Would it be possible to post that Sketch-Up file somewhere? I am using it as well to start planning a tiny farm.

    Ryan P Recker said:

    2771468102?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024Does this pasture layout look like it will work? I'm worried that they won't graze the corners.  I want them to always have access to the barn in case it starts raining before I would be able to move them.  

    This design would also allow me to keep the goats off of the pastures when they're really muddy.  Assuming I keep the Night/play pen cleaned and provide some things for the goats to climb on will it be large enough to keep the goats in for a day?

    I know the dimensions are hard to read.  

    The goats stalls would total to be 288 sq. feet.  They would be in a 12'x24' fully enclosed lean-to attached to a larger barn.  The larger barn would be used to milk the goats and process the milk into cheese/soap, as well as store feed, hay, and a lawnmower/atv.  The dimensions of the larger barn are 18'x24'.

    The play pen is 48'x48'.  It would have fun climbing things as well as hay feeders and large water tanks.  

    The rotational pastures are each .25 acres.  Would these be large enough for rotational grazing.  I would have to keep the goats on one pasture for 6 days before closing it off and opening another one.   A friend of mine used a design similar to this for alpacas and he said it worked well.  

  • Welcome to the group!!

  • Oh my goodness, I think I have found someone who designs like me. I love it. It totally looks like I designed it. I say go for it, and if you think you need to rotate @ 6 days I think I would just go 7 so you can pick the day of the week you have the most time available to spend with them to swap them around and settle them in etc. That would probably be easy for you to keep up with and combine with some of the other weekly things you might need to do. I know since I have gotten my herd I have realized they don't need near as much room as I thought they would. I had only had big goats before and these little things really don't take so much space when your use to full size goats. No matter how much space mine have they still all (the 9 little does) sleep in about a 3.5 by 7 space. Those 9 are still young (8-13 months) and small but they like to sleep real close together. I really believe you will do just fine with your plan. Congratulations!

  • Love that lay out!

  • Wow! That looks awesome! We have a similar system that we use for bucks or dry does, and it works. They graze the corners fine. We started with squares and then turned them into triangles because there were not enough goats in there to uniformly eat the grass.

  • 2771468102?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024Does this pasture layout look like it will work? I'm worried that they won't graze the corners.  I want them to always have access to the barn in case it starts raining before I would be able to move them.  

    This design would also allow me to keep the goats off of the pastures when they're really muddy.  Assuming I keep the Night/play pen cleaned and provide some things for the goats to climb on will it be large enough to keep the goats in for a day?

    I know the dimensions are hard to read.  

    The goats stalls would total to be 288 sq. feet.  They would be in a 12'x24' fully enclosed lean-to attached to a larger barn.  The larger barn would be used to milk the goats and process the milk into cheese/soap, as well as store feed, hay, and a lawnmower/atv.  The dimensions of the larger barn are 18'x24'.

    The play pen is 48'x48'.  It would have fun climbing things as well as hay feeders and large water tanks.  

    The rotational pastures are each .25 acres.  Would these be large enough for rotational grazing.  I would have to keep the goats on one pasture for 6 days before closing it off and opening another one.   A friend of mine used a design similar to this for alpacas and he said it worked well.  

  • Welcome to the group! I'm in central IL myself!

    The bottom line on rotational grazing is that the more paddocks you have and the more often you can move them, the fewer problems you'll have with worms. At a minimum, you need four or five different areas. They need to stay off a piece of land for at least 30 days for the eggs and larvae to die, but if it rains a lot, they can actually survive longer than that. If it's dry, they'll dehydrate and die sooner, but 30 days is really the minimum. It's better to have more areas that are smaller, so that 150' X 300' area for the bucks would work fine, but instead of breaking it up into two permanent pastures, you could use four 16' livestock panels and move them every day or two, depending upon how fast they eat down the grass. If you really wanted permanent pastures, you could break them up into ten paddocks and rotate them weekly.

    I don't know much about seeding pasture, but I've used one of those that they sell in the garden centers, which costs about $20. I know someone who overseeds a hayfield with the kind that you hold in your hand and crank. If I were starting a pasture from scratch, I'd love to include lespedeza and chicory because they're supposed to be a natural dewormer. I'd also throw in some clover and alfalfa.

    As for barn space, that gets complicated because I use different divisions for different times of the year. At the moment, 13 milkers and their kids are filling up a 40 X 10 space that I can sub-divide into three separate pens by closing two doors. But the kids are just now starting to be sold and weaned, and I still have three does and their kids in my kidding barn. Ultimately, we'll have 17 does overnight in a 25 X 10 space.

    I have a Goats 101 class coming up on June 23, and I cover all of this stuff. It's free to anyone who buys a goat from me. Otherwise, it's $20.

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